Parents' attitude towards HP

[lily_solstar]

No: HPFGUIDX 43027

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Alina" <alina at d...> wrote:
> Jenny asked:
> 
> > When I first read GoF, I delighted in the Ton-Tongue Toffee scene.
>  > > > My mother, however, didn't think it was so funny. She 
thought Fred
> > and George were mean.
> 
> That reminds me of something my mom said. She hasn't read the 
books, but
> watched the movie and here was
> her reaction to it: "It might be very exciting for kids, but a 
parent can't
> watch this calmly."  My mother said
> she couldn't stand seeing a child abused like that, being a mother 
herself,
> even if it was just a movie.
> 
> 
> Alina of Distant Place
> http://www.distantplace.net/

That's very interesting.  It reminds me of my experience with my 
mother.  She didn't like the movies About A Boy or Big Daddy because 
she felt too sorry for the respective little boys.

I laughed it off, but my reaction to their predicaments was much 
different. I didn't even think about their situations.  Of course I 
felt sorry for them, but not enough to not enjoy the movies. Besides, 
almost all movies have happy endings, right?

Being 16, half-way between child and adult, I have a perspective on 
both sides, and I have a theory.  I think adults look at children as 
innocent, carefree, and deserving everything life has to offer.

While actual children, on the other hand, know themselves.  They 
don't think in terms of "oh, what an innocent little boy/girl I am" 
unless they want to get something. They hate some of their 
classmates, and establish friendships with others, and so come to see 
each other as *people*, not as *children*. This may give them a 
certain hardness towards other children.  Not that they want to be 
mean on purpose, mind you, but just that they don't think that just 
because someone is a *child*, he should be automatically happy.

I think JKR said sometime that she didn't have that glazed-over view 
of childhood as the perfect time.  Or something along those lines.  
Also, I think she came up with the Dursleys before she was a parent.  
I wonder if her views on them changed after becomeing a mother.

Hope a bit of that made sense,
Lily Solstar