[HPforGrownups] Draco and Lucius

[Meg Demeranville]

No: HPFGUIDX 35496

I have been following this argument with much interest and I couldn't figure out why Draco irks me so much until I came across this email. 

gwendolyngrace  said: <snip>"I think Lucius has failed to be *any* kind of parent, is what I'm saying."
<snip>
"No, on the whole, I have a feeling Lucius does not present a discernible pattern to Draco. The occasional scold, followed by a sizable material reward, is at best a mixed signal, and at worst could be taken by Draco as an apology or an admission of some weird form of guilt. The example of giving a child expensive presents to make up for prior assaults is a good one here--not, I think, what Lucius intended, but certainly in that Draco could take it that way. Lucius, IMO, is not a man who apologizes--to anyone--but it would be consistently self-centred of Draco to take any gift as a peace offering."
<snip>

And with that I figured out why Draco irks me so much. I babysit and tutor this kid! This kid has no consistant parenting at all. Like Draco, he comes from a well off family with absent parents. His parents are around, they just dont care what the kids do. I have watched this kid do horrendous things, including playing sniper with a paint ball gun onto the golf course his house looks over, hit a golfer and heard his parents just tell him to quit, only to buy him more paintballs the same day. But I have also watched this kid get tossed across the room for cursing at his sister. His parents have no consistant punishment system so its always luck of the draw with his punishments. This kid thrives on seeing what he can get away with next, because he knows 9 times out of  he is only going to get scolded and get some sort of reward afterwards. I think Draco is the same way. He knows, pretty much, how far he can push his dad and likes to see how far he can push others. Once he figures out how far he can push, he will keep going right up to that line. I think for example, Draco has figured out that the best button to push with Ron is money, with Harry, anything concering Hermione or Ron, and with Snape, he can get away with anything. I think he will continue seeing how far he can push people because it gives him the attention he craves. Sure its not the right type of attention, but attention of any sort would be welcome for him.

Heading to bed before a 16 hour day at work tomorrow,
Meg

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