[HPforGrownups] The Dress Robes Affair

[MadameSSnape at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 59547

In a message dated 6/8/2003 8:36:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
jestahijinx at hotmail.com writes:

> Parents are not perfect and all-wise; sometimes they do react to a *minor* 
> outburst of a problem that's been major for some time.  I know my parents 
> did it more than once, and I've seen my friends' parents do it, and my own 
> friends when they're parenting.  Sometimes the same spot gets picked at so 
> often that it's just raw and it provokes an outburst when it would have been 
> 
> better ignored or on a rare occasion helped the way the kid wanted it.

Felinia, I agree 100% with your assessment here.  I'm from an almost-Weasley 
sized family that wasn't exactly wealthy - we didn't get to have all the 
things other kids had, whether it was the latest fad in clothing or a new car when 
we turned 16.  What we DID have was a home that was always open to any of our 
friends, food on the table, clean clothes on our backs (so what if they 
weren't designer jeans?), & a family that (mostly) watched each other's backs.  Did 
we whine sometimes?  Well, yes - one of my sisters, especially.  And my 
parents - especially my mom - reacted VERY much the way Molly does to Ron's 
complaints, whenever we DID.  (Ron reminds me a LOT of this sister, BTW - that's NOT a 
good thing, in case you were wondering.)

Would my parents try to fix things, if they were aware of the problems?  Sure 
- but we had to TELL them there WAS a problem, & tell them that we NEEDED 
help.  Not HINT at it, not whine about it - flat-out TELL them.  Mostly, as we 
got older, we tried to find ways to fix things ourselves - which is what I 
assumed that G&F had done with THEIR dress robes.  

I also seem to recall someone mentioning that Mrs. Weasley should know that 
Ron doesn't like maroon - yet always makes him maroon jumpers.  That's not at 
all unbelieveable to me.  I LOATHE the color pink - ever since I was a child 
(even when I was a blonde).  Yet every year at Yule, my mother would get me one 
or two items of pink clothing.  Finally, when I was, oh, about 35 or so, she 
said to me, "You don't like pink, do you?"  Took her a while - but she finally 
figured it out! <G>

To me, Molly behaves very much like a realistic mother of a very large 
family.  And Ron just seems to be (IMHO - hang on while I put on my NASCAR 
firesuit!) someone who always wants others to do things for him, whether it's homework 
or fixing what's "broke", & whines when he doesn't get his way.

Sherrie
All our tomorrows are built upon the foundation of all our yesterdays...


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