Molly and the twins (Re: Am I the only one)

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 96098


> > Del :
> > Or you could see them as those kids who play in rock bands and make
> > a bit of money as teenagers. There are quite a few of those, but 
> > how many become rock stars ? For one U2, I'll bet there are at 
> > least 100 teenage bands with no future.

Alshain :
> Quite so. But how will you know which one you are unless you give it 
> a try?

Del :
I agree. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of parents have a distorted
view of their children's capacities. Some see them as more talented
than they really are and are convinced they'll be the next Venus
Williams / Madonna / Stephen King, pick your choice. While others just
can't see that their kid is more than just good at something. I know
of a father (who was an amateur painter himself), who kept raving
about the so-called talent of his youngest son for piano when the boy
was merely average, and couldn't see the amazing talent of his oldest
at drawing (of all things !) I tried and tried and tried to show him
that he had to encourage the oldest one to take a professional route
in drawing or design or whatever, but he would always go back to the
youngest. Now, barely a few years later, the youngest one hasn't
touched a piano for years, while the oldest one is happily studying in
a select design school (thanks to his highschool plastic arts teacher
who got him to try the school's entrance competition). That father
loved both his kids the same, but he couldn't see what was obvious to
many others, and I think Molly is in the same blind position.
Moreover, in Molly's eyes, there's the problem of *money*. She knows
that she and Arthur simply can't help the Twins start their business,
and she probably doesn't want them to borrow money and end up in
endless debt if the joke shop doesn't work. It might sound petty, but
in my family it is the kind of concern that plays a major role in
deciding which career to choose : does that job have a realistic
chance of sustaining you (and your family in case you start one) in a
few years ?

Alshain :
> After having two adult novels refused (IIRC) JKR could have 
> finally buried her dreams of becoming an author and applied for a 
> secretary job for the sake of her child, and the world would never 
> have heard of Harry Potter.

Del :
>From what I read in biographies, she didn't write the first HP book
with the intention of getting it published. She was completely broke
and out of job and had to go to pubs all day long to keep herself and
her baby daughter warm, and she had this story in her head wanting to
be written so she wrote it. And she then had to be encouraged to show
it to an editor. A writer never truly buries their dream of being
published, but she had as good as done that.

Alshain :
> That is what grates me most about Molly and the twins, that she's so 
> convinced that what they are doing is rubbish that she won't give 
> them a chance.

Del :
Molly is their *mother*. Ever since they were born, she had to think
of the long-term consequences of the decisions she and Arthur took for
them. And she's doing it again : what she sees is a small chance that
the joke shop might work out against a big chance that it will fail
and the Twins will end up in huge debt and with no back-up plan.
You seem to think that she wants the Twins to abandon the joke shop
idea *for ever*. But this is not necessarily so ! If she were a member
of my family, she would want them to first get a good job, put money
aside, study the market a bit longer (not just the *kid* market, but
the *adult* market as well, which they haven't truly done yet, even
though it's the adults and not the kids who will keep the shop
running), and then give it a try, with a back-up plan if it doesn't
work. Considering the life span of wizards, asking them to build up
and  back up their idea for a dozen years or so isn't such a big
sacrifice, is it ? And it could very well mean the difference between
the joke shop working or not !

Alshain :
> They were making money on Skiving Snackboxes in book five, sorry. 26 
> Galleons in one evening. Not peanuts. 

Del :
I know, but that doesn't tell us how much profit they made on it. If
they spent 25 Galleons making those Snackboxes in the first place,
then they'll have to sell a dozen of them to every single Hogwarts
student in order to start keeping the shop running. Just because
something sells well doesn't mean it will allow you to make enough
money to live exclusively out of the business of selling it.

Alshain :
> I'm not saying it's odd that Molly values security and 
> respectability. But whenever she wants her children to become 
> something they clearly are not suited for,

Del :
I honestly don't think the Twins are suited *only* for that joke shop.
I'm quite sure they could have found a few jobs that they liked and
that weren't so high risk.

Alshain :
> she is setting herself up for a disappointment. It's like asking 
> chickens to become fish, completely unrealistic.

Del :
But it's exactly what happens to tons of people ! They start out as
fish, build up their life and some savings, and then, as they turn 30
or 40, as they learn which sub-species of chicken they are precisely,
they can look for something that suits them perfectly. 

Alshain :
> If Fred and George were less forceful 
> personalities and Molly tightened the thumbscrews, they would 
> probably become Ministry officials or something like that, rather 
> bitter and unhappy with their lives and bad at their jobs.

Del :
There's no need to see things in such a black-and-white fashion. There
are many studies and jobs out there that would probably suit the Twins
for a few years at least, and that would be much less risky.

Alshain :
> Molly is a woman with her heart in the right place, but she can't 
> live her children's lives for them or prevent them from making 
> mistakes (nothing wrong with making mistakes, by the way.) If the 
> joke shop goes bust, then it goes bust. But at least they tried.

Del :
If it goes bust, they'll be left with a huge debt on their hands, no
training to get a well-paid job, and 3 OWLs and no NEWTs to get them
into good training. They will then *have* to take the first job they
are offered, no matter how grudging and low-paid it might be. While if
they did it Molly's way, they could spend the next 5 or 10 years in an
interesting and well-paid job, furthering their capacities at making
joke items, saving comfortable amounts of money to start their shop,
and studying the market and its economic laws properly. I'm sorry, but
I still think Molly is the one in her right mind.

Del