Quidditch "potentially lethal?" was Re: Quesiton for Snapeophiles and -phobes

[Kethryn]

No: HPFGUIDX 114644


>>Casey:
>>I don't think Snape is that bad "for the wizarding world". These are 
people that allow their children to play games that are potentially 
lethal. A bludger to the head sent Oliver Wood to the hospital wing 
for a long time. Yet his parents allowed to play it again after 
that. That kind of disregard for someone's health and well being 
would look at a teacher such as Snape as something not worth 
thinking about.

<snip>


Kethryn now -

Ok, I am going to have to object to this particular sentiment expressed in the above paragraph which, to me, seems to be a rather judgemental thing to say.  In particular, the "potentially lethal" games the kids are "allowed" to play by their parents.  Hello?  You think football isn't potentially lethal?  How about baseball?  Ever been hit in the head with a ninty mile an hour fastball?  Did you hear about the girl who was watching a hockey game two years ago with her family and died when a stray puck hit her in the head?  

The point to all of this is that all children, unless they have deeply overprotective parents, play what can, in certain circumstances, be considered lethal sports.  That does not make the parents bad parents or mean that they disregard their children's health, it means they respect their children enough to let them decide what they want to do for recreation.  I don't consider Quidditch to be any more or less dangerous than Ice hockey and, if my kids (that I don't have yet and am not sure that I even want to have) want to play hockey, I'll be right there beside them every single stride down the ice.  If my kid gets hurt, I will do what my parents did the first time I fell off my bike, pick them up, dust them off, check for severe damage, and send them back out onto the ice.

The WW is inherantly more dangerous than RL so you absolutly cannot molly coddle these kids that go to Hogwarts and that, it seems to me, is a lesson learned early and often.  When a child in real life screws around in chemistry, for example, really the worst thing that can happen is they will blow up themselves (especially since we do not allow them to play with dangerous chemicals at all).  When a Hogwarts student screws up in potions, they might just kill themselves or their classmates or even the entire school.  The really bad consequences we have seen in the WW are mostly permanent (Gilderoy losing his memory and his sense of self permanently comes to mind) and are unalterable.  Gilderoy will never remember who he is, something that could of been prevented if he had respected the powers that he held.  

Now, games, especially "potentially lethal" games like Quidditch actually reinforce the lessons learned in the classrooms...you know, things like "pay attention" and "follow the rules."  Finally, with the WW's abilty to cure people of broken bones in a heartbeat, it seems to me that there is a lot less danger involved in Quidditch than, say, real life football (American not European).  Especially when it also seems to me that I have heard stories about athletes getting hurt and the coach putting them back out onto the field to play hurt.  And I don't mean nosebleeds, either.  I mean things like blow knees and cortizone shots (which, by the way, eats spinal cord tissue) to dull the pain.

Anyways, my two cents on the matter.

Kethryn who mutters something unpolite about overprotective parents...