Dudley. Was Re: Are we abusing the concept of "abuse?"

[imamommy at sbcglobal.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 124727


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Arynn Octavia 
<arynnoctavia at y...> wrote:
> Alla:
> I am just not sure if I can call what they do " abuse" even in a 
very general sense of the world.
snip> 
> Arynn: 
snip>  
> Just because they think they are helping Dudley, dosn't mean it's 
not abuse. (If you've seen/read Steven King's Carrie, you can't deny 
that Carrie is abused by her mother, who thinks she is doing Carrie 
good.)

imamommy:
Welcome to the real world.  Has anyone really ever heard of a case of 
child abuse, where the authorities were involved, that concerned a 
child who's parent's gave him too much and fed him too much and 
pacified him too much?  I'm asking honestly:  in real life, not 
hypothetical situations, has this happened?

The Dursley's have parenting issues, yes.  They are raising a son who 
will be quite useless in the adult world.  In RL they would probably 
sue McDonald's for their son's obesity, if they ever acknowledged the 
problem at all.  I am sure Dr. Phil would have a field day with them, 
but CPS is not going to swoop in and take their son away because they 
feed him, cloth him, and buy him presents.

I don't think they would bother with Harry, either.  He's fed, he has 
a bed in a space that has provided him at least with an escape from 
them (I had a friend when I was growing up who shared a room with her 
sister, and moved her bed into the closet; it was kind of cool, 
actually,) and he is clothed.  CPS isn't concerned with a kid having 
trendy clothes, and even Dudley's cast-offs are likely to be good 
quality.  Again, the Dursley's are bad parents, I don't think anyone 
is arguing that point.  But what they do does not cross the line into 
criminal activity.

Sheesh! I'm glad nobody is analyzing my parenting this closely! 

imamommy