Mother Molly (was: Some OOTP Questions)

[Marissa]

No: HPFGUIDX 125276


Betsy:
> I don't think Molly is completely bad.  But I do think she is 
> toxic.  I don't get the impression that her kids like being around 
> her.  I also don't recall her giving her children much praise, at 
> all.  She trys everything possible to force the twins away from 
> their jokeshop (even when it seems to be working) and into the 
> Ministry (which would have been a disaster for both the twins and 
> the Ministry).  And is she proud of Charlie and Bill's 
> occupations?   I rather got the impression that it was the Ministry 
> or nothing for Molly. 
> 
> The Weasley home is so hostile to Percy that he spends all of his 
> time locked away in his room, coming out only for meals, and Molly 
> exasperates the problem by encouraging the twins hatred for their 
> brother.  (And I do think they hated Percy, even before he left 
> them.  The twins were absolutely merciless towards Percy, never 
> giving him a break or any kind of sympathy.  IMO, they go far beyond 
> normal sibling teasing.)

Marissa:

I don't understand why everyone's critisizing her so much! Did we run
out of things to talk about? I mean look, Fred and George spent much
more time developing jokes then on their studies to the point that
they weren't doing well in school at all! They hardly tried even
though they did have the potential to do well. I think that a parent
who wants their children to try their hardest at school and achieve
what they are CAPABLE of achieving is a good parent. What Molly really
wanted was for her kids to have a secure future, and in her thinking a
job at the Ministry was exactly that. She has to worry all the time
about providing for them, and she wants them to do well in the world
so they won't have to go though the same things she did. It wasn't a
guarantee that Fred and George would be able to open the joke shop. In
fact without the 1000 galleons that Harry won and gave them would they
have even been able to open a shop?

As to saying her children don't want to be around her, well yes
sometimes they don't. But is that really unusual of teenagers? She
instinctively knows when they're doing something wrong and they can't
get away with anything around her. 

I think the scenes where's she is trying to shelter Harry is also an
extremely common thing that mothers do. They don't want their children
to fear, hurt, or worry if they can help it. I'm 20 years old, and my
mother still neglects to tell me if someone in my family's sick or if
something bad happened because she doesn't want to worry me! I usually
find out from overhearing her talk about it with someone else! I had
this discussion with another friend, who's in her 30's, she also said
her mother doesn't tell things STILL so she doesn't have to worry.
Does that mean our mothers are bad moms?  I think calling Molly toxic
is just ridiculous. As many mothers say "there's a method to my madness."