Protection-Abuse / Patron-Client (was:re:Blood protection/ Dumbledore and Ha

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 158578

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tonks" <tonks_op at ...> wrote:
>
> wynnleaf, who if she ever heard of an adult choking a child with two
> hands, would immediately assume that the adult had a history of
> physically abusing the child.
> 
> 
> Tonks:
> 
> I wouldn't want you on the jury at my trial. ;-)
> 
> I would assume that the adult had lost control in that moment.  It may 
> or may not be an indication of prior abuse. Things may have come to 
> this. This may be the first time. There are parents who have never 
> touched their child and who under stress and a kid acting out, go off 
> the deep end and hit the kid for the first and only time in their 
> relationship. 


wynnleaf
I note you took my example of Vernon choking Harry and switched to
explaining it via the possibility of a parent *hitting* a child for
the first time.  You further included the possible circumstance of
parents under stress and a kid acting out.

My point first was that choking is different from hitting.  It is
extreme.  Further, Vernon went from watching television, to choking
Harry because of practically nothing.  Vernon was not noticably under
any particular stress nor was Harry acting out.  Vernon just did it
over a triviality.

Because two-handed choking is an extreme method of physical
aggression, I find it highly unlikely that someone would do that over
a triviality without having first progressed through things like
hitting -- enough to be likely to hit someone with little provocation.

I am rather appalled that anyone would consider Harry's situation
within the bounds of normal.  I don't know a single family that would
keep a child in a cupboard, nor especially confine them for days or
weeks on end.  I don't know any family that would put bars on the
window of a child in order to keep them *in* during any sort of normal
circumstances.  I currently have a 13 year old son and 13 year old
boys need *far* more than a can of soup to be healthy.

In the real world, abuse is not defined as "what kills the kid."  Just
because Harry wasn't in immediate danger of dying at the Dursley's
hands doesn't mean he wasn't being abused.  

wynnleaf