#and my grandmothers

[mirrorofliterature]

here's an opinion that i don't necessarily entirely agree with but i think it has great points and i'm curious to hear your take on it:

while molly weasley was very far from a perfect mother and made many mistakes, it's as good as a human person can do under the circumstances she grew up and lived in (two wars, losing her brothers and many friends, her husband and kids constantly being in danger, living under constant threat of war, financial status, treatment by other families etc.) and the fandom judges her way too harshly while characters who were much worse parental figures and were plain out horrible and neglectful (especially men) get off the hook very easily

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

I agree in part - this may surprise some people, because I do not like molly, nor am I her biggest fan - however.

I think it is important to remember, when criticising molly's parenting (as I do frequently) to not forget the pressures she was operating under - trauma, patriarchy and rigid social structure. And people do often treat molly more harshly than other subpar parents - which is why I make sure to criticise arthur as well, as it takes two to tango and whatnot.

The only part I mildly disagree with is 'as good as a human person can do', because I think that molly could have done more by listening to her children. I don't think that molly or arthur are to blame for their family's low socioeconomic status - poverty is a social construct, and whatnot. What I do fault her for her is her misogynistic treatment of other characters, like Fleur and Hermione, and her treatment of Sirius in Grimmauld Place. That was needlessly cruel.

So in short - I'm not naive. I think the key issue is that a lot of people view Molly as a saint, so a lot of people swing heavily back into painting her as the devil - whereas, as a lot of things in HP, the true answer lies somewhere in between. Molly was good intentioned as a parent and was hampered by a lot of things, particularly trauma and money. She loved her children, undeniably. But this provides an explanation for her behaviour - it doesn't excuse it.

I think that other characters should get similar levels of scrutiny - as I do with arthur, but I don't think that necessitates us giving her the excuse of 'oh, it's okay that her children felt conditionally loved because she was traumatised!' [Which I don't think this opinion is suggesting, but something to be careful of]. I understand why molly is the way she is - she grew up in a socially conservative time during a war and lost a lot. But. If I am writing from the perspective of a Weasley child, they are going to have complex feelings about Molly, and Arthur.

So, in short: I agree. I think molly is a deeply flawed mother, shaped largely by her environment, but that does not mean she cannot be held accountable for the hurt she caused. I think the fandom's laser focus on her is at times misogynistic, but it's not particularly unique. Also, not every criticism of a female character is necessarily misogynistic. Molly often takes a lot of flack because she is presented as this paragon of motherhood quite overtly in the books, compared to others - so she's a bigger target than a lot of others.

I like the take, but I personally would veer away from saying she couldn't have done any better. She is a realistic mother: that doesn't mean she couldn't have done better.

[rosa-maltz]

The Midwestern Princess

[silvermoon424]

For the purposes of this poll please just stick to birth names! I'd like to do another poll for names people chose themselves later in life.

[narwhalsarefalling]

my mother taught me to crochet when i was young. she was left handed, so she taught me how in the bathroom mirror so her hands would be in the right position.

she learned to crochet from her grandmother, who was right handed. her grandma was the one that originally used the bathroom mirror to teach her granddaughter properly.

i find something poetic about that. here in this bathroom mirror, through generations, we adapt to our young who have a different way of learning and interacting with the world

[strangefa11]

now jon gets to be evil too >:3

edit: some minor colour adjustments and stuff :P

[seheartz]

born in you, along with all this strife, is the power to restore balance to the world | kofi

[ferociouslycreativemystery]

En såndär bockjävel eller vad fan det heter

↳ sytråd och virknål 0,6 mm + bonus: biblically accurate julbock

Note: I moved this under a read more since donations can no longer be made here. Feel free to make some to a charity of your choice though!

Did you know it used to be the Christmas goat that brought you your presents in Sweden?

To keep the spirit alive, you can officially make a donation in the name of this little crochet goat to support everyone's right to survive their pregnancy! Just go to this link and follow these steps:

Please note that this collection only remains active until 15 Dec 2024! More information about the organisers can be found at the bottom of this post.

On the right hand side/top of the linked page, you can see the current sum of donations. Below that are some options we need to fill out to make a donation of our own.

First we need to disclose whether the donation is being made by a private individual (Privatperson) or a business (Företag). I'm assuming you're a private individual, so leave the first option selected (on the left).

Next we choose the method of payment. "Swish" is a Swedish payment service that won't work for foreigners, and if you're Swedish I'm assuming you already know how it works. Foreigners, please choose the second option to pay by card (Kort).

Now for the fun bit! How much do you want to donate? The standard options are presented in Swedish krona (kr). I have put the rough exchange rates to US dollars for each option below:

50 kr ≈ $4.56 | 100 kr ≈ $9.13 | 300 kr ≈ $27.38

You can convert from your currency to Swedish krona using this tool. Just choose your own currency in the first drop-down menu ("from").

In the final field you have the option to instead enter your own amount, if you want to give less or more or in between any of the previous options. Note that the amount you enter is in Swedish krona, so look up the exchange rates so that you know how much you are giving if you choose this option!!

The final two check boxes are options that relate to the public display of your donation (see the bottom of the page). If you don't check either option, your donation amount will be visible but your name will not be.

Check the first box if you want your name to show up in the public list of donations, leave it unchecked to remain anonymous. Check the second box if you want to hide the amount you've donated, leave it unchecked to show the world your donation amount.

Finally, hit the red button to be taken to the payment page. Fulfil the payment, and be sure to double check the amount you're donating. Note that we use commas instead of dots to separate decimals in Swedish, so 50,00 kr means simply 50 kr.

And that's it! Thank you so much for your donation!! 🥳🐐

Please reblog this post so that more people will hopefully donate, or at least get to enjoy a tiny Gävlebock!

What is this charity thing?

Musikhjälpen is an annual charity event organised by the Swedish public broadcasters. Every year in December, 3 hosts are locked in a glass cage for a week and they broadcast in shifts, nonstop for 144 hours (6 days, 24 hours per day) to create an occasion for charity donations. They are visited by various music artist, celebrities, and talk to people who have special knowledge about the donation theme of the year or who organise initiatives for donations. You can watch clips of previous performances on their youtube channel here.

The event's official donations website also allows the public to set up their own "initiatives", to which donations can be made. This is what I have done! The money goes directly to the event organisers (the public broadcasters' aid agency, Radiohjälpen), who then pool all the money that is collected during the week. After the week is done they will begin portioning it out to trusted charities that are relevant to this year's theme. This year's theme is Alla har rätt att överleva sin graviditet, or in English: Everyone Has a Right to Survive Their Pregnancy.

Learn more about musikhjälpen on English Wikipedia or on Sveriges radio's website (in Swedish).

Or

If you prefer, the goat will be just as happy if you make a donation to a charity of your choice. You'll have to find links to other causes on your own though! 😊

I should probably also mention that I am in no way officially affiliated with Gävlebocken, I just crocheted a little guy and thought it would be nice to spread some constructive spirit among all the calls for arson. 😇

[fandomsandfeminism]

Grief is so fucking wild. It sinks into your muscles, forces itself to be felt. It steals your appetite, floods your brain with cortisol. It makes you so, so tired.

If someone you know is grieving, telling them "just let me know what I can do" means nothing. They can't. They don't know. And the small things are too embarrassing to ask for.

Bring them a cheese platter. Pre-Cut fruit. Peanut butter pretzels. Protein shakes (like slimfast) Food that requires no prep and does not create dishes.

Do the dishes. Take out the trash. Sweep the floor. Vacuum the carpet. They won't ask you to do this, but it will help.

A bottle of acetaminophen honestly might help more than flowers. Grief really can cause muscle aches.

[grandmother-goblin]

Reblog for bigger sample sizes. I know there are LOTS of types of teas out there, and I tried to cover most of the ones I could think of (I split up herbal because there are so many different flavor profiles!)

Also, I know the names might vary based on where you live and there are a lot more subcategories than what I listed. If there are any that I haven't listed that you love, please let me know!

[benjingler]

Based on this post by yours truly

[thunderc1an]

how to love a stranger

[verawhisk]

assigned female by the children

[twinliches]

one true fact about me is that i never buy clothes i just trust that they will find their way to me and they always do. every single time i think well i might not have enough clothes somebody hands me a box of them and it all works out. it might be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy because everyone around who acquires clothing items in large quantities around me goes "well i know someone around this size who absolutely would take these off my hands without asking any questions" but it works.

i have been living like this for years. its a bit macabre but many of the wardrobes belong to dead family members which gives me an air of distinguishness despite my lack of initiative which i think is great! the only downside is that when someone compliments my outfit i have to go "thanks someone's grandfather died and they didn't know what to do with his clothes so i stole his drip" which is far more jarring than saying second-hand store even though it's the same thing! i just cut out the middle man

[blakbonnet]

as an indian person, my favourite thing is seeing what people who aren't from here have done with my food; i'll go to an indian restaurant in a random corner of the world and they're putting oregano in their palak paneer or a balsamic wash on their naan and it's like "yes good tell me how you folded your culture into mine and came out with something new and lovely, we're holding hands across oceans bestie"

[zipsunz]

the garden of basil rowan moore 🌿

art by me, script by @sunkitty143! (we no longer allow comic dubs!)

some notes:

aside from basil's parents' general design and the implication that they're busy and rich, everything else about his family outside of his grandmother is cat's headcanon!

the flowers assigned to each family member are olive blossom (oliver), dahlia (dahlia), sea aster (oliver's father), goldenrod (elijah), rosemary (rosemary), and azaleas (basil's grandmother)

the flowers in the last part represent the people (new and old) in basil's life!

dahlias are in the same family as daisies and sunflowers!

basil's dream of his family tree/garden is inspired by the meadow in headspace

spirit mari takes the form of her 15 year old self to basil, as he never wants to turn away from the truth again

thank you again for the patience and encouragement as we worked on this!! i honestly wouldn't have gotten through this much work over the months if i wasn't in love with what cat wrote, so i hope you enjoy it! 🫶

[ancient-art-of-craft]

Quilter's Dilemma

A phenomenon I made up where you have a talent that takes so much time to produce something, that you can't sell it anymore. There's a market for handmade quilts, obviously, they're beautiful and warm and wonderful, but no one would be willing to pay the amount of money that is required to properly compensate the artist.

I don't quilt, but the raw materials to make a couple of pairs of mittens is $70 for some nice wool. But the hours required to make them is roughly two seasons of Criminal Minds, and some Doctor Who episodes with my family. Those are 45 minute episodes. Minimum wage in my state is around $11.

No one is willing to pay several hundred dollars for a couple of pairs of mittens, no matter how warm and detailed they are. Especially if I'm not a master knitter, which I'm not, and they're bound to have mistakes in them.

So we loop back around to giving them as gifts, and instead ask nothing in return.

If someone gives you something they handmade this Christmas, cherish it.