The people in this thread are some of the most insightful, interesting and intelligent I've ever seen in an online community. Here's a toast to you guys who have given me tons of quiet laughs while scrolling in my bed at night. Happy 9000.
The nature/nurture discourse with Chantal is always fun but one thing Id like to note is that even tho Smee sent her away in her teens-
it was too late.
I've observed over and over thru life (and with my own kids) that most major behavioral issues are only truly solvable if addressed in the toddler/primary years. A lot of people let their kids be total brats thinking they'll grow out of it and of course they never do. Then when it gets crazy in the teens they FINALLY take drastic measures but it's too late.
Both problematic and good behaviors are caused mostly by the subconscious. When is the subconscious shaped? When you're a very small child. All the things you don't remember that became instincts and made you the person you are.
And if someone doesn't shape that person the way they should you're in for a life of issues. From weird to destructive.
Laziness with small kids destroys lives. Not getting up and physically correcting behaviors, being hands on and guiding and teaching. All things we know Chantal didn't get. Instead she was indulged by a permissive Grandma that used food to quiet her.
And as Chantal became obese and dealt with the scorn of classmates what did she do? Developed delusions to cope, inflated her ego to compensate for the hit to her self esteem. Acted out sexually bc of desperation to be desired. Full on cluster b personality developed as a defense/coping mechanism. Resentment towards her mother who tried far too late to be a disciplinarian festered into oppositional defiance. The story was written many years ago and Smee probably still doesn't understand why or how. Just like Chantal doesn't even understand.
Nature does play a part as well and a super interesting study on rats comes to mind. They would shock these rats after infusing a strong smell into their cages- the rats would then panic when they smelled the smell again. They bred those rats and when their babies smelled the same smell they would panic even tho they were never shocked. They did this for I think 3 or 4 generations and all the rats still panicked at the smell.
So I'm sure there's weird stuff down her family line that even led to Smees teen pregnancy too. Or even on the Dads side. Moral of the story is how you raise your kids is the most important thing in the world and a lot of "nature" is also caused by past instances of "nurture" gone awry.