Physical abuse

A friend once told me how her father used to pull her and her siblings ears when he got angry until they turned red ,now they have a cat and he rubs the cat's ears , the cat likes it , so one day the father told her "look how happy he(the cat) is when I rub his ears ,perhaps his mother used to do that when he was young , should I rub your ears? " in a joking way . I mean come on !, don't you remember how you used to pull her and his siblings ears until they hurt and turn red and now u are saying ," how about rubbing your ears " in a joking way ?!