prepositions - "rob...from..." or "rob...of..."

From NPR:

Remember the child, in some ways, identifies with both of those parents so if the mother is really asking the child to be her sounding board, she robs that child from the ability to feel good about his connection with the father.

What's the meaning of robs that child from the ability to feel good about his connection with the father? I know that rob has two usages:

1. rob something from somebody.


2. rob somebody of something.

But it seems that *the ability to feel good about his connection with the father is belonging to "something", so is it more appropriate to modify the word "from" to "of"? just as follows:

robs that child of the ability to feel good about his connection with the father

Which usage is correct? Thanks.

Answer

SHORT ANSWER:
From here is formally incorrect. What NPR should have said is:

... she robs that child of the ability to feel good ...

LONG ANSWER:
Rob is an odd fish; it ordinarily takes at most one complement, but that complement may be either of two entities.

In its oldest (and still primary) sense, it means “deprive someone unlawfully”, and its complement is the victim—the person or institution against whom the offense is committed:

Dick Turpin and ‘Captain’ Tom King robbed virtually everyone who passed their hiding place.
Willie Sutton robbed banks “because that’s where the money is”.

In this sense, the goods taken are expressed in a preposition phrase headed by of:

Footpads robbed him of £24 and his watch.

Quite early, however (OED 1’ earliest citation is 1377), the word was occasionally extended to the sense “take by robbery”, with the complement expressing the goods taken. In this case the victim is expressed in a preposition phrase headed by from:

The gang robbed more than a thousand dollars from passers-by.

But this use has never been common, and it should certainly be avoided in formal contexts.

However, rob may also be used intransitively with the meaning “commit the offense of robbery”, and in this sense the from clause to express the victim is proper:

He robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.