Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for June 18, 2020

How come Hobbes gets to lounge on the couch during dinner time?

I don’t get why Calvin’s dad bugs him about going outside so much. Have you seen the kid on a sled or in a wagon?

Dad (and Mom) have been dictating your life, Calvin, for six years. You’ll be on your own twelve/fourteen years from then… if you can make it on your own.

Having fun (say it with me now) builds character!

Parents to kids: “Do as we say, not as we do!”

Calvin still has to learn Parentspeak. When they say ‘go outside’, they mean ‘go somewhere that we’re not’.

After that business with the garage, you’d think they’d want him where they could see him.

Calvin does seem to have rather more (suicidal) fun in the winter…

Calvin will forget about his refusal, and actually enjoy himself. :D

Ah, a future PC gamer….

Oh no! Now the couch caught the chicken pox that Calvin had last week.

I’m sure that will really make him suffer, Calvin! /s

Yeah, that will show them. NOT!

“I’ll refuse to have fun.” My uncle took his son to a parade, and Greg asked his dad to buy a balloon. When my uncle refused, Greg got mad and said he wasn’t going to watch the parade. It was a story the boy never lived down.

This is so true of today’s children and it concerns me!

Yeah, I’m old enough I’m now chasing my kids out too.

Then feeling like a hypocrite when I go sit down at my work PC and keep working

We kids used to play outside from morning until dusk every day that we could. It was fun.

Oh to be a kid again

Hey, it’s true. Forced fun is no fun.

This strip would not work today with the coronavirus.

I guess I was fortunate to be born before the advent of cable tv. There were very few, if any, shows for kids during the daytime and even prime time didn’t offer all that much for my age. I’d have never wanted to stay inside during the summer!

I’d forgotten doing this as a kid, but now I remember that I often did, if my mother made me do something “fun” that wasn’t my idea.

Too hot outside.

And that’s why Calvin grew up to invent video games. That’s teach Dad.

Hey, at least that’s not as bad as Nickelodeon’s sneaky strategy they came up with in the late 90s and early 2000s for getting older shows off the air; during summer reruns they’d play THIS bumper before an older ended show would start, like “Doug,” “Ren & Stimpy” and “Rocko’s Modern Life”, hoping that kids would see it and go outside to play instead of watching the reruns, so the ratings would drop steadily and they could be removed from the schedule! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUzbF4tgKl4

Calvin is a child, and as such, has no rights under the law. He is property of his parents. So when he told to remain at the dinner table or go outside, his only response is “Yes, sir”. A child need to be five things, which is the proper relationship to their parents:

Subservient

Loyal

Attentive

Valuable member of the family

Education-minded

My stepmom herded me and my sister outside during the summer. I hated it, since the things that I enjoyed doing were indoor things.

Take a swing at it, Calvin!

Cruelty unbounded. Can you imagine Calvin throwing a mud ball at Susie and choosing not to enjoy it?

Wouldn’t Dad make a stronger point if he came out to play with his son?

Everything about Hobbes was left to our imaginations; I’ve never worried about it myself. Calvin may have ‘left’ Hobbes on the couch for all we know. Calvin is going to eat his words from the last panel as we’ll see.

vaughnrl2003…agree…forced fun is no fun.

just a random comment, hope you have a great day