For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 19, 2010

  1. Lady with a bow
    ejcapulet  almost 15 years ago

    Yup, to someone who’s never done it being a homemaker looks easy. It’s the hardest job I ever did.

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    The Duke 1  almost 15 years ago

    Hardest job I ever had was climbing a mountain of broken glass and razor blades buck naked to grab the brass ring.

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  3. Openwings
    OpenWings  almost 15 years ago

    Hmm, now what’s with the dark demon in panel 2…

    …howtheduck will have the answer, xD

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  4. Cathyfacepalm
    gobblingup Premium Member almost 15 years ago

    I’m fourth this morning? Everyone must be sleeping in… My question for howtheduck is, is this the original comic? Because I wouldn’t have thought that being a homemaker was in style in the 80s.

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    arsmall  almost 15 years ago

    I’m really digging this re-write… Does anybody remember if Lynn said she would age the characters during the re-write or keep everyone the same until she runs out of the childhood stories and then make up new ones?

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  6. Large dolphin1a
    DolphinGirl78  almost 15 years ago

    It’s in style in any generation lightenup… maybe not as common as in previous ones, but still happening…

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    alondra  almost 15 years ago

    True, by the 80’s more wives and mothers were in the workforce, at least part time. But Elly’s husband makes good money so she doesn’t have to work like many other women whose husbands make less money. Lots of women wish they had the “luxury” of staying home, especially those whose husbands won’t help with the housework.

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    threeguysmom  almost 15 years ago

    Well, I’m a home mommy and I’m glad. My kids are all school age, but they benefit from my being here. I like to say I work second shift, with a short shift in the morning. I don’t know how the moms do it who work full time. All that after school running around and the homework and the nagging to make sure everything gets done and dinner and laundry. Need I go on?

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    ninmas  almost 15 years ago

    her hand in panel 3 is creepy……

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  10. Foxhound1
    bald  almost 15 years ago

    i never realized how much homemaking involved until after my wife passed and i had to do it along with raising out youngest son

    I have a lot more respect for any stay at home mom

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  11. Whatwouldblue
    mrslukeskywalker  almost 15 years ago

    Oh, go home and do some laundry Anne! Elly doesn’t need any help justifying her feelings of being taken for granted. She’s already the queen of “Oh poor ME!”, even when everything is good.

    These women chose to stay home, and all they do is complain. If they went to work, they’d still have to come home and do everything anyway. Do you think that dud, John would help out? No, he never has. She blames all her inadequacy woes on the kids she also chose to have, but she never takes issue with John the dud. It always baffled me. And likewise, why hasn’t he ever told her to just STFU?

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    Wildmustang1262  almost 15 years ago

    ninmas said, about 4 hours ago

    her hand in panel 3 is creepy……

    Ninmas, what do you mean about her hand is creepy? To me, her hand looks fine.

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  13. Smiley tongue
    Smiley Rmom  almost 15 years ago

    Every time my husband would come home, and tell me I ought to go to work in his place, I would remind him that he’d have to stay home & take care of the kids. (Once they were school-aged, that included teaching them.) He soon decided that no matter how bad things got at work, it wouldn’t be a good trade for him. I spent my pre-motherhood days in the paid work force, so I have some idea of what it’s like.

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    littledutchboy  almost 15 years ago

    I’d really like to see Johnston’s Rumble with her ex- or soon to be ex-husband in comic strip style. I think she’d be perfect in skewering her ex in 3 or 4 panels. I want to see some “butt-kicking.” I hope that doesn’t make me ghoulish.

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  15. Openwings
    OpenWings  almost 15 years ago

    OR it is a demon conjured up by the Wok’s Cooking book in Elly’s hands

    howtheduck comes through yet again :o)

    Have to agree with you there ninmas - either that or she’s making shadow puppets on the kitchen wall, xD

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    BigHug  almost 15 years ago

    In the past there really wasn’t a choice. You go to school, get your M.R.S., get married and have kids. It’s what you did with no questioning. The problem is it WAS glamorized. Look at all the old TV shows. What a life! Problem is reality is different and there’s no turning back. I recall in the 80s a friend of mine who was extremely smart who was very liberated. She went into Engineering and did quite well until her family put their feet down and said “enough is enough.” She was strongly encouraged to find a husband and settle down. I understand she got married to a Doctor.

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    littledutchboy  almost 15 years ago

    Excuse me, BigHug, but your friend “who was very liberated,” doesn’t have a family who “put their feet down.” It’s one or the other. However, these are perfect issues for the new and liberated Lynn Johnston to explore and share with all of her fans.

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  18. Cathy aack
    lindz.coop Premium Member almost 15 years ago

    I don’t see Elly “blaming” anyone – she just states what every homemaker knows to be true – housework is taken for granted – somehow it just gets done and nobody ever notices.

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  19. Missing large
    BigHug  almost 15 years ago

    Littledutchboy. She was very liberated but if your family decides to disown you and then say your dead to the family what are you going to do?

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