For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 26, 2013

The words I heard the most often as a kid…“go play”.I’ve never had a sense of family or belonging.

Parents, make time for your kids.

I think Ellie’s being a little dense, here. Lizzie’s only 4 Or 5 and is really adorable. There are lots of things they could do together. IMHO! Housework should always take second place when you have little kids at home. You can still do washing and dusting etc. while they’re awake but focus on activities that can be shared or completed together throughout the day.

I think the word is “attention.” Negative or positive, for better or for worse, she craves her brother’s attention. As a younger brother, I can understand.

Lynn’s Notes:When I saw this in the paper, I almost wept. I had done the strip as a “bit of truth,” but had no idea how serious the situation was and I berated myself for my poor mothering skills.

My mother-in-law almost made me cry once. She said that she thought the way to be a perfect mother was to keep the house spotless (she is a CLEAN FREAK). She said now she would give anything to have her children young again and just sit with them on the floor and play or read to them.

Ellie!Clueless

Clueless parent strip, # 1,900,454.

In the second panel she is reading a newspaper and drinking coffee. How can this be more important than your child?

Let’s not be too harsh. I’m sure, at some point or another, we’ve all lain awake chastising ourselves for one thing or another when it comes to our child rearing skills. Elly/Lynn did something that many parents are guilty of. Who’s perfect enough to throw stones?

ah brotherly love…we miss it

Yes I do. I worked all the time trying to help secure a decent life for our boys. When I see young mothers now and their little darlings I almost want to cry. I sometimes say to them “they grow up so fast,enjoy them now”.

stupid mom

tsk tsk

When we had our first baby I gave up a low paying job to be a mommy. We then had our 2nd child and I stayed being a mommy the age difference is 3 years. I always wished we had couple more hubby did not. With me I gave my two kids lots of attention. The bests times when I be on the floor on my back to exercise our children had a blast and I give them rides on my legs while exercising. When they got older we go bike riding. Once we lived next to a small park, bad idea. Lots of kids see who much trouble they get my oldest into then parents complained to me what our son did, I tell them yes we know as we watched your child do the same, shut the parents up.

It’s important for kids to know how to amuse themselves. When I was growing up, My mom did lots of stuff with my brother and I, but if she was busy, OR if she was enjoying some quiet time, we had plenty to do to amuse ourselves. Yes, lots of times we interrupted her quiet time or housework, but never felt neglected.

I felt neglected by my parents but I was raised by an aunt and uncle and never felt like they loved me and my sis the same as their own kids. I think that made me a better mom in some ways because i always take time to hug my kids and tell them i love them no matter what – even though 1 of my teen sons hates being touched.

So where have you been for the last 29 years? There are LOTS of strips with Elly doing housework, from the time they were small to when they grew up and got on with their lives. Usually with a vacuum cleaner in one hand, a dustrag or mop in the other and sound effects of “clean clean mop mop dust dust vacuum vacuum” to go with it.

Seriously, i think most women of Ellie’s generation believed a clean house was a priority for being a good wife and mother.

Should have sent Liz too!

Elly is such a bad mother! She might be my least favorite character