For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 28, 2014

There’s a bit difference between having a Ph.D. in psychology (or thinking you do) and being a real life mom (or dad). It has nothing to do with old age onset, but plain frustration at the sheer inconsideration that abounds in families.

Homer Simpson: “Rhetorical, eh?”

I know that I’m not supposed to ask “why” questions, like “Why is there a coat on the floor?”, but they just come out when you’re tired and doing 20 things at once. It’s hard to get over a lifetime of training, because a few months ago, you learned that something you’ve used your whole life with your adult acquaintances, doesn’t work with kids.

I know that I’m not supposed to ask “why” questions, like “Why is there a coat on the floor?”, but they just come out when you’re tired and doing 20 things at once. It’s hard to get over a lifetime of training, because a few months ago, you learned that something you’ve used your whole life with your adult acquaintances, doesn’t work with kids.

C’mon — the kid is old enough to know that when his attention is drawn to the boots (or anything else) that’s just thrown down instead of being where it should be, that he’s being told to put it where it belongs. He’s also old enough (and smart-aleck enough) to want to pull Mom’s chain!

He’s old enough to know better, but he won’t change until he’s older and on his own.

@lightenup … and even then there’s no guarantee! :)

“he won’t change until he’s older and on his own.”

Asking “Whose filthy, wet, snowy boots were left on the hall floor?” was not a request for information, it was meant to provoke a confession by the culprit. Much like God asked “Where art thou?” in the Garden after Adam & Eve had sinned. God knew good & well where Adam was, but He wanted him to own up to his sin. Once a person confesses. “Yeah, I am the one who did wrong,” he or she is well on their way to being responsible enough not to do it again.

Hi, Mom!

Wow! Thought I’d try reading the comments on this strip again. You guys do realize it’s just a comic, right? I read it, saw it as a commentary on typical parent/kid interactions, and smiled at the memories it brought up of my son as he was growing into adulthood.

Susan, it is absolutely amazing how people who have never had kids always seem to have the perfect solution to any given situation. Newspapers on the hall floor are slippery and kids are clumsy, a perfect combination for disaster.

-SIGH…..-If Elly would have just spread a newspaper …-Newspapers have this problem. They get saturated, and when they do, the ink in the newspaper stains whatever the newspaper is spread upon. This creates more, not less work for whoever was trying to keep dirty water from being tracked all over their house.- It’s why most of our parents who live (or formerly lived) in snow country and didn’t have ‘mud rooms’ for people to leave wet boots in didn’t bother with newspapers, and tried to train us kids at an early age to fetch some paper towels to wipe boots down with, instead of just dumping them in front of the door….

Actually newspapers are horrible in the winter time. My Mom always told my siblings and I to wipe your feet on the rugs at the front and back doors and THEN leave your shoes at the door so they can dry properly.

Of course he’s old enough to know better. If he’s old enough to use sarcasm, he’s old enough to know better—and also find out why you use caution when employing sarcasm. Not to mention, they have to learn the “why” sometime, anyway.

Do you read this strip just to tell us how Elly should behave?And – I do hate to be the one to point this out to you – but it’s a comic strip, not a documentary.Jeeze!

when I was growing up in snowy upstate NY my mom had boot trays by the door and in really wet and messy situations we threw our boots and snowsuits in the bathtub.Problem solved.

PS…there were 8 of us. Mom had to “housebreak” us !

We have one of those, too. We also have a ‘water hog’ doormat inside the kitchen door. I think a better question for Elly to ask would have been: “Michael, why did you leave your wet, snowy boots on the floor when you know you shouldn’t?” I always found ‘simple and to the point’ worked better with kids.

Point well taken. This is why children run away from home.

Elly should know better that Michael is not going to respond to mind games, especially after she failed to trick him into not saying “I quit” to Phil’s music lessons. An easier way would simply be “Michael, get your boots out of here! Do not leave them out if they are dirty.” Simple and to the point. If Michael actually asked “How did you know they are my boots?” Elly could have said “Well, they cannot be Elizabeth’s, they are too big, and they cannot be your father’s they are too small. Thus, by process of elimination, you’re it!”