For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 12, 2014

And when we three little girls (“us kids”) tried to quietly play Monopoly on the floor, we still got in trouble because Dad was trying to take a nap on the adjacent couch that we absent-mindedly were kicking.

I’m sorry, but in that big house, that’s the best she can do? Those 2 can play in their rooms by themselves (or with each other), play in the cellar, whatever. We live in a tiny apartment and my husband works 3rd shift & needs to sleep during the day, but when I say to my daughters “enough TV”, that’s the end of that. They know how to keep themselves occupied.

Farley?

I’d much rather listen to all of those other sounds of play than watching kids in a mindless stupor in front of a TV.

It is probably going to take as long to find Farley as it is for John’s leg to heal—longer than the plot of a ‘soap opera’ ! ! !

We didn’t have “tv” at home. I mean, we had a television set, and it played VHS tapes, but no channels. I don’t remember ever being told that was enough tv. I just got bored of the same movies, in the same way I tired of my own games.And then it was off to do something else. Actually, I was often playing a game while a tape was running. Our poor television probably missed its audience.

Martin Tupper approves

People are different from one another (duh, no kiddin’?). When I was a child, I had a rich inner life and could entertain myself for hours by drawing pictures of my fantasies, or acting them out with my toys. When I was twelve (!), I amused myself for a good long while by putting different colored pegs at their “bus stops” and bus, much like the Holgate Jack Rabbit, 10th from the bottom at http://www.ebay.com/bhp/holgate

This outfit gets bored easily and can’t seem to amuse itself as well. (There are some depression and ADD issues in their ancestry.) Playing off in another room by themselves? “There will be blood!” (OK, I’m exaggerating.) Today I WELCOME computers, hand-held devices, TV’s, what-have-you, though we do monitor the youngest one’s choices for aptness of content.

OK, I’m a horrible grandma. Sue me.

Well who didn’t see that coming?

Ahhh. Reality.

Watching TV all day is a bad addiction. Just like being in front of a computer and making comments on theses comics strips.Whoops I am guilty of this one. Ellie should send the kids to a gym where they can bench press lift weight run and work out.

I’m sure the next panel would have shown Micheal winking at Lizzie and saying “Told you it would work!”

If you have cable tv, there are many educational programs – some that you would even allow the kids to watch.

Karl Marx (?) said religion is the opiate of the people.(TV hadn’t been invented yet!)