For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for June 14, 2010

Congrats kid, your officially no longer a baby. Welcome to toddlerhood.

My husband’s 10 year old daughter still wants him to carry her, cut up her food, etc.

jaeldid66: Is the girl physically or mentally challenged? Or do both father and daughter need an intervention, and serious therapy?

i have a friend who did all that for his daughter until she was 17…. they have weird relationship. good luck, jael

joefish, that is beyond weird, that is down right creepy! 17!!!

Wish this strip could fast forward a few years…..the later years were much better IMO………….

agrees with doublepaw.

One of the funniest moments was the first time Michael called Elizabeth “Lizardbreath”.

As long as they stop breastfeeding by twelve…

Hasn’t Elly heard of those fold up and go strollers? They have been around, how long?

Actually, howtheduck, Lynn Johnston was good friends with Charles Schulz so there could be an influence there.

I watch baby carriages with 6 year olds wheeled on the bus. This is helping the kid? Or is it free infant fare?

i had a neighbor whos daughter was 7 and would scream if her binky (soother) wasn’t on the bed ready for her every night!

My toddlers learned to fetch and carry at a very young age because the 4 of them each had less than 2 years before the next arrived. The eldest was 50 last January and the next will be 50 this coming Feb.

Now the real fun begines

I had seen these kids sitting and riding in the shopping cart at Wal Mart where I worked at. In my mind, they should WALK with their own legs instead of sitting and riding in the shopping cart lazily. If I have my own kids, I would not allow them to get into the shopping cart and sit in it lazily. They are too spoiled brats. Even I see teenagers sit and enjoy riding in the shopping cart lazily. The parents don’t mind to let them getting into the shopping cart. I would tell them to get off and walk with their own legs. Lazy teenagers!

Riding in the cart vs walking… depends. I remember many times hitching a ride around the store upon becoming terminally bored as a kid. I’d pretend I was working on the railroad, riding the cars through the yard. I don’t know what it is about females - they seem to be unable to go to a store, get the exact item(s) needed or wanted, and leave. I go in, get the stuff, and I’m outta there! My mother, my sister, my ex, and now my ladyfriend all the same… kinda like Cathy, come to think of it… In. Grab. Pay. Go! Not In. Spend 45 minutes looking at everything BUT the original purpose of the trip. Grab 377 items beyond the original intended one. Gossip 90 minutes during the process. Pay. Gossip some more (while the ice cream melts and the TV dinners thaw out)… Egads!

A women I used to work with still cut her son’s meat when he was in his 20’s, she also convinced him that he was too slow to get a drivers license or work full time. When he reach 30, she had to go live with her other son and he moved in with a friend of ours, it took her about a year to teach him how to be an adult.

Obviously Wildmustand1262 doesn’t have kids. My son can walk. But he most definitely goes in a shopping cart whenever possible. It’s not laziness; it’s common sense. I can either put him in a cart, go do my shopping, and leave… Or I can not put him in a cart, and have him running around the store, grabbing things off the shelves, breaking things, throwing things, etc, and have both of us leave frustrated and tired, and no shopping actually done, and a nice mess left behind for employees like you to deal with. Childless people will think that it’s a problem with discipline, but it’s not. He’s less than 2 - he hasn’t learned self-control yet, so when he sees something interesting, he does what comes naturally to him. Not to mention boredom, and so many other reasons that kids do what they do. So Wildmustang, when you have kids, feel free to comment on your own parenting and your use of shopping carts for what they were designed for!

to Wildmustang1262 …you OBVIOUSLY do not have kids!!!!! I don’t know what kind of teenagers you think you’re seeing in shopping carts but they would be FAR to big to get into them. And young toddlers…..come on! I MUST put my kids in the cart (I have 2) or it would take me all day to shop. With two little ones at 2 and 3 years old, they want to touch everything and play and go where they want, it is so much easier to put them in the cart. As time goes on I let them spend time out of the cart to build trust and teach them to stay by the cart and do what they are told, but it takes time. So until that happens, I will put them in the cart.

Jaeldid66, you complain about your husband a lot. You insult other people who suggest Mrs. Patterson remedy her own annoyances, so let me ask you, what do you do to fix your situation? Nothing I imagine. How are those tuna fish sandwiches working for you? You are still eating them every day, since before I went back to war, aren’t you? I remember how you criticize people who don’t put up with >parc< from anybody. Is that because you keep putting up with it? Does your husband know how you belittle him in comment sections, or is it just us who gets the dirt? Every time I read your comments, all you talk about is how abusive or thoughtless he is. Now you’re complaining about his relationship with his children. It seems he has more of one with his daughter than he does with you. That is your real problem. Keep your dirty laundry private. It shows more self respect. A higher level person. You are a complainer, much like Elly Patterson. A martyr. It isn’t cute. You need a marriage counselor, or a divorce. Complaining here has clearly done as much good for you as Mrs. Patterson’s complaints do for her.

So – that’s the deciding factor – when the back breaks the kid walks. Good to know.

Wildmustang1262- I want to know where you’ve seen teenagers small enough to fit in the cart.