Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 15, 2016

Maybe, they should send the kid to boarding school.

Nuns could raise him in a better way than two parents like them

Hindsight is 20-20, but given how the kid turned out, I would bet they wished they had.

Should have just done SORA on him. He go off to boarding school then come back an adult. No muss no fuss.

Too bad they couldn’t have afforded a live-in nanny…

Certainly highlights the advantages of a one-paycheck family with a stay-at-home parent. There are of course a lot of disadvantages, such as poverty, given the fact that two-paycheck families tend to bid prices upward for everybody. For almost all of the working class, one paycheck isn’t an option. I know of families in my town that get RSVP help with their taxes, and often between them, husband and wife have SIX W-2 forms to file!

And yet I remember my catechism from the Paulist Press telling me that a married couple should make every effort to live on just the husband’s salary, since God intended him to be head of the family. I hope that advice has been changed over the sixty years since the catechism was published.

This is the other side of the coin back then (and, at times, still today)…

The father was/is expected by the office and work to be the one to give up family time/help for the job. He was always given much less slack for taking time off to care for the children, regardless of the situation.Thus, he had no practice which led to the first few strips in this run.

A pay phone ? I remember those ! Lots of luck trying to find one of those outside of an airport, nowadays.Of course, I go back to the days of sit down phone booths and 5 cent calls and phone numbers that began CHelsea 2-4798 !

I worked in telephone company central offices for 36½ years. Coin lines were sometimes a big pain in the backside. They also had to be in line switches (#5 crossbar) that had priority, along with lines for the police, fire department, hospitals etc.

Two professionals can’t hire help for the few days needed when they schedules prohibit child care? Give me a break.

Not sure what your comment says about you, Olongapojoe. Just because they are two professionals doesn’t mean they have the income to hire help. And who would they be able to find on such short notice? I know that if it wasn’t for the grandparents, my sister would have trouble managing these issues with her kids.

No wonder he turned into the “Red Rascal” !

Kids are turning out just fine today.