Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for May 24, 2018

Have a fun evening, Fay, with your well-trusting mother. (Cheapskate0 and everyone else from yesterday: sorry for being inconsiderate… I just wasn’t thinking right.)

You’re caught in a catch-22 situation. Your mom is impressed with your maturity but will ground you anyway.

Frustration, thy name is Youth.

She should have covered it up!

Mom sounds pretty level-headed to me. Give credit where it is due, but stand your ground. Discipline without being meanspirited. And don’t make Luann responsible for Fay’s behavior.

You can stay….. In your room, Fay.

You blew it, Fay. Well done.

Grounded with cellphone?

No sweat.

Interesting. Mom has a whole new persona as of today.

Mom is a wonderful mom, Fay is a wonderful girl who has matured, gained confidence and learned an important life lesson, she still can date the boy she likes, who likes her too, and Luann? Well she did not mess it up, see was a prime mover for good here. Now what?

Some days you just can’t win. ✨

You are grounded, but my glasses keep moving all over my face. Maybe I should ground them too.

I believe Fay’s Mom and many of the readers here have way overstated the seriousness of Fay’s transgression. In this case, there was a fine line between going to a movie with a supervised “date,” and going to a movie with a friend. Fay did put Luann in a bad spot – which she likely did not realize. As far as “grounded,” it sounds like Fay has been grounded most of her life. Pretty much everyone needs something to look forward to. I think Fay’s Mother could have said, “No, Honey, we’re going home tonight.” That would have been enough for Fay to get it.

Fay there a song that fits your dilemma "It’s a hard knock life.

It’s easy to say you would have when you are not going to.

“If I weren’t grounded, could I have?”

No, she would not have said yes. We know she went nuts when she said “its a date”.

Look at the “Bright” side, Fay.

As long as You’re Grounded, You’ll NEVER get Shocked!

BAR-RUM-PUM!!!

@Ringo

Hey, We STILL have the Saturday “closure story” RINGO.

But I agree, I think G&K have toyed with Us long Enough, and it is indeed high time We returned to Gunther and Tiffany, although there are no guarantees THAT will happen Monday.

I’m just hoping that when We do get back to them, it isn’t another “Love Triangle” where Gunther is made to compete with Les for the affections of Tiffany. It’s been done before and kinda to death, in this Strip. Just go back to the late 2005 To 2006 Strips where Brad is competing with Dirk for Toni’s affections, and comes across looking like a Jerk in the process. We need not revisit something like THAT, this time with Gunther looking like the “Jerk,” IMHO…..,

I’ve seen this scenario and lived it a lot throughout my teenage years. I would lie to get my way and when I got caught I got grounded. Reality sets in more in your teen years.

“And mom, since we’ve got this new understanding, could we try a little makeup? I’dlike it, and you need it.”

Grounded and no further flights for awhile – even with a flight instructor.

This is not over. We still have to get Luann & Axel’s reactions and event closure.

5

I am very glad the outcome today was quite good. Fay told her mother of her deception. And, Mrs. Garcia acted and responded appropriately. A few other points:

1. For me, today’s comic helps to show us that Mrs. Garcia is not so much the “horrific helicopter mom” several here were identifying her as being.

2. Sure, she may have over-reacted a bit initially when Luann was coaching Fay about boys…. but remember at that point, Mrs. Garcia knew relatively scant information about Luann. I would have been very cautious in the same situation.

3. But, Mrs. Garcia observed Luann and the interaction and first showed her ability to be flexible by allowing Fay to participate in the play with Axel.

4. Today we see that Mrs. Garcia would have likely been “ok” with the film “date” as well (with chaperoning) if only Fay had approached this the right way and kept Mrs. Garcia informed and knowledgeable.

5. Mrs. Garcia was fully appropriate in grounding Fay for her deceptions. To have allowed her to stay at the film now would have been a sign that Fay should continue to “act badly first, and an apology makes the bad behavior fine”. This is not a good message to transmit to anyone. It is sort of the difference between the “seek permission” school of thought and the do whatever the hell you want, and “apologize if caught” school of thought. I am glad that Mrs. Garcia is teaching Fay to be in the “seek permission” camp.

6. I firmly believe that Fay will be able to go to another chaperoned event with Axel sometime very soon…. Mrs. Garcia has already basically stated this.

@AIRMAN: Your comment sounds more like it would be said by a teen version of Shannon, not Fay…

There will be other dates. And Axel’s shown himself to be pretty mature himself. Plus whaddayaknow, he and Fay have connected on a level somewhat deeper than furtive looks.

@AIRMAN: A daughter telling her mother that the mother needs makeup is like a son telling his father that the father _*needs*_to have his barber clear all the hair out of dad’s nostrils and ears, or a plastic surgeon to get rid of all his chins and his beer gut. In other words, “You don’t look good enough, Dad. I’m kind of embarrassed for someone to think we are related.” If your wife and sisters say this kind of thing to their mothers, they must not care about their mother’s feelings very much.

Someone (this strip, I think) said the following brilliant quote:

Dating has only two possible outcomes: Breaking up or marriage.

Breaking up stinks, but marrying the wrong person stinks worse!

I would love for Evans to work that message into this story!

Well, I’m impressed that Fay’s mom handled the situation so well. She could have gone off on Fay, but chose at least to acknowledge that she (Fay) was making progress, until this setback. Yes, it’s appropriate for Fay to have some punishment (grounding), but we’ll see how severe it may be. Hopefully, it won’t affect her acting activity as well as her relationship with Lu. We’ll see. And, hopefully, Fay will get another shot at Axel.

I’m very glad that Luann didn’t try to go around the Mom. Something like “let’s make the date into a improv session”

Somehow, Luann will get thrown under the bus because of this!

“O, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive.” Sir Walter Scot (British/English spelling preserved).

Luann looks kinda left out.

Still at the heart of this issue is the term “date.” If Fay & Axel were sneaking off to parts unknown for eight hours – then yes, Fay would have been guilty of a major breach of trust. However two kids attending a movie under supervision and returning home immediately after the movie is not the kind of “date” most parents should worry about. In my mind, this “breach of trust” was pretty minor – with Fay simply not confiding that she has feelings for Axel. Allow a teen some privacy as long as you know where they are.

had Fay told her mom that Alex’s brother was a chaperone, that would weigh well.

There has been lots of mention of trust in relation to Fay and her mother, but has anyone thought about trust in relation to Fay and Axel? He now knows that Fay will lie to get something she wants…will she sometime in the future lie to him? In a more mature relationship, (say, of Luann’s age…) that might just be a deal breaker.

@KENHENSE: @PIPETOBACCO said it much better than I did; it was never about a ‘date’, it was about the omission of important information. Fay misled her mother into thinking that she was just going to a movie with Luann, and misled Luann into thinking that Mrs. Garcia had approved Fay meeting Axel to see the movie, as long as Luann gave her a ride (instead of possibly Axel, say). If Fay had said from the get-go that she wanted to meet Axel to see a movie, and Axel’s brother was chaperoning, this would have made all the difference. When parents let their kids continue to give incomplete info , and there are no repercussions, a kid can continue to push the boundaries until they get into dangerous territory. Like ‘a friend Joe’ who a kid is going to hang out with being older and providing beer to a 13 year old boy, for example. Transparency is a necessity for trust…

@SEISMIC-2: yawnyawnyawnyawnyawn….

Worth noting: Mom is no longer dragging Fay by the hand like a little girl. This is progress. :)

I signed in for the first time ever to comment on this. I knew a girl who had a mom just like this in middle and high school, always protecting, limiting time with friends to around 3 hours and only with her present, always saying no to even the most simple requests. Movies, slumber parties, girl scout camping trips. As soon as that girl turn 18 and was off at college she went buck wild from finally being free and ended up with a drug and alcohol problem, she’s clean now but to this day refuses to even speak with her mother.

Oh good. We’re still spending time on this storyline.This is SO much better than going back to the Tiff/Ann storyline.

The mother is obviously an idiot, for thinking Axel is “a very nice boy.” It’s like saying Tiffany Ferell was a very nice girl during high school.

SERIOUSLY???!!! Do all you people want a cartoon or some real life psychological clap trap University Course in raising children? For crying out loud, get a life of your own and just enjoy where this is going. Sheesh!!!

Both daughter and mother have made progress!

Lift her up! Knock her down!

It’s the Mom-thing to do….

The punishment fits the crime…..

-

To a Tee-shirt….

“For What It’s Not Worth” (♬)

“Missed Her, So” (♬)

“Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It” (♬)

“On the Way Home” (♬)

“Go and Say Goodbye” (♬)

“The Hour Of Not Quite Pain, Yet…” (♬)

“Broken Harrow” (♬)

or

“Grounding On The Fly Is Wrong” (♬)