For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 27, 2011

That was always my dad’s excuse.

Just throw him a blanket. He can sleep there tonight!

Dead Man lying down! Elly - get “sick” for a few days and let him see what real work is like!

She doesn’t go and help him with his job. No way should he have to help with his wife’s job.

there it is.. the west patronizes us about far ahead it is in respecting women, but you still don’t get it: as the Lebanese feminist author Nizar Kabbani has said, it’s demoralizing and mind numming to do house chores. The man here has the unfair advantage of doing a fulfilling job. Anthropologists tells us that women used to be equal providers, playing outside just like men and children, being fulfilled, until men invented the plow. This allowed him to make food on his own, and women were demoted to the unnatural role of cave maintenance. Western psychology studies showed that women loose their ability to enjoy life, compared to men and children. There you have it, the role assigned to women is not natural to them, it’s breaking their spirit. I don’t care if saying that is “passe” in the west, in the middle east we’re heading for a renaissance, and what the west hides under the carpet, we will face head on. I bet you Arabic women engineers will invent the technology that eliminates house chores. Whenever I mention that the life of a woman is still poorly designed, everywhere in the world, western people say “oh no no, we’ve done our 60’s and 70’s and solved all these problems. If you’re just starting you’re 60’s in other cultures, that’s not our problem”. My problem with that is that you. the west, are not done. You have more to fix regarding the absurd traditional roles still assigned to women. Don’t you think you should join countries just getting up on their feet, in re-thinking how women live?

Don’t blame John, blame your sexist artist…

Awww shucks, Elly doesn’t have anything handy to throw at John this time.

Gee Nabuquduriuzhur, you sound very bitter.

My mother taught me to stand tall and be what I wanted to be (she was a WAVE in WWII). I followed her lead and joined the Navy during Viet Nam…………played with airplanes, which became my career path and recently retired from NASA…..

Oh, and I raised 2 children with the help of a wonderful man who’s mother didn’t raise him to just be a bread winner, but to take care of himself.

But, in your eyes, I’m sure I’m a failure

Feminism and woman’s rights are about choice. If a woman wants to be a stay-at-home mom and homemaker, it does not make her less of a woman. And we already have the technology to make housework obsolete. Dishwashers, robot vacuums, what more do you want? I guess we could go back to living in caves with dirt floors. That would cut down on mopping and window washing.

I’m not going to get involved in the feminism debate, but I do think this situation doesn’t happen as much any more. There are a lot of families who have both parents working and they both help with household chores, and even if one stays at home, the breadwinner helps out as he/she can.

Most American males over the age of 50 were raised to have a woman take care of them. Mothers have since figured out that sons need to be raised to be able to take care of themselves.

I guess John thinks Elly just sits around on the couch eating bonbons, watching Oprah, game shows and soap operas on t.v. all day – everyday – while the mysterious, magical “Housekeeping Fairy” does all the work around there! Does he not see everything his wife does around the house to keep it running on the days he’s not working??? He may get evenings, holidays, weekends and other days off from his dental practice but Elly’s job is pretty much 24/7/365 so, no, I don’t think he should get a “free pass” from helping her out around the house when he gets home. The faster he can help her get a few chores (like the dinner dishes) done, the sooner she can sit down and take a break from working all day too.

In the second panel, I thought Elly was carrying Elizabeth in her mouth! It took a much closer look before I realised that was the grocery bag.

Night-Gaunt49 We Christian fundamentalist women have no argument with any woman having the right to choose whether or not she stays at home with her kids or has a fulfilling career. I know of a few Christian women who did work very hard to undermine the ERA, and I think that’s a real shame. One of them is hailed as a hero by some folks in the Christian community. I do not agree with them. Most of the women I know in my church and elsewhere are grateful for the women who stood up for themselves and us in the 20’s and in the 60’s. Because of them, we are allowed to make that choice instead of being forced to be what our fathers and husbands insist we should. What I do not agree with is what feminism has become. It’s now a platform for extremist men-haters who are doing a lot more harm than good to women. It’s a shame, really, and it’s not the first time a really good cause has been hijacked by a small minority who make a mockery of the good that has been done.

Without trying to get into the other comments, this is how I felt when I was a stay at home mom. I got dumped with a lot of to do list from my in-laws too. This is why I got a out of the house job. Wish I hadn’t, cause not only do I do all the housework still, I also work 8-9 hours a day. And still have the in-laws to do list on my days off. (you have the day off, so I guess your not doing anything)

It’s funny that there’s so much chatter about feminism when Lynn herself has stated in the past that she is not a feminist.

@Gweedo: Not harsh, just true. Hard living around over-bearing in-laws.

Yowch…