For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 10, 2011

John’s right. The hardest thing to do when a friend (or relative) wants to get something off their chest is to just listen. No comments, no suggestions, just listen.

Now he just has to remember to do the same thing when she tells him whats on her mind…..

For once John is absolutely right. Listen to the man!

calm down ladyfingers86, some people make just as snide and nasty comments about men and any other grouping out there. The ones about conservitives are downright nasty sometimes. Most of us just ignore them since it takes an ignorant person to post something like that in the first place.

Today’s comic brought to you by the Captain Obvious Show…

Guess we won’t be hearing the Barney theme song around here…..

It’s all fun and games till someone looses an eye…..

Clunk That was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor. Funny how he has the right answer when it comes to someone else, but probably doesn’t know to listen when it comes to himself.

Stop being a troll, somebodyshort. That was unnecessary because you only said it to get a reaction.

ladyfingers: So are you going to flag your own sexist comment? All men are not bigots or misogynists. Sorry.

Now that the flag war has hopefully been nipped in the bud: in the real world, people of both genders struggle with this matter–do I offer a solution, or do I just listen? For the last fifteen years or so (which is to say, about the ten-year mark in our marriage), my wife and I have been explicit about this. “I don’t want a solution; I just want to vent,” or “I really need some help figuring out what to do.” Works surprisingly well.

Also turns out to work well outside of marriage.

Sometimes it’s hard to hold your tongue when someone you care about is hurting. It’s human nature to lash out at the person(s) responsible for the pain.

Adding to puddleglum1066, as soon as I realize I want/need to vent, the predicable responses pop up, and I no longer need to express myself. It’s all a matter of pausing…….

Yipes! Today’s comic- rather bland. Today’s comments- incendiary!

Anyone notice how FBOFW readers are much more interactive and emotional than most of the other comics’ boards? Always a soap opera on here!

I read once, some years ago, that as a general rule, women tend to be listeners while men are fixers.

Woman: “Let me start some tea, get some chocolate, and we’ll talk.”

Man: “Here’s how to take care of that.”

Generalizations ….

“conservitives”?

Yikes. You’d think fans of the funnies would have more of a sense of humor. I was gonna post something funny, but I don’t wanna get my head bitten off!

Sometimes folks here post incendiary comments just to get a “discussion” going. Looks like they succeeded today.

You should try to stay neutral to your friend who has just broken up with someone they liked because they might get back together and now you’ve bashed their lover, you’re the one that sux.

True that, ilsapadu. If it was one of John’s male friends going through a breakup or divorce the dialog could be swapped easily. Sometimes just listening is the best (although hard to do) solution.

puddlegum–

I did it for her.

I like to think I’m a very good listener!

A few months ago, my best friend found out her live-in boyfriend was cheating on her, so she kicked him out. When she got done telling me the story, I wanted to call that idiot every dirty name in the book I knew for hurting her but instead, I held my tongue and just listened — which, while hard to do, was what I knew she really needed. Besides, ilsapadu is absolutely right: if I had bad-mouthed my friend’s ex and then she decided to forgive him and they got back together again, then she may not remember that I was defending her regarding his bad treatment of her … all she may remember is the part where I called that idiot every dirty name in the book I knew!