For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 19, 2020

harsh, innit?

Just tell that loser freeloader to move out

Well at least he’s honest about it and excepts his own share of responsibility for the situation.

This may all be true. However they are family with 3 unused weapons right there. A stinky teenage boy (with many loud friends), an emotional hormonal preteen girl just ready to (fake?) arguments and dramas and a brand new loud stinky baby.Just let them all free from being polite and courteous for a few days and a single cat owning woman will run screaming.

Heee brought it/her in… he should kick it/her ouuuuuutttta here

“Because we’re too nice.” They’re Canadian, of course!

In spite of all of those faults (yes John just described me to a tee), I’d much rather be a nice person!

If this was a real situation, I would pack up all her stuff in the suitcase when she was out of the bedroom. Then I would put it on the porch with a note on it that said “Thank you for your stay and I wish you best wish for the future”. Then when Fiona asks where is her stuff simply tell her it’s out on the porch.

Welp…at least he’s honest

Generous to a fault? Definitely Canadian. We are known for that. Sorry. lol

get rid of all the beer and ban her from smoking in the house. I have had a few of those faults that was a total slob and stayed for several weeks before they left……..has not been asked back and will NOT be asked back. Just have to stand your ground.

Give her a list of chores that must be done every day. She’ll be gone in two days.

There’s being nice, then there’s being a doormat. Choose nice, but not doormat.

My mother always said, " kindness is its own reward." And, yes I agree with her.

John thinks he’s being nice when he is just being nice to Fiona. He is not being nice to his own family.

Mika and his friends should start a garage band

My Dad used to say that guests are like fish. They go bad after 3 days.

I really want this to be over

Hopefully he changes the house lock in case she got a key made. Plus paid only one month rent to make her get off her lazy ass and work instead of smoke, drink soda, eat and bet all the time. (yea, I didn’t forget the phone call Fiona made to her bookie)

Elly and John are “nice” to a lady who doesn’t deserve to be “nice” to. This is why, E & J are idiots.

accepts not except

I left your bag by the door. Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?

Tell the truth….you’re a big pussy!

Any way to get notified when Fiona leaves? I stopped reading when she arrived – just sort of mean these days. Looking forward to the return of the nicer Better or Worse.

Anyone who believes that being “nice” = being a doormat has drunk way too much Kool-Aid.

start charging rent higher than what it would cost to get your own place.. and it will correct itself

Leeches like Fiona rely on other people being “too nice”. They just keep pushing and unless you stand up to them, they will continue to just take and take and take.

Just an observation about running this strip consecutively, sometimes, they have to take some strips out of order to fill up the week, or the Sunday ones aren’t run in the same order…

If you look back to May 1991, you’ll see that the Fiona plot ends on a Saturday with a really big punch line, but here, it will end mid week…

The Oxford English Dictionary says that “to a fault” means “to such an extent that it becomes a fault; excessively, extremely.” The person who is generous to a fault is one who carries generosity so far that it almost amounts to a flaw or weakness. Naturally John reverses that and says Fiona is the fault, because it cannot possibly mean that the Pattersons have a fault of being too generous.

John’s discussion of why they are too nice is one of the best ones in the whole run of the comic strip. While the Pattersons often get on their high horse on particular topics, there are very few times when they compliment themselves as much as John does here. There are four solid panels where he does nothing but talk about how nice they are. People who compliment themselves all the time are not nice. There is another word for that.

Sometimes sucks to be Canadian, Eh?

Everyone I know well would have done the exact same thing, including my husband and I. Luckily, he has never invited anyone over for more than a few days, and he vetted them first! My parents had a similar situation to this. A couple of my in-laws have. There are laws of politeness. We don’t have the money to pay first, last and current on an apartment, though. $1000, though? Maybe.

Don’t knock or belittle the Canadian for what good they did during WW2

I said it once before during the run of this thread, and maybe it’s worth repeating. Before my late and much missed wife got married, her family had a cousin just like this who visited from out of town. They were too nice to toss the bum out. A few weeks after he left, they started getting bills in the mail, for things he bought and charged to them. Nice only goes so far. Toss Felonious (sic) out on her ear.

Wow, I relate to this. My husband and I have been entirely too generous to too many “faults” over the years. Yet I still believe that I would rather be a kind and generous person than one who can only see evil in other people. And I’d rather be a giver than a taker. And I’d rather cast my bread upon the water, knowing that some will never come back—but some will. And I’d rather hear the Lord say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” some day in eternity, even if it means that there are times I mistakenly helped someone who just took advantage of me. And if Canadians are so kind, then maybe I should consider my brother’s offer to leave the US and join him as a Canadian citizen.