Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for September 19, 2020

Shannon’s honorary aunt Luann has a point.

Not watchful enough. ✨

Brothers and dads. Two very different personalities. Though me and my dad act like siblings more than father/child.

Notice how similar the words “Dud” and “Dad” are. In the South, they almost sound the same. Except in the South, each one has two syllables.

OK I think we have the reason for this arc in Luann’s comment – Brad will be a great dad. Move along folks, nothing more to see here…..

Luann impressed with Brad and how he took charge of the situation.

So she cut up towels in someone else’s house, and disobeyed specific instructions given to her (that she still clearly remembers). Babying her isn’t the answer, Brad.

said it before and will say it again they don’t need to rush their own kids but they can surely do a better job with their niece than her dad can..maybe not adoption but a more permanent caregiver situation? Or as free-wheeling as her dad is, an accident where they have to keep her? not wishing ill on him but can see the options here.

Let’s all blame Luann because she said Brad will bbe a good father when he obviously isn’t. I hope he can explain to Ma DeGroot (or worse Bernice) why her favorite towel is all cut up and blood stained.

Kinda seems like if Bwad wasn’t just slouching around and letting Shannon do whatever she pleased, barely paying attention to her antics, the cut wouldn’t have happened in the first place. But sure, he’s the father of the year bla bla bla. Next!

It’s all going to go well until they realize that Puddles is not actually a doctor and what’s worse, Puddles does not know where they keep the bandages.

ACT 4 – Dr Puddles- not a dud

Well, I suppose today is supposed to make up for the rest of the week.

I still like Shannon. She is not a brat. No child should be called a brat.

Nevertheless, for five straight days, G&K served us the Shannon-we’re-supposed-to-hate and a Brad-dad that couldn’t be bothered with her.

Oh, well. One out of six is about as good as it’s going to get.

Brad is responsible for the mess in the kitchen,and responsible for the scissors attack. Brad fail as a parent. A+ for being heroic Dad.

I am trying my best to ignore all the troll tripe about bratty kid, boring arc, Brad is whack, ‘’and he’s a firefighter?" in the comments so I offer a counter narrative. Luann makes a very apt and true comment, Brad is good dad material with patience, love and empathy clearly the baby story is in play, I think Toni knows preggers, TJ might know also. Daddy last to know. TJ, the chef burning a dish? Nah.

Awesome arc. Now, let’s move on to anything else. OK?

Today I like Luann. Such a sweet thing to say.

Puddles: “Aw, just lick it. Works for me!”

Heres the thing, Bwad knows what the Brat is like and yet didn’t bother to supervise it? Didn’t bother to see what, if any dangers, were around (its not his house so its not like he knows where everything is)

The Brat made a big mess and didn’t clean it up, broke something, threw a rubbish bin over himself and Luann and still didn’t think that maybe the Brat needed reining in?

He can count himself lucky the Brat didn’t decide to drink out of the bleach bottle or something

Having said that he probably will make a good dad, someday, when he learns to Dad and not just babysit

Not Bwad.

Brrrrrad.

Arrr. It’s talk like a Pirate day.

Are you kidding, Luann? He’s going to be a TERRIBLE dad.

Rin Tin Tin and Lassie, take good notes in how it’s done.

I hope the scissors are ok.

Why not just use the towel she ruined.

The question remains in this arc whether Shannon is six or four. She’s drawn with the height and proportions of a six year old but acts like a four year old. And in today’s strip Brad treats as if she were a four year old. The problem, I think, is that if Greg draw her as small as she should be as a four year old she would get lost in most of these cartoons. They’re not called rugrats for nothing. It’s on;y in the last panel where we saw Brad holding Shannon in his arms that we see her in proportion to her age — that of a four year old. Shannon would still be obnoxious but at least her behavior would seem normal.

I swear they keep making Shannon younger. She’s not so bad if she’s only 3 or 4.

A lot of armchair parents up this morning, I see. Nothing wrong with compassion first, lesson later. Trust me, that lesson is MUCH more likely to stick.

Brad is gonna be the best father ever.

The cure for messing around with sharp objects…iodine

To Paraphrase Terry Pratchett:“You cannot give her scissors!”

“Why, they are educational.”

“She might cut herself!”

“Then that would be an important lesson.”

This is the sweetest thing ♡. Brad helps Shannon without fidgeting and reassures her, reminds her of an important rule without getting mad at her and makes her smile♡♡. Luann is right. He’ll be a great dad♡.

My Goodness! Do we actually have a “concession” from Lu? Did she actually compliment her brother for a change??? WOW! I don’t know where Greg/Karen are going with Brad/Toni having kids, but I hope they do, eventually.

My first born son thought it would be fun to empty a container of talc one powder in his room, cut his sisters hair and played doctor giving her a spoonful of silver polish. So Bwad I understand.

I dont understand. We never had to cut the towels or blankets when we made capes.

Brad surprised me. Reminded her of scissor rule, she does know it, and he was calm and helpful. Luann recognizes that Shannon was damaging someone else’s property, maybe will address that later? And she sees her brother would make a good dad. Nice, I like it.;-)

Very nice ending for the week. 2 thumps up.

C’mon, y’all are taking this way too seriously. Lighten up! It’s a comic strip. A great one, but a comic. Strip creators take creative license and force us to suspend belief just like, oh, say Dick Wolf, Don Bellasarios, Quentin Tarantino, or Stephen Spielberg. We needed a bit of relief and between Brad and Bernice, we got it. :-)

“A cut finger? Here, let me get my skill saw and finish the job!”

Aw, this is so cute. Brad to the rescue. i love this!

Whaddya mean, he’ll be a great Dad. He already IS! I’m hoping her deadbeat father will let them adopt her. She deserves this loving family she’s fallen into.

Cheapskate0 and others make an interesting observation. Shannon as presented eighty or ninety percent of the time is engaged in activities that are dangerous and/or harmful and/or destructive to herself, others and property. The behavior is either discovered after the fact of condoned as it is happening. This constant lack of supervision and condescension does not indicate prime parental material.

In fact, TJ is not much better as a housemate than Shannon! One can speculate that Shannon, if unchecked, just may grow into a female version of TJ!

doid she ever think maybe she was the dud sister?

No, no…go back to that “Cutting up towels” part!

Wasn’t anybody watching this kid? Why is she going around someone else’s house cutting up their stuff?

“I tried cutting up your bedspread and curtains first but the scissors weren’t sharp enough and they just got ripped up…”

No, he will not be a great dad. He will be a doormat dad with unruly kids constantly getting into trouble and destroying things.

Cut up one of Nancy’s towels, huh? What a brat.

There’s a lot of space between doing nothing and beating the kid senseless for cutting up a towel. (I never dreamed of doing that, but I digress). Bandage time is an excellent time to have a talk about not destroying things that don’t belong to you. I think it’s the mixed messages sent by this character..do we expect behavior from who she is drawn to look like…about 6 or so..or see her calling him “Bwad” like she was still 3? That’s why everyone’s opinions swing on such a huge arc.

A good Dad would hide the scissors better. :)

Here’s where to end it.

Can the Magic of Brad cure the brat of her brattiness? ’Tis a resolution devoutly to be hoped! (Though better yet, have Daddy Jonah take on his responsibilities rather than constantly blowing them off.)

Sunday: Frank and Nancy ponder the calendar.

Friendly reminder: The entire reason Shannon’s been foisted onto Toni and Brad in the first place is because both of her biological parents are deadbeats, with her mother walking out of her life entirely and her father constantly dumping her onto others on short notice.

There’s a whole mini-arc in August 2016 where Jonah guilt-trips Toni into watching over her even though she’s got a meeting with a wedding planner, in the process breaking a promise he made to Shannon and leaving her AND Toni miserable (to the point where Toni has a complete breakdown shortly afterwards). Shannon’s clearly aware of her family situation, and elementary-age children aren’t exactly known for coping with parental abandonment in calm and healthy ways.

But nah, I guess cutting herself on scissors is the rightful penance for her sin, eh? Is that the lesson Luann needs to carry forward in her Kids 1st job she talked about last week? Her solution of doing nothing but mutter about how annoying children are will be very useful when she has to interact with a class of kindergarteners.

Of course Shannon needs to be disciplined! She’s been throwing GARBAGE at people! But the entire time she’s been there raising chaos, all Brad and Luann have done is sit around making quips about her, instead of actually doing something. Up until she hurt herself, the only indication they interacted with her was letting her eat something that barely qualified as a meal; they’re just as culpable for not actually putting her in time-out or for letting her run around unsupervised. At least to Brad’s credit he’s quick to go look for a bandaid when she actually does show up hurt.

Brad is more of a father to Shannon than Jonah ever has been!

On the Internet, everyone is a parenting expert.

Ok so Bwad reminds the Brat about scissors and thats great but does he remind her about destroying other peoples property, does he remind her to ask permission before taking things that don’t belong to her

Yeah right

Read a good novel, y’all. Just one. There are countless fine writers out there.

Ann Eiffel is reading this and thinking “Serves the little brat right for biting my finger when I was manager of Weenie World!”