For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for October 13, 2020

And thus begins one of the strangest stories ever to grace this comic strip.

lint from the pajamas, the blanket, or the navel?

I’m sorry but no… she’s ten. She should have been stopped.

My mom used iodine to stop my sucking.

I stopped at three and that was considered late.

My niece sucked her thumb until she was about two months past her 12th birthday. You would tell her to quit that, but she’d just walk away. Finally, she stopped.

Now there’s a novel way to stop the sucking…

My husband & I had a rather awkward side task (paid) of being chaperones for visitation for a guy & his kids. The guy asked us if we could also help with stopping his 8-year-old from sucking her thumb. However, every single time we corrected her, he got upset. (Word of advice: NEVER sign up for a gig like that! I could tell you stories!)

my sister was a thumb sucker. I recall we had a neighbour who had a hand injury from the WWII. He told her (about the time she was 4) that he was a thumb sucker and the thumb shrunk away by the time he was a teen! LOL she basically stopped that year.

A family member got Grey Poupon mustard.

So Elly can wean Elizabeth and April from thumb sucking at the same time, and she can toilet train April and Michael together.

Prolonged thumb sucking usually results in an expensive trip to the Orthodontist! ;o{

Elizabeth will stop.

This strip sucks!

The thumb is a substitute for something else. Personally I prefer the real thing.

syrup of ipecac

Elly: John, I think Elizabeth sleeps in a filthy bed, which leaves lint all over her body.

John: It’s like with Michael, their room is their own room and there are no cleanliness standards applied. If Elizabeth doesn’t want to wash her sheets there’s nothing we can do. We are powerless to stop her.

Elly: So true. It’s the price we pay for being the best parents in the world.