For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 10, 2022

mmm… marshmallows

Tell me s’more.

I think April is a little young to know the consequences of her actions. Like dogs, if you discipline them after the fact they just learn to fear you.

Ideally the disapline is as close to the event for younger children. The best way to know the consequences of actions is to be taught, and that is what disapline is for, to teach while young that some things are not to be done, whether you understand or not. You cant explain physics and electricity to a 2 yr old, but you can teach them not to play with wires and power sockets.

A single parent learns to choose their battles.

Why don’t you ask your single-parent neighbors… Ann or Connie? I thought one of them was a single mother? I know that in the past, one of them has just dumped her kids on Elly with no warning so she could run downtown for something…

Being a single parent is so hard. You have to be mother and father at the same time. Believe me I was a single parent with a 4 and 8 year old. It’s not easy.

looks like she’s reverse from the boy and the sports car…….

Whether married or single, parenting is a learning experience. But once you’re experienced, it’s too late.

A single parent doesn’t have to consult with a significant other to make judgement calls. Kids can’t play one parent against the other.

This whole “child disciplining” arc would make a lot more sense if it was now Elizabeth (teenager) who had disobeyed her mother… With Jon wanting to go easy on her, and Elly wanting to string her up by her thumbs… as opposed to April (toddler) who really doesn’t know any better…

Lynn’s Comments:

For two years, I was a tough marshmallow. My admiration goes out to single parents everywhere.

I suspect John is right, but suddenly I suddenly feel like putting a marshmallow on a fork and burning it over the kitchen stove. None of that s’more stuff. Just a melted marshmallow and a swig of coffee.

Lynn Johnston’s son noted that when it was just him and his mother, she was overprotective. If he stubbed his toe, she would cry. Part of it, he figured, was that she felt guilty of the breakup of the relationship between her and his father. Another part of it was holding herself to the standard of her own parents. Lynn had grown up in the 1950s, which was the most prosperous time in the history of North America. Family life was more centered. Spinsters were rare. Divorce was also unacceptable.

Someone is NOT disciplining children these days. I see bad behavior in public wherever I go. Parents do nothing. Not all parents, and not all children. But those who are guilty of ignoring that bad behavior… you know who you are.

That’s why there are so many punks walking around, and shootings, and just plain bat shit crazy kids.

There was an incident a few years ago where a boy was driving drunk and killed some people. Since his mother never taught him right from wrong, he was never punished . She changed his appearance and they moved to a different state. He was called a “child of affluence”.

Single parents don’t have the time to be tough and marshmallows. The good ones are moderately tough, with compassion when needed, but always loving!

Another bad stereotype is about stepmothers. Stepfathers are usually also cast in a bad light by Hollywood. I am glad that there was one song that praised a stepfather: Color Him Father, sung in 1969 by the Winstons, about a man who married a war widow and raised her kids like his own.

So… Which type of parents you want to be? The cold, unforgiving judge/executioner who impose death sentences on the most minor of blunders, or the soft understanding marshmallow?