Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott for August 04, 2024

That will suit them just fine.

Promise?

Okay, kids. Mom just gave you the way out of going shopping with her again. Use it.

But they come alive in toy stores.

Wanda, that may not be the threat you intend.

Be grateful, Wanda…in another, oh, five to seven years, she’ll be tearing into your credit cards trying to look fancy at school.

Reminds me of when I was about 10, my aunt took me clothes shopping. I didn’t want to be there, my aunt eventually told me, “Straighten up or I’ll give you a smack.” Then she added, “And I don’t mean the ‘kiss’ kind either.” I so much wanted to tell her I didn’t want either one, but I knew if I did I would indeed get a smack.

As soon as I’m done here, then we’ll go shopping for school clothes.

Why do parents make promises that they never keep?

“Every minute you don’t behave the way I want adds two minutes to the time we stay here.”

shoulda left them in the car

(window ‘cracked’ – of course)

If Wanda stops bringing them then she won’t be able to go either.

“Was that supposed to be a threat or a reward?”

Hmm? That is just what they want! And you! Leave them with Darryl and get some Wanda-time!

With our 9-year-old (and he doesn’t shop with us often), if he behaves well, he gets ONE toy before we leave. Goes right for the expensive ones, then we redirect him to the proper selections.

We learn early to leave the kids at home. Mine used to run around!

Wanda is that a threat or a promise?

My mother said something similar to me as a kid during what was one of her (to me anyway) interminable shopping trips. I was just smart enough not to say “promises, promises,” or I would have gotten smacks on the hind end.

No “fun” shopping or ice cream for them!

Sounds like a great promise to them.

No, Wanda! That’s exactly what they want!

Wrong threat, Wanda. They would be happy to never go shopping (except for toys) again.

Daryl would be on that island with the kids had he been dragged along too.

Jamesway was the store of choice when I was a kid – the concession stand in the front of the store with ICEE carbonated frozen beverages helped make the trip more BEAR-able (ICEE mascot was a polar bear)

BONUS : McD’s in same parking lot usually got me a happy meal with toy afterwards

I didn’t like shopping with my parents as a kid either. Unless we were going to Toys R Us or somewhere, I wasn’t interested. XD

“You PROMISE, Mom?!?”

Nope kids stay home, Dad fixes dinner or orders pizza and Mom goes to mall by herself

Is that a promise?

OK, I realize comic reality and all – but this is too egregious to suspend disbelief for; I haven’t seen a dressing room with a husband chair, let alone two, in decades!

If they start running up and down the aisles she may go. . . .

Mom bribe them with toy store.

I’m an adult adult and I understand how they feel.

Shopping with women can be boooooring!

Men have the same experience

I like the raggy-edged clothes.

Kind of sounds like she’s threatening them with a good time there, at least from their perspective.

Uh, Mom? For them, that’s hardly a threat.

I went shopping with my sister and her daughter. The daughter found the lap tops for applying for a job at the store and started jabbing at the screen. I had to pull her back and tell her it’s not a touch screen.

They could only hope!

That, Wanda, is most likely exactly what they are hoping for.

I remember those days, and then we’d go play hide and seek in the clothing racks. Four kids in 6 years, my mom never knew what hit her.

I understand the mom but they take for ever

Is that supposed to be a threat, Wanda? Because if so, you need to work on your material.

People take really little kids to all sorts of places that make me wonder: Really? They couldn’t find anybody to watch them for a couple hours?

When we went shopping with Mom when younger we had to behave and no running around, they use to have those kind of chairs by dressing rooms then, or Mom would just take sister and me in dressing room with her when we were younger or leave us at home with Dad or one of our aunts, if we didn’t we were warned that we would be discplined when we got home if we didn’t behave right then and there. Of course, we didn’t have much money growing up so shopping trips for clothes wasn’t a normal thing and mostly it was at Good Will or Amvets ( Buffalo NY type of Good Will store when we lived there when I was younger before we moved here to PA)

This is my mother. As kids or now, her shopping trips are unending.

I always loved the Sunday trip where the whole family went shopping. Wanda signed Wren into the BabyZone play area. She signed Zoe and Hammie into the Kidzone. Then she signed Darryl into the Dadzone—equipped with lounge chairs, big screen TVs tuned to sports, and waitresses. (I always thought that was a brilliant notion.) Wanda, meanwhile, went happily off to shop undisturbed.

Don’t worry kids—-you get a Food Court reward for not burning down the Mall

Good leave me I hate shopping

won’t not taking the kids shopping be what they want in the first place?