For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 05, 2010

OUCH, mom!

Moms these days! They get annoyed so easily!

Mine knows to say “hug!”

Next time Mom…….

Feeling so low she could play handball against the curb standing under a snake’s belly???

Ellie is a very poor communicator who blames others for her own shortcomings. All she had to do when he started pestering her was say “Michael, I’m busy right now, is it something important?”

Mr. Patel, it’s not just moms these days. I got yelled at and smacked around when I was a kid too. All it is is busy, stressed parents no matter what the era.

ejcapulet, I agree. Mine actually gives me a hug or asks for one rather than pounding on me or whatever Michael is doing here.

Oops

Oooh - that smarts. That’s one of those sinking moments.

Paul Jones: ALL women demand that all males can read their minds, and they get VERY upset, when we can’t.

@Allan - Then learn how!!

He has to learn not to say Mom 27 times. That drives her batty. I’ve seen kids like that and just want to smack them too.

Oh, “sMack”! I thought she said “sNack” and she was being psychic :D

…on the other hand, he’s being incredibly annoying.

Seems to me that Michael is the poor communicator here, not Elly. He is the one expecting her to psychically know what he wants without him actually telling her. Children should learn to say what they want, not just scream “mom” over and over again. It’s just easier to blame the mother because she threatened to smack him. I don’t have children, but I often see kids in the grocery store acting like this, and it makes me want to smack them too.

Gee, readers, stop trying to be psychologists and just enjoy the ‘toon. If you can’t don’t read it. Pathetic.

I’d blame it on PMS.

Hah! JAM! I read it as “snack” too!

I my neck of the woods, a “smack” can mean a kiss.

all michael needed to do was tell his mom that he loves her and walk away before hollering her name a dozen times

take it easy el

Susan001: Have you EVER seen Elly or John hit one of their kids, either in the first run or now?

Paul Jones said:

“we have thirty years’ worth of proof that Elly gets bent out of shape because she a) won’t tell people what’s bothering her and b) expects them to know what’s wrong.”

That sounds like most people I know, including me.

While I work at Wal Mart, I hear the kid somewhere around the departments yelled, “MAMA! MAMA! MAMA! MAMA!” That is so annoying! I just wonder if that kid’s mother gets the kid’s attention or what? Maybe the kid gets so excited when he or she saw something new at the Toys department. gimme a break!

Ever the witch!

She doesn’t need to smack them, the mental abuse and cold, bitter resentment toward them all is scarring enough. They all learned to just ignore her and her hair trigger personality because of it.

Wow, I thought it was a poignant strip about how humans who love each other (and they do) can get on each other’s nerves because we are all human and fail to communicate sometimes. But it seems like it has become a vehicle for hating parents, kids, and Elly in particular.

It’s all just part of the human condition. Nobody is perfect, not even me- I have been on both sides of this condition and survived!

Just think of the power that little kids would hold if they just knew this simple little “trick.”

Kids do not know how to communicate like adults. That’s why they’re kids. It’s a learning process that takes a long time under normal circumstances. Anyone so easily annoyed by kids 1) never had any and 2) forgot what they were like when they were one.

Also, Lynn Johnston was abused by her parents. She also admits to being abusive to her first child until she got help for her behavior, and her childhood abuse was probably also a contributor to why she married an abusive man as her first husband.

Elly IS Lynn in many ways. It’s her way of dealing with her past, her emotions, her mistakes, and her triumphs. Her ups and her downs. She shares it with all of us with an openness that would make most people feel too intolerable to bear. Maybe that will help put things in proper perspective,

This strip was first published on January 9th, 1981.

People……get a LIFE!!!!

Woah! He’s going to make out like a bandit. Nothing gets rid of guilt faster than spoiling your little ones. :)

The past wasn’t great that’s for sure but I don’t think the present is any better. We have gone 180 degrees! The child is now the center of the universe. We have forgotten that our children are not mini-adults. They are not our playmates and needing and getting our attention/company every single minute when they feel like it. As parents our job is to guide them toward adulthood. It is not neglectful to have them play on their own. In fact it should be encouraged so that they can figure out things on their own and develop confidence.

I love my daughter very much but I let her play with her friends and by herself. They make up the rules and figure out solutions. I stand back and only intervene if it’s dangerous or tears start to flow. I will play a board game or card game occasionally with her. As well every parent can honestly admit that their children drive them crazy from time to time. It is difficult to be a saint when the kids hammer away at you!

Fish Stix. I agree with you. I feel the same way about kids. I’m not against spanking. You misunderstand me. I just can’t stand Elly and her constant self absorbed complaining about EVERYTHING all the time. She’s so self absorbed that she never has any appreciation for her kids that SHE CHOSE to have. She just continually resents them and everything else, because she feels unfulfilled because of them, when this was what she chose to do with her life. Yet she’s totally oblivious to the idiocy of her husband. I do find her mentally abusive, related to her constant resentment, and some of the strips have shown that John and her kids know it too. They can never enjoy themselves without her blowing up over it. She’s a witch!

Going to any store and suffering the horrible behavior of other peoples’ kids was the best birth control for me. Even just 5 minutes at a time works like magic.

Time to beat up Elly again – who ?never? shows Michael any affection?

She was IGNORING him. Parents used to do that but I trained not to buy bothering them more