For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 07, 2010

What a reminder……our kids grew up in the Tupperware cabinet……fortunately, they survived the “closing drawer” syndrome!

What they didn’t have child safety locks in the 70’s early 80’s?

I was between Micheal and Elizabeth in age and I know we had them. My mom didn’t take them off til I was seven.

Wolfdreamer250, Didn’t have them in the later 60’s.

And besides, the plastic was quieter than the stainless steel!!!!!

Child safety locks??? Get real! My two year old son could open anything with those locks in 1983. He even showed his grandparents how to undo them. We tried several different designs and finally resorted to moving everything to the top shelf and crossed fingers and watched.

And yes, he mashed fingers and toes too.

I worked out how to get around my parents’ barricades and plonk my hands onto the gas heater – and only two years old!!

Actually, damage to the finger bone growth plates at that age can cause them to never develop properly. This can be more serious than one might imagine.

heh howtheduck, this is always my thought too when something happens to my kids (fortunately not often), it’s actually worse to see ones child suffer than to take the suffering self. I see this as a very positive thing about Elly, not as her egoism.

Speaking as a parent of a little boy a little younger than Lizzie is in this comic, I am constantly amazed at what he can and can’t get into! His capabilities are changing so fast at this age that my babyproofing is always lagging behind a little. Who knew that this week he’d be able to climb on top of one of my storage containers, when last week he didn’t have a chance? I, like most parents, am lucky that nothing serious has happened, but you can’t lock every door, drawer, and cupboard in the house!

I think we should all keep in mind when we’re looking at any of these comics that it’s not fair to criticize any parent constantly…none of us looks very good under constant scrutiny, and I’m sure any parent has a moment or two with their children that they cringe to remember. Lynn Johnston was pretty brave on that score to actually exhibit some of hers!

Wow, I totally didn’t intend to get this heavy this early in the morning. Back to the funnies!

While I was installing safety latches under the kitchen sink, my barely-two-year-old asked what I was doing. I told her, and she said, “in case a baby comes over and tries to drink the poison?” I didn’t bother finishing the job.

I am a mom to a very active two year old, and if anything like this had happened to him, I would feel exactly the way Ellie does. I don’t consider myself to be egocentric, just a mom who would gladly take away any pain my child endures. That’s what being a mom (or a parent) is, or in my opinion, should be. :)

nobody ever dies from a mashed finger. Kids learn from small accidents, actually.

Got a lump in my throat reading the last panel. We never used locks on the cupboards. Like js305 we moved things “up” and life went on. Luckily, we never had a problem.

oops! she thought, as her car stalled on the railroad tracks………..

My parents, both child psychologists felt we should learn by experience. Said we would probably have the most stimulation if we had been lucky enough to live in the city dump.Of course the bottom drawers were filled with bandages.

@mrsflaggedetc You don’t have kids, do you? If you do they have to be neurotic as all get out. Kids are kids, period. They play and explore and, unfortunately, they get hurt sometimes. It not about keeping them from hurting but more about minimizing the injuries and turning it into a learning situation. Your comment is mean spirited and totally out of line.

I my children were born in the early 70s and my friends and I never saw any safety locks until our children had their families. We also raised our children without carseats and knowing about RSV, bike helmets, or mandatory seat belts.

It is great that progression has come for child safety and health, but children do get hurt and survive.

And parents feel bad when their kids hurt.

I’m reminded of one of my nieces. When she was about 18 mo. she imitated her mom. My sister liked to stand in front of the gas space heater in winter so the heat would warm her backside. My niece didn’t understand the height difference, naturally, so she backed up, also. There were many of us there and I think the adults trying to save her from burning almost hurt her more. The only damage was a small melt to the pamper back. My niece waited until she was almost grown to do that again. She’s nearly thirty with kids of her own now and is no worse for the experience.

When my Bro was 9 months old He would always do the same thing.

I 105% percent agree with you John Pike.

I thought this was a very sweet comic, and remember feeling the same thing when my children got hurt.

I can’t imagine someone turning this scene into something negative, but I see I was wrong

Doctor Toon: AMEN!!

None of our children did that trick but the youngest got into the cabinet where we kept the canned food and took all the labels off the cans. Wow, a surprise every evening for the next two weeks.

How did we ever survive back then?

The first day my 2 and 1 year old nephews came to live with me, they went straight for the electric socket plugs and systemattically pulled each one out. Like they were letting me know who was in charge. AS for fingers, sometimes no matter what, they’re gonna’ get hurt. all we can do is be like Elly and pray next time it will be us and thank Him that it wasn’t worse. Again, my 2 year old nephew was trying to get in the kitchen and touch the stove. Kept diverting him and moving him to the living room. Well, when the stove was off and I was trying to get dinner on the table,, he snuck away from the others and touched the still hot stove. Had 2 fingers with blisters. And I have 5 older children of my own! I’m not a rookie! We have gates EVERYWHERE now, so that does not happen again, but it goes to show that if they get hurt a little, be thankful it’s a small lesson. Parents try, but we’re NOT perfect

LOL! I loved this comic strip.

I put magnetic lock on several cupboards and put the “key” up out of my 3 year-old grandson’s reach. One of the older kids yelled. I came in and found him triumphantly opening the cupboard. He had watched very closely and had managed to get it open. (Now I make a lot of extra moved to various place if he watches me open the cupboard.)

I told him not to and he closed it and put the key up “out of his reach” again.

He often puts thing up on the top shelf “out of his reach” for me when I do not want to supervise things like sissors anymore.

Awwwww, poor thing Lizzie. She hurt her fingers after she slammed the drawer too hard. (Sniff!)

I do remember when I was toddler (could not remember how old I was), my mother had her favorite red VW bug. We all were about to leave the neighbor’s house outside in the evening. We got into Mother’s VW bug. My mother and the neighbor stood and talked by the passenger of Mother’s VW bug. I tried to reach something between the part (end of the fender?) and the door. She shut the door. All of sudden, I screamed so loud. My mother opened the door immediately and took me to the bathroom at the neighbor’s house. She put my right hand under the cold water in the sink soothly and easily. I sobbed and sniffed. I learned my lesson that I should not reach something with my hand between the part and door of Mother’s VW BUG! My mother thought it was her fault because, she should not slam the door while I reached something there with my own hand! I was lucky my right hand was not damaged badly.

You can’t imagine how fast kids are. When my daughter was about 6 months old she sped across the room and pulled out the level wood under my dining room cabinet. She was putting the wood into her mouth as I sped across the room to fish it out. All in a matter of seconds and by crawling not walking and me into the room with her !!!!!!

How did we all survive?

Well, for one thing, only the survivors have the luxury of reading the comics on the Internet…

(stepping up on soapbox - warning - if long-winded lectures ruin your comix experience please stop reading here)

Accidents that cause serious injury or worse are, fortunately, relatively rare. A lot of them are pretty hard to foresee, and we’d end up even more neurotic than we are if we took EVERY reasonable precaution.

In recent decades there has been a serious effort to use our limited foresight (and more-effective, if a bit too late, hindsight) to prevent accidents.

The results have been mixed. Sometimes the new precautions are ignored (laziness, ignorance, not wanting (or being able) to pay for precautions, not wanting “big brother” to tell us what to do, a thirst for risky adventure, etc…) and sometimes they go a bit over the top in the other direction, and it’s not easy to tell the difference between the two extremes and come up with a reasonable and effective compromise.

It all comes down to statistics (yeah, that annoying branch of math that most prefer to stay away from). I’m sure that some of the accidents that were more common way back when are less so now, but it’s hard to point to any particular person who is still walking around because some precaution turned a potential tragedy into a mere “oops”.

On the other hand, we keep coming up with new ways of messing with our bodies and our minds…

BTW - my guess is that if the damage to Lizzie’s little fingers was enough to rate being bandaged, it might not be a bad idea to get x-rays (see thebird55’s comment above)

(stepping down from soapbox, and noticing it was way too rickety…)

I think I have it! This is actually a game. People are intentionally trying to provoke those of us who like the Pattersons by saying negative things about them. And why? So they can be entertained by our reactions. (My mother always told me that that’s what little brothers are for. He grew out of it, but I guess some don’t….)

What else could it be, really? I mean, a suggestion (for example) that the last panel is an instance of Elly’s self-centredness can’t be serious.

I’m glad to see this comic here. At least I get to see the whole thing. Our paper cut out the 1st 4 panels:-{

Kids get hurt all the time. Haven’t we all learned the hard way while growing up. Heck, even as adults we sometimes learn the hard way not to do unsafe things, until safety person tells us otherwise. I sympathize with Elly’s feelings, especially as it looks like Lizzie is really hurting. NOTE First thing I noted was that soon is forgotten that Lizzie was emptying the drawer because she hurt herself.

After baking a pie, and putting it on the table, my 3 year old wanted to touch the hot pie. After turning my back to touch it briefly out of her sight (to be sure it wasn’t too hot), I left it just within reach and said No!, do NOT TOUCH! HOT! Hurt! She didn’t try to touch it while I was looking, but sure enough, as soon as my back was turned, WAAAAH! Never had any trouble with ignoring Hot! warnings after that.

i’m as “negative” about this strip as anyone i suppose, for perfectly valid reasons, imo, and not just to be negative.

today’s strip however is excellent and elly’s reaction in the last panel is exactly what every parent feels.

(i do have to question putting a utensil such as a grater within such easy reach, but what young parent hasn’t done something stupid like that?)

My son is 32, and I STILL wish some of the bad things that happen to him would hit me instead. It doesn’t stop when they “grow up”.

Drawer, heck. My little brother’s two nemesis’ were the dining room table and a penchant for doing everything at full speed. Unfortunately for him, the edge of the table was mouth height on him. He’s in this thirties now and still dislikes dentists. And he still does everthing at full throttle.

My mom accidentally slammed our house door on my hand, when I was about six and I still remember how bad she felt, but also sitting in the Doctor’s office getting stitches.

mrsflaggedtokingdomcome said, about 15 hours ago

That cheese grater is really good for the kid. Good thing the drawer thing happened instead of the cheese grater. What an incompetent woman.

Wanna flag that too?

Kids are kids. Parents shouldnt be overly protective. I was raised around guns. I have a sister raised around guns. Nothing bad happened. Actually, the worst thing that happened was I accidentally cut myself.

Seriously, what kid DIDNT play in the drawers? Or with pots and pans? There are some parents that if a kid breaks his leg, they think that the kids parents shouldnt have kids.

LornaP you are right. Ps I”M a Lorna too. Any way Elly is a mom, her reaction is typical. Most parents would rather take the pain , and not have their children suffer. AND I have a feeling that most of the negative comments are from people who are not parents. Incompetent, REALLY!!! Geez.

I’m not a parent, and I agree with you, bluetopazcrystal. I had parents who would sooner suffer than see their children in pain. I think they call that LOVE …

bluetopazcrystal, I’m not a parent, but my parents would rather die than see me or my sister die.

Well, by the time I got here, there were 45 folks ahead of me. And I read them all:

Doctor Toon: Perfect. Direct. Exactly what I would have said. Zev.farkas: Brilliant. Glad to know people like you are out there.

What I thought about, reading today’s strip was the sweetness, the lightness, the everydayness of the event. The last panel should ring a bell for everyone. Anyone that finds Ellly’s thoughts and actions insincere and an attempt at “stealing the spot light” is a person I wouldn’t want to run into at night.

I remember watching something a number of years ago regarding “child-proof” medicine bottles.

They put a 3 or 4 year old girl in a room with a one-way mirror so the mother could watch without interrupting. In full view of the child, a piece of candy was put in a medicine bottle and the lid was put on. The person who did it then left the room. The mother went white as she watched her daughter grab the bottle off the counter, put it on the floor, put her hands on the top, put her weight on her hands and walk around the bottle. The lid came off EASILY! Kids know how to get past “child-proof” stuff a lot easier than we think.

Some people need to calm down. Kids get hurt. Duke, you’re critising parents who did what you’re parents did, but not your parents. That, is having a double standard.

What is with the bandages? I saw no blood- likely all the kid has was bruises. Bandages would do nothing. And given the pictured scenario, broken bones were highly unlikely. Hey, I was a klutzy kid- I have a very good understanding of what oopsies will cause actual permanent injury, and what just needs an ice pack and some hugging and rocking. (Okay, maybe an X-ray to verify no broken bones.)

Duke, maybe if you werent so defensive.

andy, its a placebo. If it makes Elizabeth stop crying, it does its job. Regardless of what its job was.

kids get hurt, kids learn. Parents hurt for their kids, parents learn. Now when i see relatives give up on training their kids and as teenagers just give them their drugs, booze and condoms at will, it ticks me off that they have given up. (there’s a hot potato discussion for you.) We hope kids survive their youth, somewhat like we did.

My daughter went into her room as a toddler, jumped up and down on her bed, fell into her closet door and needed 4 stitches in her forehead. She screamed bloody murder while getting them, wrapped up like a papoose and had a local. Then she was in the shopping cart at Price Club (before Costco), wife turned to the side and she flipped herself out of the cart onto a concrete walkway. Threw up on her way home, so we took her to emergency. took two of us guys to hold her down so they could take xrays of her head - she was fine. Mom was pregnant with son and could not be in room. Daughter’s scream could peel paint off the walls.

She’s 16 now and doing excellent in school and other activities and I am very proud of her and how she lives with us now.

rugratz, at least the kids use condoms. Its either that, or they have kids, and the cycle continues.

Couldn’t agree with LornaP more – the mean-spiritedness is daily and that’s how they get their kicks.

It’s a little known fact, but kids are really made out of rubber. They usually bounce right back. ;-)

Love Mom’s sentiments.

What happened to Duke? His comments have been responded to, and when I looked to see what they were about, not one comment from Duke. Ophelia? mroberts88??

Now would be a good time to ask: What’s with the flags? They are on everyone comments…. Just wonderin’

Good heavens you all can be negative.

Such a sweet comic today!

Amen

Ouch. That must have been flipping sore