For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for June 03, 2010

Aah, gee!

That’s love.

Shareing his little stuffy!

Nice touch…

How can he be lonely when he has a wonderful family to come home to?!!!

That’s so cute! :D

now John……how are you going to react to that?

What a sweet boy Michael is! :-)

Awwwww how sweet Mike was!

FLAG THE LOSER TROLL

Soooo sweet!

my son always knew the perfect time too

He can be lonely even though he has a wonderful family to come home to because, like most western men, he has not been taught how to be a friend. Being a “buddy” is not the same thing, by a long shot.

oh, gimme a break

Howtheduck, there aren’t too many people who could find a negative in today’s sweet strip. Somehow you managed.

Pull your head out of that dark place, Doc, and see all the love around you! Friends come and go, but your children will live with you forever! Even after they have their own kids.

Scoffs! I do not pity you, John!

the teddy bear is your friend, and helps you to stop your whining!

LOL!

poor john; cute mike

And the teddy bear doesn’t talk back or have attitude. Almost as good as a dog…

howtheduck:

1 - Got to agree with you on that’un. Women constantly tell men, “You need to express your feelings instead of keeping that stuff bottled up inside, or you’re going to have a heart attack one of these days.” The moment you actually try it and start venting anything that’s not totally 100% sweetness and sunshine, however, their minds immediately shift track to now-how-can-this-be-construed-as-an-attack-on-me mode, even if the subject has nothing whatsoever to do with them. Somewhere there’s apparently a postulate stating:

If A (a man has a wife) and B (a man is unhappy) then AB (man is unhappy with wife).

I must’ve skipped school the day this little lesson was handed out. I don’t think it’s a theorem; if it is, I’d love to see the proof. In any case, I learned a while back the safest thing to do is just shut up about it unless there’s nothing good on TV. :)

2 - A kid’s teddy is a source of constant comfort. In Michael’s mind, he’s offering his dad more than the few seconds of comfort a single hug would give.

That’s sweet…. And innocent, as well.. Nothing like the unquestioning love of your child…

Aww. Lovely one today. :)

Hi everyone:

To howtheduck: I do not know why anyone would criticize what you said. To me, it was just a comment, whether I agree with it or not. It’s an open forum. I think your kids will be huggy if you are huggy when they are growing up. If you are not, they are not. Simple as that. Also, if you say “I Love You” to your spouse and children it is usually returned. I was surprised to see Iris’ comment disappear from the comments section. Although I do not agree with her most of the time I think she should have her say. How do you delete someone anyway???

I think if you flag a comment, that increases the odds that it will be deleted. I don’t think it happens automatically. Maybe someone looks at the comment depending on how many people have flagged it??

If I told a man that he should express his feelings more, and he started to, of course I would try to listen! But then I already have a lot of practice listening to people (mostly children).

As for Mike, he may just not know any way to comfort anyone other than with a teddy bear. Most people have to be taught. The way I see it, he is offering his daddy the very best he can.

I do think Ellie should know something about handling these situations, but if not, she has a certain responsibility to learn, because theirs is a relatively stereotypical family with standardized roles.

Isn’t that SUPER TEDDY?!? I seem to remember Michael tying a red cape around a teddy bear’s neck and flinging it about. It looked like the one in today’s comic and he called it …SUPER TEDDY!!!

…and if I also remember correctly Meredith, Michael’s daughter, did the same thing many years later.

Spammers at this time of day? Give me a break.

Why should we assume Elly walked away? Sure she is not in the last 3 frames, but John is “facing the camera” so I figured he was speaking to Elly.

Michael comes in from the side with his teddy, so he was probably in the room during John & Elly’s conversation.

I think he offers his teddy because the teddy is his own comfort when he is lonely. Michael is showing he can be caring and generous.

My only memory of my grandfather is giving him my purple bunny when he was very sick and dying of cancer. It was a few days after my third birthday and a few days before he died. I think the message got across.

And we know Calvin’s best friend is his stuffed tiger. Is Mike offering to share his best friend with his Dad?

Full marks ellisaana – you beat me by one minute on both the camera angle and the teddy bear!

pattybf - the spambots don’t care what time it is. They also might be situated in Russia or somewhere…

ellisaana said: Why should we assume Elly walked away? Sure she is not in the last 3 frames, but John is “facing the camera” so I figured he was speaking to Elly.

Michael comes in from the side with his teddy, so he was probably in the room during John & Elly’s conversation.

I completely agree! Just because Elly isn’t “shown” doesn’t mean she isn’t there. She may not be the world’s greatest wife (or mother) but surely even she wouldn’t just walk away while her husband is sharing such deep and personal thoughts and feelings with her???!!!

@nighthawks

Yeah; she puts too many commas around her characters and there is something called “coffee break” or between one place and another at work. This is dumb

@SUSAN NEWMAN

How do you make friends with a potty mouth like that?

Awww. Cute!