For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 11, 2016

Sounds like Mom does not understand first world problems.

Now, we can just stream it online, or On Demand,…

The fact that he can record the show, and not miss it entirely, means it’s not such a huge problem. He needs to share.

In our house we have multiple TV’s, multiple video game systems, dozens of movies on DVD, hundreds of books, board games, toys…

Yet my kids still have the temerity to tell me they’re bored…

He should’ve grown up when I did, when you only have one TV and if you lost the fight over what to watch you missed it entirely, there were no recording devices.

We used to have one of those great big satellite dishes in our backyard. At the time, we could pick up the East coast feeds for the networks, so we would watch one show at 7PM Pacific time and the competing one at 10PM. Worked great until the networks decided to scramble the signals. You’d be amazed what we got for free back then…..

Once again Lynn did some editing in this reissue of f.b.o.f.w.This time removing Elly’s voice balloons.heres what we missed.Panel 2 “Go outside and play”Panel.3 Louder… “Just go outside and play”Panel 4. Screaming.."Michael,get yourself the $&@@ out side and quit whining!!!

If your comment is meant as sarcasm it’s not translating well because…SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!{Those who are new to this strip and/or who don’t want a (years later) major event spoiled should skip the rest of this comment by hitting page down now. You have been warned.}… Michael marries Deanna Sobieski, not Lawrence.

@comicssfan

This strip was benign,but Lynn often gave her readers a glimpse of the dark side of parenting,showing both Elly andJohn “losing it” at times.Its what I like most about F.B.O.F.W.

The balance I mean,not just yelling at the kids all day.If you want perfection read family circus.

Poor Michael — in my day if we wanted to ‘tape’ a program we had to walk uphill in the snow for 5 miles (both ways).

In the 50s and 60s, when one network put on a special, the other would also. Thus this pitted ma agains pa and sometimes parents agains children what show to watch, as it was a one shot deal. (And then you got pulp the rest of the evening!) When VCRs became available, there was a ready market!The first available video recorder was the Motorola “Time Machine” ca 1965 -a reel to reel monster at $999 (About 1/2 the price of a Chevy at that time!)(Anyone else remember the Dumont network?)

The more ya get, the more ya expect.

When I was young—-Dad had first dibs on the TV program, Mom, second if Dad didn’t care what was on.The only way I got to see Star Trek (TOS) was to go to a friend’s house where his Dad wanted to see it.All the kids sat on the floor in front of his couch (where the adults sat). When it was over, I said “Thank you”. Then I scampered down the block to my house. Funny, but way back then, I wasn’t afraid to walk in the dark, and I felt perfectly safe. Boy, how things have changed!!!

When I was a kid, there was no TV and no tapes, we went outside and played all day.

exturkI remember it existed, but that was before we had a TV, so it was trivia rather than useful knowledge.

@Noreen Klose

Have things really changed that much,or has the body politic changed its collective thinking about risk factors due to increased media attention to child abductions,and assaults.My understanding is that risk factors have in fact decreased for these types of crimes since the 50’s and60’s,on a per capita basis and a lot of the attention we focus on our children’s safety is pure hysteria.I grew up in the 60’s spending 12 hours a day outdoors without parental supervision from about age 7 and I wouldn’t trade those memories for any ones today.But it’s hard to find fault with a parent for loving their child too much isn’t it?

Ah, but Mike, she does understand Modern Selfishness.

When was this written? Who “tapes” anything now-a-days? I haven’t had a VCR hooked up for years.

Night-Gaunt49Kids not only know what “tape” (as a verb) means, they use it themselves. It is a one syllable word; “record”, “TiVo”, and “add to the chip” (never heard) are longer. They are barely verbal and rarely verbose.

-Will there be much arguing after Michael and Lawrence get married

You can actually be a lot more boring than this, you know. I’m sure you can. Just try.

-And that’s the rest of the story

Only on your planet