For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 01, 2017

Ah, the “Squeaky Wheel Syndrome.”

how dreadful

Okay, now I remember. Gayle is Molly’s sister. The girls are Connie’s step-daughters. This ol’ lady can’t recall one week from another. :-)

Better to be ignored for being nice than bullied for it, as I was. If someone in school was punished for doing something (like smoking in the restroom), naturally it was because I reported it…even if I wasn’t even there.

There was a girl in my class who was like Molly. Fifteen years later she looked like a dishrag.

It’s always tough to be the younger sibling, particularly if you’re the “nice kid”.

As an adult, I realized ( to some extent ) what my poor kid brother went through following me through school.

Fortunately, we went to different high schools and the 4 year age difference meant that I was away in college and the Army by the time he was in high school.

Still….

I would rather be nice and ignored instead of causing a problem

Go to Florida. Get tanned. Go back to Canada. Everyone will look sickly by comparison. Boys will be falling all over you.

That’s not the attention that you want, but you’re too young to know that.

I was middle child between two trouble kids so I know what that feels like.

’Twas ever thus.

Stay the course, Gayle! You are what every parent, as well as most decent young men, want: beautiful, intelligent, helpful and pleasant.

She shouldn’t worry. The so-called bad kids are going to wish when they’re adults that they had been more like their “good” sibling(s).

Was Gayle’s final fate that she became a midwife and later married an American gentleman?

I understand being nice and feeling un-noticed. It still happens even in adulthood unfortunately.

From my high school experience, kids like Molly “peaked” in highschool, after that it was all downhill.

Molly is getting a lot of negative attention,but Gayle is too young to see that.She will realize soon enough,that sometimes it’s better to fly below the radar!

Last week we saw the relationship between the step-daughters was adversarial with Connie intentionally picking a fight with bad girl Molly and expressing a dislike for Molly’s boyfriend for no reason other than his looks. When good girl Gayle needs some advice and comforting, she is going to Elly and not Connie. In other words, the lesson is Elly = good mom. Connie = bad mom. This will become more obvious as we go along with Molly and Gayle.