For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 13, 2018

you and your big, gloating mouth, Michael

While it seems like Michael has just come from watching “Annie Get Your Gun,” the subtle joke here is that mowing the lawn is not an Elly chore, but a John chore based on the comic strips we have seen in the past. Not only has Elly managed to shut her son’s mouth, but she also managed to foist him off on John to teach Michael how to run the lawnmower and mow the lawn.

For those who see this as Elly somehow twisting things to give Michael one of John’s chores rather than one of her own chores, remember that these are repeats from a time when home tasks (and work tasks) were much more rigidly stratified by gender. I can remember growing up in Pittsburgh with a newspaper that had want ads for women separate from want ads for men, even though many of the jobs listed under ads for men could clearly also have been done by women.

He has SO much still to learn. One thing she knows is when to keep one’s mouth shut. The little know-it-all better work on that one next.

Michael wanted the cake without working for it. He should have been mowing the yard already.

You’ll have plenty of time to reason this out while you mow the lawn. Get to it kid.

Once I was “Adult” enough to be trusted to not do something stupid while using the power mower, Dad made sure that I knew how to use the mower properly and that I did a FOD walk over the entire area to be mowed immediately prior to mowing. Yesterday or 5 hours ago was useless and unacceptable. Made sure that I knew how to properly start and stop the mower and how to mow in a safe direction so that if some object got missed it would not injure me or anyone else nor would it break a window somewhere. The only part of the project that was still his was making sure that gas/oil mix was correct and that I had sufficient gas to do the job.

Ohhhh…betcha Mike is wishing hard he could take his words back.

An adult knows when to shut up!

Elly seems oddly passive in the first three panels, which is surprising when you consider how Mike is goading her.

Big enough to start earning his keep

Walked right into it! And in the second panel, you can see Elly was waiting for it!

When I was a kid we had a mechanical lawn mower – no gas or oil needed. How I HATED my lawn: I wanted it to all go to flowers or pacysandra.

He deserved that one! It’s a valuable lesson though. It introduces thoughts that adulthood isn’t as great as a kid his age may think it is.

I learned how to mow my gramps lawn when I was about 8 – tall enough to be able to push his rotary blade, human powered mower – my dad taught both my sister and I to cut the grass as soon as we were old enough to safely use a gas powered mower – Female here – grew up in the 50’s and 60’s – our house did not have “gender” jobs, my dad pitched in with housework, cooking etc, especially around the holidays when there was so much to do.

Both of my daughters are taller than me; however, if one of them gets out of line, I say, “You may be taller, but I’m STILL your mother.”

Oddly, in the last frame Michael looks a bit like Christopher Robin in the books. He’s not quite the grown up figure that he envisions.

I remember when my kid brother pulled the “I’m stronger than you.” on our mother. Dad came down on him like a ton of bricks.

Perfect…lol

“Smart as you” is the classic teenage delusion. Even the proverbial time-machine-to-talk-to-your-younger-self probably wouldn’t help. When people reach the limit of their own knowledge, they believe they’ve reached the limit of all knowledge.

Wow! Such an enormous ego that Mike has!! If he thinks that, he should help his Dad with cutting grass though Dad would need to teach Mike safety measures on the lawn mower since it’s not a toy. And he is big enough to take garbage out, just lazy. I may be of short height, but I manage to take out garbage weekly along with recycle and not complain.

thats one of the things my mom told to when i reached her height, that I had to “act my height” not just my age

He put his foot in his mouth big time.

A kid needs to learn that size and strength are not what is important here, If my son had said that to me or my wife I would have “explained” it to him, and he is bigger than me.

Well played, Mom!!!

Would have been funnier to hand him the laundry folding.

Just learned on MeTV’s web site that this strip is set in a faux Toronto suburb, which would explain the outrageously high house prices in previous strips.

Being big enough and old enough to mow the lawn ( In my day it was, originally, a push powered rotor blade mower ), was a right of passage, and one to be embraced, because it mean’t that, not only did you get to mow your own grass, but you could go out and make money, mowing other people lawns, as well !

With great height comes great responsibility.

Oh, won’t this be fun…

Michael – you are too focused on being an adult. Forget about your height and enjoy the remainder of your youth. You have a lot of years to be a grown-up! And – you had this coming!

And like most adults, you don’t know when to keep your mouth shut, Michael!