Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 10, 2010

I feel your pain, Dad!

It’s his own fault. He should have gone for a vacation that everyone would have enjoyed. Either that or taken a separate vacation and let them go do something fun.

Poor Dad. They can really knock the wind out of him. He won’t give up though.

@ejcapulet,

I agree.

Why is Dad surprised that no one likes to camp when he’s the only one voting for it???

HEY, DAD, Kodak provided me with 27 yrs. of a nice life.. take that comment back!!!!

LOOKS like mom doesn’t like to be photographed either! wonder where Calvin gets his sweet demeaner from…HMM

I hate getting my photo taken as well, and still do.

It’s the thought that counts, Dad!

G’Morning, Mike, Marg & Grog!

I can feel with dad!

If your family hates camping, ya shouldn’t oughta take them camping. It’s not for everybody, and this guy is obviously trying to cram it down their throats, saying he’s doing them some big favor but really just being a controlling, selfish pr*.

There’s lots of other stuff families can do together, and if “dad” wants to go camping he can go with some friends or even by himself.

It’s not always easy to tell what your family will like. If Calvin is really 6 (I know, this is Comic world, so he’s been 6 for years, but…), then they really haven’t had that much experience - and what a 6-year-old hated last year could easily be something he loves this year (I’ve had a few of them).

Problem is, the chances are that what Dad loves, Mom hates, and what Mom loves, Dad hates. They’ll have to plan very carefully to find a vacation they can do together happily. And if they feel it’s important for families to vacation together, then there is no way to make it easy.

Well dad they all gave you plenty of clear hints on the way, and probably on previous trips too ^_^

Here’s your sign!

Dad I get why both Mom and Calvin are unhappy, there’s no soap with an obvious lake nearby and no bug spray. I can’t lay all the blame on Dad though because Mom’s been through this before and she didn’t pack these essential comfort items.

In a state of nature, the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Thomas Hobbes

C´mon Dad. Every year yhey tell you the same thing! Only the first year did Calvin get excited, for 1 day! They hate it! Wake up man! Leave ‘em home the next time or become a scout master and take kids that wanna go!

Mom, what is your problem? Dad is away from work and yard work and enjoying some rest. All Mom had to do is everything she does at home without electricity or running water. Yippie! Camping, Rah! Last one to the mud hole is a rotten egg!

Not quite the idyllic family vacation you hoped for, is it?

Rakkav, is that a picture of Joseph Smith’s Sacred Grove? It sure looks like it…

I’d have thought Calvin’s dad would be wise to wear a hardhat at ALL times when with his son, not just camping.

Anyway, Calvin’s mom didn’t say she hadn’t washed - she said she hadn’t washed her hair. Womens’ hair really can’t be washed in a mug of water with soap. And most women don’t consider it much of an improvement to wash their hair in lake water (full of plants, minibeasts, fish excreta etc), even if they can stand immersing their head in water that cold.

Wish I had gone camping more when the kids were young. The times we went they enjoyed it very much but Mom never went with us.

I like that hard hat ideal. My dad mentioned ages ago in military they use army hard hats for multi purpose to back then. Nice scenery wonder how muggy and buggy it gets.

I too like photos to remind me of the “fun” times I had.

Then ya gotcher peeple who wash with soap IN THE LAKE.

The “gang” doesn’t want to be there, Dad! You don’t get the picture! If two are a gang instead of company, it’s no wonder that three’s a crowd!

Who wants photos of the vacation from HE!!

My idea of roughing it is a hotel without room service.

Vacations are for Mothers too, not just Dad. I work hard at more than one job (office and housework) and deserve to not sleep on the ground in a damp bag! Dad can go camping if he wants, but drop me off at a Ramanda…….

Our adult children still camp. Told our younger daughter yesterday that camping at 40º and four months pregnant wasn’t too bright!

The vacation from hell … at least for two out of three members of this family.

Three days (at least) of misery down. I wonder how many more to go?

@ejcapulet Yup very true

Do not do that Dad. Some of our worst pictures of outings like this make my wife and I laugh so hard know 50 or so years later. I am glad we kept what we thought were poor pictures at that time.

dad slogs to work 50 weeks a year to support his family – he likes to camp and it’s what he wants to do for his vacation, amazingly enough with his (ungrateful and complaining) family. he’s not the problem here.

If Dad puts an ax through the TV, the reception will be rather ‘choppy’! Besides, turning the TV off is significantly less violent and destructive.

Best stick with candid shots, dad.

Dad should have asked the rest of the family what they would have liked to do on a vacation instead of deciding for everybody ahead of time. Hoisted on his own petard, I daresay. Makes me think of a hunting trip with my father in the Yukon territory in which we were riding horses and living off the land for several weeks. When we finally got back to civilization in Whitehorse and went into the hotel to get reservations, we smelled so intensely that we cleared out the lobby. Great memory…hahahaha….

Mom and Calvin are not fans of giving up 250 years of progress and calling it a vacation. It’s supposed to be a break from everyday stress. A vacation has enough stress of its own without having the surroundings make it worse!

@captainedd: I believe that came from a stock photo used online by Wells Fargo Bank. I doubt if it had anything to do with any place that Joseph Smith ever visited, although I could be wrong.

All this fuss over the vacation, and nobody’s complaining about Kodak and all the other smarmy ads out there? That show how this product will give you the “perfect” life you always wanted, but didn’t know how to get? I agree with Dad: they are wrong in so many ways.

Whether the surroundings make it worse is a matter of opinion, and opinions vary. I would hate to spend a week in a room at a Ramada Inn. (But I would also hate to drag my wife into the wilderness overnight.)

My family is 4, and that’s luckily enough so two of us enjoy camping and hiking and swimming in a mountain lake. The other two enjoy modern-art museums. And we each enjoy a taste of what the others like (a short hike and picnic with a view for them, some interesting new art once in a while for us), so the family isn’t broken apart. That’s over-simplifying us, but the bottom line is that larger families have more options that work. (Larger families make scheduling holidays and reunions an awful lot harder, though - school and sports schedules seem to multiply exponentially.)

Hee hee. Smarmy.

You know, I’ve never understood this aspect of this strip. Calvin can’t wait to go tearing off into the woods when he’s home, and has done the tent thing in the back yard, but he hates camping? You think it’s just because his dad likes it? Also, when you have a small child, the LAST thing you should be doing is catering to their likes and dislikes. That’s how you end up with adults that never leave town, and only eat chicken fingers, fries, and pizza.

Great ideat, Nabuquduriuzhur! Think I’ll get one for mowing under Osage Orange trees to protect me from those thorns.

My family of five goes camping every year. We, however, live in relative luxury. Dad refuses to go anywhere without hot showers in the bathroom, a portable pump and extra car battery ensure air mattresses, and dad can run a stereo system off that same battery (surround sound in a campsite!!!). The car is also wired with surround sound, and he has an i-pod with 30 or so movies, and a portable dvd-aux player, which makes for a great movie night for us “kids.” Each day, we go to a museam or some attraction in town, have lunch out, do food shopping, and then come back for a grilled dinner (any vegetable can be steamed in a tin pan over the campfire, and most meats can be grilled). But that’s just us.

They ALWAYS go camping and Mom & Cal always hate it.

As my 4-year old niece once said to me when I put her straw in her drink without asking if she wanted one – “next time ask” where the FAMILY would like to go.

This is Absolutely, Without question the Most Brilliant strip ever. It gets right down to the meat of what kids think and how they react. It was shear Genius when Bill Watterson created Calvin and Hobbs although it ended far too soon he did what most creative folks fail to do. Leave us Wanting More. Thank You Very Much Mr. Watterson. P.S. Hey people, don’t try to read too much into Trouble making Calvin and the Lovable Hobbs. IT’S A CARTOON! ENJOY!

I’m with Calvin and his mom on this one.

calvin will probably regret that one when dad destroys the tv with an ax and he will have nothing to watch