Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for August 24, 2010

Oh, she’s quite patient…

And think about all the other work you don’t need to do…

Day after day, after day…….

Open your piggy back Cal… you’ll find out what all that is worth.

Some kids just weren’t meant to be “good” kids!!!!

The mom does make a good point.

Calvin wouldn’t be alive if back when my father heard him talk like that or me or any of us kids,… course mom would washed our mouth out with soap just for his first sentence

Calvin uses ‘The Devil’s Dictionary’ to look up the meaning of mother.

Lesson not quite learned.

My mom washed my mouth out with soap one time and I couldn’t understand how soap could get rid of bad words that had already come out. It sure didn’t stop the next batch of bad words coming out…..so mom started chasing me with a switch but I could outrun her. I learned that after she cooled down she wouldn’t switch me so I always hid in the woods for awhile before I went home. She wasn’t an easy mom to raise…………

Oh snap Mom! lol good one

You mean, he doesn’t have to pick up his own toys and make his own bed, but has to gather the trash?

Calvin can’t win an arguement over Mom.

My shoulder isn’t working properly, it’s aching and I can’t move my arms everywhere I want to. So my 4 sons aged 15 to 20yrs. have to do a lot more in the household. Pegging out the washing, fixing meals, ironing (sons!!) and so on. My youngest son yesterday: I wish you’re back to health soooon!

Once after Mom spanked me I proudly said, “Ha Ha! That didn’t hurt.” “Wait till your—–” Years of married life haven’t taught my tongue. Does that soap trick work?

Is it just me, or does Calvin’s trash can look a lot like Charlie Brown’s shirt?

She even said please at first .. who asks their slaves please??

some boys are not meant to be chivalrous

Notice the trash falling out of the can as he carries it? Kind of like “OK, I’ll do it, but you’ll be sorry you made me do it”.

I was never disrespectful with my mouth, but my mouth ALWAYS got me in trouble… From I don’t care to that didn’t hurt… I wouldn’t have gotten HALF of the spankings I got as a kid if I hadn’t run my mouth!!

And you certainly weren’t meant to be a model child, Calvin.

Good Morning, Marg, Mike & ♠Lonewolf♠

I’ll do such a bad job, she will never ask me again.

The trash is only the beginning Calvin, and your mother won’t be the only problem and far from the worst, best to stay a bachelor your whole life, stay well clear of Suzie, she has plans and they concern you, trash and other nasty things ;)

That wasn’t a book he was reading, it was a comic. Anyway, you really think a busy mom should hang around till his lordship has finished what he’s doing before he’s asked to do anything? And asking him to do the job after he’s finished reading would have one sure outcome: ‘I forgot’.

Kids don’t get commands in the form of rhetorical questions; ‘will you gather the trash’ should have been ‘please gather the trash now’

Slave is the right word Calvin. Just gather the trash.

SPAMMER FLAGGED!

When asked to do something once, a couple of months back, our kid said: “Hey! I’m not a pack mule!” It was so funny, neither one of us could get mad. Now every once in a while, we tease him & tell him he’s a pack mule. ☺

Calvin is correct in his assessment.

You are a child Calvin, of course you are her personal slave.

Tineli if you can move your arms need to see Dr. you could have frozen shoulder’s a rotar cuff. Been there when I raised my RT shoulder hurt bad. My cause was arthritis caused a tear I’m rt handed. After surgery my shoulder feels fine. Warning though you have to have help after surgery.

spammerflaggen!

Just think of what a WONDERFUL husband Calvin would make some day - As a rather capable, but opinionated, woman - he would last about 1 minute or less around me.

Hey - I just thought of a GREAT idea - Calvin can get older and start dating Lucy van Pelt - PERFECT!

Sometimes I wish I could lead the life of a 6-year-old child again … where the world revolves around you, your parents do everything for you, and very little is asked of you because … Hey! … you’re only 6 years old!!!

P.S.: If I had mouthed off to my mother like Calvin did, my father would have given me the spanking of my life for being so disrespectful to her … and I would have deserved it too!

Calvin is right, but not in the way he thinks. Some women just weren’t meant to be mothers–those who let their kids walk all over them and sass them at will. I think his mother needs to have stood up to his disrespect more often, so he wouldn’t have been as bratty as he is.

hey– it’s just a comic strip….

A Little Sharper U said, “I would have waited to ask when he set the book down.” Yes, from panel 2 it’s ‘plain’ to see that Calvin was studying plane geometry so it doesn’t ‘square’ to give him a chore now. Go figure!

@ Lewreader, Nope, the soap trick does not work. I lived with my grandparents a lot of the time as a child. My grandmother was forever putting soap in my mouth for saying things she did not like. The soap did little to curb my tongue. It was not malicious behavior on my part, “stuff” would just slip out that she did not like…. walks off chuckling at the memory (she is long gone to her reward and I miss her)…. BTW, it was Ivory! Very yucky.

Guess I am showing my age, but we would have received a free trip to the wood shed if we had used that tone with our folks… You have to admire the gumption of a six year old that can look his mother in the eye and say that.

moronbis, I couldn’t find the meaning of mother in The Devil’s Dictionary. Are you using the Revised Standard Version, or just being clever? :o)

LeslieAnne said, “From I don’t care to that didn’t hurt…” Perhaps you could have avoided some spankings by utilizing your vocabulary more extensively. You might have enunciated “I am indifferent, or I am apathetic, as well as “That didn’t inflict injury, or “That didn’t perpetrate pain.”

Calvin’s mother just might agree with his final comment. I know I have had second thoughts about my maternal role at times.. too late once the little blighters have hatched out, of course.

Wow, Calvin is lucky! As kid I had to take out the garbage, mow and edge the front lawn in spring and summer and rake the leaves and pine straw from it into fall and early winter (we lived in Southern city of Shreveport, LA). Am sure I’m leaving out couple of extra chores, but can’t remember them.

I WON’T DO IT NO MORE ! ,I WON’T DO IT MORE ! ,I WON’T DO IT NO MORE ! ..ect… That what I was saying as a child when then rod was not spared in my house. My Dad and I would be going in circles as he held me with one hand and swang that belt with the other.Perfect accuracy. Bulls Eye on the behind. Needless to say that I didn’t talk to my parents like Calvin talked to his Mom.

KELTII….I’m glad you had a good time, but what does that have to do with anything here? Too much sun perhaps?

Growing up, we all had chores, just so we would get used to the idea that we had responsibilities to others and needed to contribute to the common good. And we couldn’t get away with Calvin’s attitude. And it wasn’t tied to an allowance–we got no regular allowance, until we had to take the public bus to school and buy lunches.

well, your mom isn’t Mrs. Elly Patterson! LOL!

I too resented doing chores as a kid. They didn’t make sense and interferred with my daydreaming at the most inopportune times. Work was my enemy and still is.

And my kids were every bit as good at side-stepping chores as I was.

lol ^

@ bmonk, thank you for the link. A wonderful story. I know little ones who will enjoy it as well.

Ah, memories! 40 years ago, a conversation with my eldest at Calvin’s age:

Me - “I’m getting sick and tired of telling you that!”

Him - “Well, I’m getting sick and tired of listening!”

But God in his infinite wisdom has blessed us with a Granddaughter who is so much like him and making him pay for his raising. LOL

Xanny - HA! Good observation!

Coffee-Turtle said, “Well, your mom isn’t Mrs. Elly Patterson! LOL!” It might be a good idea if Michael doesn’t ‘press’ (his) mom for an answer to his question today while she is ironing the clothes. But maybe they can iron things out between them. “Four Walls” - Jim Reeves

Having been raised by a very active alcoholic/rageaholic I learned fairly early on to be a miniature diplomat and fought back only rarely. My sister never really did, and suffered greatly for it. Learning to live and work in silence is an extraordinary discipline that even to this day at the age of 66 I am still working on. If you can even begin to get the hang of it you would not believe the baloney that comes out of the mouths of other people….

xanny28, “Is it just me, or does Calvin’s trash can look a lot like Charlie Brown’s shirt?” That’s a good observation. As Yogi Berra says, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” BTW, Calvin appears to be ‘a little pale’. Can he ‘handle’ the can or not? “I think I can. I think I can.”

Resent doing chores is one thing but talking to your mom that way makes me sad.

You’re welcome, fsrstarr. Sometimes just the right word or image will spark some memory.

@Puddleglum2, Calvin should jump in his “plane” and fly to the nearest planet where Mom’s do all the work while wearing pearls and dresses…and I though the latest edition of the Devil’s Dictionary was “plain’ funny! @grazer, how did anything get done at your house! There were 6 girls, no boys, a big garden, yard and chores on top of homework. Complaining got you extra work and worst case, a belt from Dad.I stopped worrying about it when Mom broke the broomstick over my backside…it didn’t hurt and we both started laughing because it was so ridiculous! Calvin’s imagination proves that he has too much time to daydream! Remember, idle hands are the Devil’s playthings!

Linda Arney, “…the nearest planet where Moms do all the work while wearing pearls and dresses.” …and high-heeled shoes, as I recall. I didn’t know that Beaver’s house was on another planet, but there’s nothing like that on this planet, anymore, is there? “Leave It to Beaver”

I had chores, but I got paid for them – so there was never any trouble getting me to do them AND I learned to manage money in the process because that was all the “allowance” I got.

BTA - Beat that ass.

This is what my mom would do if I talked back..Even if it had nothing to do with chores.

Calvin it’s your fault