For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 25, 2010

That was MY question. PLEASE say things in a simple and interesting way and on HIS level that will hold his attention. He otherwise only hears…blah, blah, blah….

I sometimes think that having a “Y” chromosome causes a person’s ears to go comatose independent of the rest of his body. The first hint was when my husband and I were first married and my mother-in-law took me aside and told me that I might have to pull his ear to get his attention. Then all the male students I’ve had from 3 to 23 have to be constantly reminded to listen.

EJCapulet … well a recent study found that the Y chromosome was in the process of de-evolving … it’s shrinking in size every generation, and slowing disappearing. The scientists said in about 1/2 million years, the men on earth will look nothing like us now.

Women would look similar, but they weren’t sure what men would look like… I feel sorry for my fellow men.

get the boy tested for dyslexya and ADD…my son had the same problem.

Michael is bright and probably bored to tears. Find some way to challenge and stimulate him intellectually.

Do you know how to get a kid to listen to you? Pretend you are not talking to them.

Michael’s just very good at tuning out the annoying drivel that adults keep spouting… :)

Kids are very good at tuning out adults (esp parents). I think she’s talking to him at his level, he’s just thinking about something else.

I don’t think it is a gender thing. I can talk to my wife and she is so bound up in her “stuff” that I might as well be talking to the cat. Actually, I think the cat pays me more attention anyway.

TexTech, yeah, cats do pay more attention.

here is what michael heard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cvotwO0Kwo

That was my first thought–that Michael needs to have his hearing checked. And if it’s okay, the way to get him to listen is for Elly to whisper something in his father’s ear, but just let him hear his name mentioned. Boy, will his ears perk up!

Cats do pay more attention and hear every single word we say. They just don’t care.

After Michael says, “HUH?” Michael, are you deaf or what? Listen very real carefully what your mommy tells you so!

“Michael is bright and probably bored to tears. Find some way to challenge and stimulate him intellectually.” – Catlady is completely correct.

Had I had my energies as a youth redirected to more appropriate efforts, and given a bit more “loving” guidance then I am certain I wouldn’t have gotten into near as much sh!t as I did. I was considered a problem child.

However, as an adult, I am considered an example to all youth of what can be accomplished if one really directs their energies towards appropriate ambitions and efforts.

That said, sometimes - as I can definitively recall - a good swift kick in the pants really helps too. LOL !

If she weren’t so self centered, she would have noticed that he has an inabiility to focus sometime before he was 7 years old. It seems to be news to her here. How do people think she’s such a great mother? The rest of his life never showed that he was “bright”. Quite the opposite. He never achieved much, and married the first girl he ever knew, who is equally as dull as he is.

I think what this is trying to point out is how common this is. My son has perfect hearing, is treated for ADHD. Unless you make him stop, look you in the eye, redirect him when his gaze wonders, and than quiz him on what you said, you can never be sure if he heard you.

When Michael has something to say, do the adults stop what they’re doing, look him in the eye, and really listen? If not, they’re teaching him not to do that.

Y= no hearing in the female voice range Sounds like the teacher in Peanuts

everyone knows that a baby’s first word is NO, he’s second is HUH? :-D

michael in this particular strip could have been me at that age. school work was always too easy, and boredom was a constant. my best teachers either found a way to keep me interested, or just let me read. i did all right (and apparently, so did michael) but it can be funny taking the trip.

I hope that Elly told him that it is rude to say…HUH?

There is a more polite way to express your total lack of caring what the other person has to say.

OOOOoookay… For those who were wondering why I’m talking about fish tanks… The comment “I” posted above was on Foxtrot… Apparently GoComics moved my comment over to here…

Nevermind about the fishies… LOL

It’s that age. I have a kid and nieces/nephews that age and you may as well be talking to a wall.

Susan, there was ADD we just called it hyperactive.

Duke:

Michael grew up to be a magazine editor and a published author, which is something I envy. I loved literature classes when I was in school and what I wouldn’t have given to have had the talent to come up with the next “Gone With The Wind”, “Jane Eyre” or “Wuthering Heights”! But I never could seem to come up with anything original that hadn’t already been done before by someone else. I wonder how many people have written story after story over the course of their lifetime that never got published? Probably more than anyone realizes.

As for Michael marrying the first girl he ever knew … well, he was in love with Deanna from day one. If it’s right, it’s right. Why should he have to date, say, 25 or 50 people, only to wind up right back where his heart started to begin with, which is Deanna, the love of his life from kindergarten (or the first grade)? Who says you can only fall in love in high school … or college … or in your 20s … 30s, etc.? Why can’t you just be able to accept and embrace love, whenever it happens?

And as far as the both of them being “dull”, that pretty much describes the lives of most everybody (or at least everybody I know)! We’re wives, husbands, parents, wage-earners, mortgage-owners, caretakers of our elderly parents, etc. ~ and I don’t see or think that there’s anything wrong with that. Yes, a writer and a pharmacist don’t exactly lead glamorous, exciting, jet-setting lives. But they’re good partners to each other, loving parents to their children and law-abiding members of society. They work to support themselves and their family, they pay their taxes, and they aren’t depending upon the government and the tax-payers to do all that for them. They’re good, honest people.

I will admit that while I’m just a “dull” wife and mother myself, there are 3 things I do know for sure:

1.) I’m very happy with my life!

2.) I will always enjoy good literature!

3.) If I’m sick and need a prescription filled, I want a dull, boring, qualified pharmacist doing it … not a movie star jetting off to his/her next over-paying movie gig (whose only “skill” in life is being able to memorize a few lines in a movie script) doing that for me!

Magasek said, about 5 hours ago

Cats do pay more attention and hear every single word we say. They just don’t care.

Thats it exactly.

Sometimes I want to tell my parents, “Yes, it is possible that your child is not paying attention because he is very bright and understimulated. Or he could just be a space cadet.”

I followed the strip to the end, GretchensMom, and I call it the way I see it. My opinion is my opinion. I don’t need page long lectures from you. I find that the people who keep defending one character or another do it in an attempt to compensate for their own errors, with Connie’s indiscriminate behavior as the latest example. You always seem to want to control what everyone else says, and you never fail to be confrontational. You are the one who is incorrect, so let me ask you back, “Why can’t YOU just be able to accept and embrace love, whenever it happens?” Your insults are out of line. I’m talking about a work of fiction and you are personally insulting me. Start minding your own business. You’re taking this whole thing as if it’s about you. Read your own comment if you can’t see that. In fact, your comment is ALL about yourself and not about the strip, as if Elly Patterson wrote it herself.

Ophelia, Duke Nukem is one the first action computer video games from the end of the 80’s into the 90’s. Its graphics helped pave the way for the video games we have now. Have a wonderful night.

Oh, Hi Everybody. All of your comments are soooo entertaining, it makes up for reading reruns. I’m not as conversant on FBoFW as most of you commenters and your comments refer to more than the strip of the day.

Today, Paul Jones commented 17 hrs ago, that everyone (in the strip) was too busy being angry at him to notice that he might have a problem hearing. The strip doesn’t show any hostility at all. She’s looking at the little boy and touching his face, smoothing his collar, all the while talking calmly to him. I, as a newcomber, found it soft and nuturing. (He grows up to be a writer?)

And for Duke, Gretchen’sMom and Ophelia: You guys rock. Let me explain: Duke, you fell all over G’Mom for name-calling and personalizing, but I think you started it when you called Elly “self-centered” and wanted to know why everyone thinks she’s such a great mother. Do you not see that as name calling to ALL mothers? And your rhetoric is very provocative? And with my limited knowledge, Mike’s life looks pretty good to me. I think that might be what GMom saying.

But Ophelia, you jumped all over G’Mom too. But you might have a (hidden) agenda in supporting Duke. I see you get to learn about Duke the Marine. Duke likes you and your Southern ways. Please, folks, don’t leave us hanging. How are we going to follow your progress?

I LOVE THIS STRIP & COMMENTS.

Duke Nukem, huh…i was thinking Sargent Rock….

What Attack, O ????? I said Duke LIKES your Southern ways. No attack. No violence. Duke said it. Of course his comment has been edited. No more reference to Calvin & Hobbs, where you two hooked up. This is getting very exciting.

A child only listen when they think you are talk about something they want to hear. And if it’s about something that they will be getting. She should know that by now.Children will be children no matter where they live.

Hello lightenup, Doc T & UncleWhy

I agree with all of you. And how can Elly expect Michael to pay attention when she is fiddling with his clothes?

Do you ever suspect that one or more commentors have multiple identities? Hmm…

I know one person here who has a double identity! Pity no one else can see it. (And no, I don’t mean Joe!)

Michael is just a bright kid in the dull world of school (moreso now than when the strip was originated). I think Elly handles him just fine, tho he does try her patience – as he would mine.

I found a “FB or FW” comic I had saved. It must have been at least 10 years old. At the time I found it, Mike was in his 20s but the strip that I came across, he must have been a 10 year old.

Can someone please tell me how Lynn Johnston ages her characters when you’re following her strip on a day-to-day basis?

Same old bunch of bully troublemakers harrassing anyone who dares to comment. Luvs2H8, Gretchenshag, littledutchtroublemaker and the rest of the hypocrites who like to cry peace and love, as if they live that way, then they turn around and bully and intimidate everyone they disagree with here. Glad I’ve been too sick to bother.

Nobody should stop commenting because of these thugs. Report them to the administrators with the link below. Forget about flagging them, tell the administraotors just what’s going on here with these loud mouth thugs!. Their name calling and liberal tactics are all against the rules of this site. Littledutchtroublemaker is stalking someone here from comic to comic? I went to Calvin & Hobbes, since he mentioned it, and he’s harrassing the guy there too. You don’t have to think Elly is a wonderful mother, or that Connie is some pillar of virture like they do, in order to comment here. I see no proof of multiple accounts, just multiple, hypocrite thugs who think they run this place. They’re the ones who need to shut up and get lost. I don’t even care if I get kicked off the site for saying this. I’ve had it with this same bunch of rotten people telling everyone else not to talk. Now they stalk people from one place to another heckling and harrassing them, and think they’re going to get away with that? Guess again. And Luvs2H8, you are nothing but a troublemaking, threatening troll too. Just because you’ve been quiet for a week or so until today doesn’t make you any better than littlefauntleroy there. The reaper icon is really a pathetic touch, but it shows your true intentions, and reflects your past actions, like your name does.

I think Michael is actually a pretty good kid for a little boy. They should be thankful for him being so good. He’s not a problem at all. Despite the nutty, nightmare of a mother, somehow none of the kids were problems.

I know who you mean, Dry.

I don’t know who Dry means, but I do not think Mr Doty would adopt a second identity.

It’s not Joe.

I re-read all of my comments and I can’t figure out why my entries are deemed evil. I have been polite, and putting my comments in the form of questions are hardly hostile. Mrsluke, you are loaded for bear. You call people out for calling people out. That just doesn’t make sense.

And Dry: who is the double identity person? Is it me?? What does it mean and why would anyone wonder if it’s Joe?

Anyone who has the time to comment of comic strips (and this includes me) doesn’t get out enough. But I’m having fun getting your goat!!!!!!

I guess Dry isn’t gonna fess up to the double identy person. Is it you, Dry?