For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 12, 2013

Oh, well. At least it was on a rug and not on the wooden floor.Let’s just hope the “rug” was not a wall-to-wall carpet.

Bad mommy! How the heck did Lizzie get a hold of THAT??? That’s stuff that belongs in the garage, and out of children’s reach.

And now it’s lizzie’s turn to howl…over mommie’s knee!

She’s too young to realize what she’s done wrong. What’s the matter that these things are within reach of kids!

How did she get it open?

Oh my, you people on a rant about where the varnish was stored…it’s a COMIC strip! It didn’t really happen!

I’ve had one of those! nice clean house, company coming, dinner roasting, kids being kids, husband keeps them out from under, but feeding them too many sweets, daughter pukes on beige carpet just before company arrives!

Ya you’re still not getting it…slice of life means that kids get into things sometimes. I guess you explain it by saying “American’s are trained…” Do you mean North Americans? Or People from the United States? Lynn and myself are Canadians. We let kids play with varnish (hope you get the sarcasm there)

grape juice on a white carpet is just as funny!!!!

1. (Off-point, but made me think of:) Once my dad managed to spill varnish all over the front of the fridge. Did he try to wipe it up or tell anyone about it so that it could be wiped up before it dried? Nope. Mom was really upset, but I understood exactly how he felt. (I wouldn’t have done that, though.)2. Not an excuse, but a reason: My youngest granddaughter , “Shiva the Destroyer,” had a breath-taking capacity for getting into things and wreaking havoc. She drew on the skills of her engineer forebears to construct ladders, and had a cat-burglar ability to climb pantry shelves. Maybe Ellie just can’t keep up with this kid, even though she takes normal precautions.

I suspect big brother Michael had a hand in Lizzie’s acquisition of an open can of varnish.

I disagree with Lynn’s premise about heaven. When we are there, the disadvantages of being human will no longer be a problem.

I’m told I poured chocolate syrup on the vacuum cleaner once. My parents would surely relate to this one.

If you’re going to have kids-you won’t have anything else!

The strip was intentionally designed to have character flaws. The author herself said that.

One of the appreciative factors of this strip is the humanity. Common complaints go along the lines of “John puts his foot in his mouth”, “Elly overreacts”, “Michael does not like school”. What is being missed is that the author did not intend one character to be terribly flawed or to walk on water. All have their shortcomings and good qualities. This is different from other “family” strips, in which the charcaters are often one-dimensional, sneaky and self-centered.

Actually, Lynn Johnston said she got more criticism besides Lawrence. She said people hated that she had Gordon become a hardworking business owner (due to him having a rough childhood), and she also dealt with complaints from feminists for making some of her minor female characters having serious problems. Not with Elly or Lizzie, but later on in the strip there was a female employee of Elly’s toy store caught embezzling. To the “politically correct” crowd, it seems sacriligeous for any female character to do something wrong.

I remember the dark ages when I was a tyke. I wanted to help bring the groceries in. I grabbed a glass bottle of Clorox and took off, building speed as I went. I made it into the “Parlor” with the dusty rose carpet where I tripped. That was a bad day.

sandflea: Gun makers are exempt because the Nazi Revolutionary Army has the cowards in Congress buffaloed. Just as a seven-store Rodchester supermarket chain told the cowards in the entertainment industry who to hire – and could have been bought out by one-week’s profit of the third largest TV network (see Faulk v. AWARE).

Now why would anyone put a can of varnish where a 3-year-old can easily get to it?!?

Perfectly stated, Lynn. The smell of a rose is sweeter due to its thorns! I can only smile at this strip since it is so true! Thank you for that smile!

This was my life 30 some years ago.

“Uvula” — Careful! This is a family comic strip. (Yeah, I know what it is.)

oh well it was nice while it lasted

Ooops! Looks like Lizzie is in a world of trouble!

Too much work. Besides, it’s a lot of fun for us to role play in here and forget the daily grind.

It all in the HOWL… Way to go Lynn!; – )

It turned out to be her day to howl. Just not in the way she wanted it to be! :)