The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for July 25, 2021

Mom will be the judge of that…..

Allowance security. Maybe.

And then it is the Italian mothers who protect their sons.

The kid has a great future in politics.

Listen to your mum, Wilberforce!! Sometimes father doesn’t know best!!

/SHMIRK/

Don’t get cocky kid….

My son decided early on that he was smarter than his parents. He’s still at it all these decades later.

Even I knew that at Wilberforce’s age. He can’t be as smart as she thinks.

The special tool is why there are no weeds in the lawn. Oh, wait…

Wilberforce doesn’t realize dad tried all the same tricks and shortcuts when he was a kid. Brutus is trying to share the benefit of his years of experience. Send Wilberforce out to weed the lawn every two weeks, and eventually he will (hopefully) figure out that his way is not working.

Poor parents. It takes us longer to realize that our kids are smarter than us about some things than it does for our kids to know they’re smarter than us.

Son, why doesn’t this computer work?

Plug it in, Dad. Plug it in!

Why is he allowed to talk like that and not get instant punishment?

The older I get the more I realize how wise my parents were, but then ‘I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now’. [Dylan]

“I taught him everything I know. It took close to an hour.”

you’re not helping!

I usually let the flowering weeds take control of the front yard during the Spring. They really put out their best flowers, including the dandelions. Eventually, when they’ve begun to brown, they’re mowed down, but not the dandelions. For them, I let them grow tall, but not to the seed state, and then cut them off at the root and pluck ’em off to the trash pile. By then, my centipede grass has begun to grow.

I actually like seeing the dandelions blooming. I don’t like them in my flower bed, but out in the yard, I just mow them.

Being smarter than Brutus is akin to moving quicker than a snail.

That was my job too, but I had one with a much longer handle so I didn’t have to work on my hands and knees.

Apple doesn’t fall far from that tree. Too bad. He learned by example. Should be no dessert for either of them tonight…..

Well in one way the kid has a scientific point. If you always cut the yellow heads off before they turn into seeds there will eventually be no more seeds for new plants. Problem is though EVERYBODY has to do it or else if one neighbor’s dandelions go to seed, the wind will spread them back into your lawn!

Brutus is correct for a change Gladys. Stick up for your husband instead of encouraging his son to disrespect him. Like the rest of the world. Except me – I love you Brutus!

On the other hand, Brutus way didn’t keep the dandelions from growing.

With that attitude, never!

My dad had a simple way of teaching. Do it your way and when you’re done – you’ll do it my way, even if it takes you all night. I got the message fast.

Daughter calling in panic: the air conditioner is not working, it’s blowing hot air.Dad: well where’s the dial set……….. Silence hey, it’s working now how did I do that?

Brutus knows he can always count on Gladys to almost back him up.

Time for a controlled experiment: do half the yard Dad’s way, the other half Wilberforce’s way. Wait one week and compare the results.

During the 1960’s dandelion wine fad, my parents sent us out to collect as many dandelion heads as possible. Of course that meant a visit to our church lawn.

Leave the dandelion blooms for the honey bees, they love them. Make a space just for dandelions?

2 ways to look at this. #1-Wilberforce is being paid to get rid of the dandelions so doing it his way makes the most sense to him#2-Wilberforce is being paid to get rid of the dandelions and Thorny does not want to pay him over and over

I think Mark Twain said, “When I was 18, I couldn’t believe how stupid my father was. By the time I was 21, I was amazed at how much he had learned.”

You got that right!

I don’t even think Brutus’ way is efficient here. It is too easy to miss part of the root, and then the weed returns.