April, the Put-Upon Instant Babysitter
I remember Thanksgivings with my children when they were small. We would get together with my sister, whose children were also small. And who was the responsible person to supervise the little ones during dinner? Was it my youngest sister who had no children of her own, or was it the parents of the children? If you guessed the parents of the children, you are right. If I had asked my youngest sister to sit in the room with the kids and take care of them while the adults are in the other room talking, she would have been shocked and angry I would even ask such a thing.
Making sure the children are eating, or have something on their plate they will eat, or cutting up their food or not throwing food at the walls or at each other, is a full-time job for someone. April is not going to get to eat, particularly the way the Patterson kids have been shown to behave in the past. It’s a good thing she had all that pie and cookies before she came to Deanna’s house.
I am not sure what is going on with Lynn Johnston in the writing of today’s strip in For Better or For Worse. Is she trying to show that spending time with the adult Pattersons is so loathsome; April would rather be a servant to 3 small children over dinner time?
The whole sequence also does not make sense with the characters who are there. Mira Sobinski hasn’t been shown to be around her grandchildren in over a year. There is no way she is going to have them shunted off into another room so she can listen to Elly and her family talk, which would have to be a torture for Mira. Likewise, April hasn’t seen her grandfather since he had his second stroke. She’s not going to want to spend time taking care of her niece, future niece, and nephew; when she could be spending time with her favourite grandfather.
Obviously, Lynn Johnston wants all the adults in one room to accomplish some story-telling purpose, perhaps Anthony’s proposal to Liz. I can understand why Lynn might want the assembled Patterson adults together for that moment; but does Lynn have to do it by putting another example of poor parenting on display? We have gotten several in a row this December, and my head is starting to reel from it all. It is a sad state of affairs when the best parenting shown over the last month comes from Thérèse.
Making sure the children are eating, or have something on their plate they will eat, or cutting up their food or not throwing food at the walls or at each other, is a full-time job for someone. April is not going to get to eat, particularly the way the Patterson kids have been shown to behave in the past. It’s a good thing she had all that pie and cookies before she came to Deanna’s house.
I am not sure what is going on with Lynn Johnston in the writing of today’s strip in For Better or For Worse. Is she trying to show that spending time with the adult Pattersons is so loathsome; April would rather be a servant to 3 small children over dinner time?
The whole sequence also does not make sense with the characters who are there. Mira Sobinski hasn’t been shown to be around her grandchildren in over a year. There is no way she is going to have them shunted off into another room so she can listen to Elly and her family talk, which would have to be a torture for Mira. Likewise, April hasn’t seen her grandfather since he had his second stroke. She’s not going to want to spend time taking care of her niece, future niece, and nephew; when she could be spending time with her favourite grandfather.
Obviously, Lynn Johnston wants all the adults in one room to accomplish some story-telling purpose, perhaps Anthony’s proposal to Liz. I can understand why Lynn might want the assembled Patterson adults together for that moment; but does Lynn have to do it by putting another example of poor parenting on display? We have gotten several in a row this December, and my head is starting to reel from it all. It is a sad state of affairs when the best parenting shown over the last month comes from Thérèse.
posted by howard at 10:03 PM
8 Comments:
It makes perfect sense when you consider who's hosting (sorry, hostessing) this shindig: Deanna! She seems to believe that April was put on this Earth for the purpose of living her life for her, of raising the children she herself doesn't understand. Mike will play with them when it's fun so he's a marginally better parent than a woman who seems to think that they should act like little dollies that she can put in a cabinet (real or figurative) and forget about when she's bored with them.
Why don't the Pattersons set up a card table in the dining room and put the three children there--as NORMAL people do? Poor April, servant of the family again.
And what also chaps my butt is that Robin is physically stunted for his age (witness the booster seat) while Francie is Merrie's size. And I reject any retconning of Francie's age!!!
It makes perfect sense when you consider who's hosting (sorry, hostessing) this shindig: Deanna! She seems to believe that April was put on this Earth for the purpose of living her life for her, of raising the children she herself doesn't understand.
I would love to disagree with you on this point. However, this was not the first time Lynn has shown this. Plus we have had two recent strips which have shown Deanna can’t handle her kids. Reading through the Foobiverse’s Journal, there were several people who talked about how they had been sequestered to a kid’s table, so it does happen. However, none of the examples had children as young as these. The net effect is that with parents of young children or people like me who can remember how much work it is to deal with young children on these kinds of holiday gatherings (obviously not Lynn Johnston), we are now given the impression that April is extraordinarily competent with small children, in stark contrast with their parents.
Actually, I remember going to a Labour Day party at a neighbour’s house when my boy very little. My wife and I ended up being quite stressed, because the neighbour throwing the party had no children and her house was not childproofed in the slightest. There were lots of little glass ornaments and breakables all within reach. While my wife and I were dealing with my child, other neighbours who came to the party seemed to have no problem with the idea that their children could roam freely in this lady’s house and destroy at will, while they sat in the back drinking beer. After what seemed like hours of preventing other people’s children from destroying things, while at the same time dealing with our own child, my wife and I had to leave. We had been trying to get to know our neighbours better, and unfortunately we did. This is the story that this Patterson Christmas reminds me of.
aprilp_katje,
Why don't the Pattersons set up a card table in the dining room and put the three children there--as NORMAL people do?
I don’t understand it either. Lynn had 12 people in that room, including the kids just 2 years back, and it seemed much more like a family situation. I expect there is some plot point where she just wants the adults, like Mira arguing with Mike about something, which she couldn’t do, if Mira was doting on her grandchildren, she hasn’t seen in a year.
And what also chaps my butt is that Robin is physically stunted for his age (witness the booster seat) while Francie is Merrie's size.
I remember having to put my daughter in booster seats until she was 4, but she is small for her age. I have not met your son, but as I recollect from prior conversations on the subject, he is big for his age.
And I reject any retconning of Francie's age!!!
I plan to enjoy your rejections in April’s Real Blog. However, today’s strip spelled it out clearly what we have often expected by Françoise’s speech patterns and height, hair length, and reaction to her mother in the mall. Lynn Johnston considers Francie and Merrie to be close to the same age, just as cousin Laura is now close to Liz’s age, when she used to be close to Mike’s age. Lynn clearly does not want to write about the reactions to Liz and Anthony being together from the perspective of a 2.75-year-old girl. She wants to write from the perspective of a 5-year-old girl. Think of it like soap opera aging of children, where they go straight from cute baby to child actor.
Which is why she never bothered listing Françoise's date of birth on the homepage. Without that chunk of trivia messing things up, ahe can say that Anthony and Thérèse married in a hurry to give her a family without either of them being prepared.
Why don't the Pattersons set up a card table in the dining room and put the three children there--as NORMAL people do?
On this point I totally agree with April. We live in a small New York City apartment. Our living room is also our dining room (and our guest room). We've taken furniture out of the room to accommodate more guests and we've had kids sitting at a separate table, but we've never seated them in another room.
Since our formal dinners last several hours, the kids generally join the adults for about 35 minutes and then run off and play in another room. If the noise level in the other room gets too loud then parents take turns supervising the little ones.
Wishing y'all the very best for the holiday and the new year!
Anon NYC
DreadedCandiru2,
Without that chunk of trivia messing things up, she can say that Anthony and Thérèse married in a hurry to give her a family without either of them being prepared.
I guess that’s all we can say about it. Lynn has played fast and loose with ages before, even of the characters whose birthdates are listed.
Anon NYC
“Wishing y'all”? Anon NYC, I am afraid I was under the impression with the NYC monicker, you had a thick NYC accent; but the appearance of this “y’all”, which is typically a southern US parlance, I am beginning to have doubts. Nevertheless, I hope you and yours have a great holiday and New Year also.
Since our formal dinners last several hours, the kids generally join the adults for about 35 minutes and then run off and play in another room. If the noise level in the other room gets too loud then parents take turns supervising the little ones.
This sounds like a good description of my family over Thanksgiving, when my family gathers together these days. When my kids were much younger than they are now (like the ages of Merrie and Robin), I usually assumed the “uncle role” in the post-dinner phase and played with the kids to make sure there were no problems, until another uncle spelled me. Now my kids and their cousins are old enough, where that is not required unless they start to get noisy.
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