Karma
In today’s For Better or For Worse, Lynn Johnston revealed the word which I am sure in her mind defines all this, what I call this “circle of life” stuff, with Mike and family becoming like John and family. That word is karma.
What we have seen this week has actually been nothing more than the amazing transformation of Michael Patterson into a dad. While his parenting skills leave much to be desired, nevertheless, aside from calling Deanna up about an extra peeler (which he presumably found), he operated completely on his own with the kids.
The lack of details about the chronological order of this sequence has been maddening. Is Meredith in kindergarten? Does Robin still have a sitter? We have been told that is the case in prior strips. And yet, there is no mention of either. Michael’s comment on Monday about how Meredith had just had lunch, would lead me to believe that Michael was the one who gave her lunch. If she had a lunch which Michael did not witness, then it would be reasonable to presume she was hungry.
The sequence of strips takes us all the way to bedtime, but there is no means by which to gauge the passing of time. All we know for sure is that the kids were tired enough to sleep when they were put to bed, and they did so before Deanna got home from work, without her complaining about them going to bed too early.
Where Deanna is not mentioned specifically. In the past, Deanna’s pharmacy work was such that she was expected to drive after work from Milborough to Toronto and pick up the kids, while Michael worked late every night. I infer from this that Deanna did not work late, in general. On this occasion, it appears she has. And since neither Mike nor Deanna make a mention of it, you could draw the conclusion that this is a regular occurrence.
At the end of it all is Michael suggesting a significant change in his son’s life, to which Deanna simply agrees. This is a ground-breaking moment. If I am reading this strip sequence purely for what it is, Michael Patterson has taken over the role of taking care of his children during the day.
Michael Patterson. After 5+ years, welcome to fatherhood.
What we have seen this week has actually been nothing more than the amazing transformation of Michael Patterson into a dad. While his parenting skills leave much to be desired, nevertheless, aside from calling Deanna up about an extra peeler (which he presumably found), he operated completely on his own with the kids.
The lack of details about the chronological order of this sequence has been maddening. Is Meredith in kindergarten? Does Robin still have a sitter? We have been told that is the case in prior strips. And yet, there is no mention of either. Michael’s comment on Monday about how Meredith had just had lunch, would lead me to believe that Michael was the one who gave her lunch. If she had a lunch which Michael did not witness, then it would be reasonable to presume she was hungry.
The sequence of strips takes us all the way to bedtime, but there is no means by which to gauge the passing of time. All we know for sure is that the kids were tired enough to sleep when they were put to bed, and they did so before Deanna got home from work, without her complaining about them going to bed too early.
Where Deanna is not mentioned specifically. In the past, Deanna’s pharmacy work was such that she was expected to drive after work from Milborough to Toronto and pick up the kids, while Michael worked late every night. I infer from this that Deanna did not work late, in general. On this occasion, it appears she has. And since neither Mike nor Deanna make a mention of it, you could draw the conclusion that this is a regular occurrence.
At the end of it all is Michael suggesting a significant change in his son’s life, to which Deanna simply agrees. This is a ground-breaking moment. If I am reading this strip sequence purely for what it is, Michael Patterson has taken over the role of taking care of his children during the day.
Michael Patterson. After 5+ years, welcome to fatherhood.
posted by howard at 12:35 AM
10 Comments:
He does look as if he is doing everything for the first time. Had I not not known he was their father, I'd have thought that he was a bachelor that Meredith and Robin's parents had drafted into babysitting due to an emergency. Every last one of the mistakes that drove me up the wall are ones a first-timer would make.
Please excuse "not not". They don't allow people to edit these things without deleting them and messing up the page.
dreadedcandiru2,
Good point about the first-timer mistakes. I have noticed that sometimes when Lynn Johnston chooses to address an issue, she does so with out respect to the passage of time. For example, when she chose to do the "Grandpa Jim goes to therapy" strips, the speech therapy in particular was the type of therapy you would do if you were just starting out, not the therapy you would be doing if you were months into it.
So, what we have then, is Lynn Johnston getting around to address how Michael handles the kids in the house, just after the other Pattersons have moved out, and not 7 months after they have moved out, even though Lynn has done Christmas strips which show a time awareness.
The little clues are:
a. The kids are still excited about playing with the bunny. After 7 months of bunny time, this should no longer be that exciting for them.
b. Michael doesn't know where the extra peeler is.
c. All those first-timer parenting mistakes.
The problem with that is that she doesn't seem to realize that it makes her characters look foolish. To just now realize that it would be time to separate the children makes Deanna and Michael appear to be oblivious to their surroundings just like Mike voicing a concern that would make more sense coming from Lynn herself ("Liz was cuter than I was") makes him look like a narcissistic freak.
I have noticed that sometimes when Lynn Johnston chooses to address an issue, she does so with out respect to the passage of time.
Like April and driving in the Sunday strip 2/3/2008. She seemingly deals with topics when she gets around to them and makes no concessions for what should have been happening during the time she was ignoring the topic.
I think it’s nice when young siblings share a bedroom. We divided our children’s room when my son was ten and my daughter was eight. The carpenter’s work was first-class and his design was amazing. Still, I was heartbroken to see a wall separating them.
Anon NYC
DreadedCandiru2
To just now realize that it would be time to separate the children makes Deanna and Michael appear to be oblivious to their surroundings
Deanna and Michael have certainly had the space to separate the kids long before this point. Deanna indicates without proof that Robin should be old enough to sleep by himself now. However we have not ever seen Robin with night fears that would drive Deanna’s statement. My son is 12 years old and he likes to sleep with his bedroom door open and he likes the hall light on. My daughter used to like that too, but in the last year has taken to shutting her bedroom door. My son still has the occasional night fear and the light is a comfort to him. I don’t mind the idea that Robin has had this problem at age 3, and wanted Meredith to sleep with him; however, if that was the motivation for keeping them together, all we have is Mike’s statement they should be separated because Meredith teases him and it drives Mike crazy and not because they have talked with Robin about moving into his own room and whether or not he felt like that was something he was willing to try and handle.
aprilp_katje
Like April and driving in the Sunday strip 2/3/2008. She seemingly deals with topics when she gets around to them and makes no concessions for what should have been happening during the time she was ignoring the topic.
April’s driving was particularly frustrating, not only because of the way Elly treated April during the driving, but because Lynn chose to ignore research already done in the monthly letters that said April would be taking a Ministry-approved driving course.
I think it’s nice when young siblings share a bedroom. We divided our children’s room when my son was ten and my daughter was eight. The carpenter’s work was first-class and his design was amazing. Still, I was heartbroken to see a wall separating them.
How did your son and your daughter feel? I grew up with 2 sisters, who shared a room forever until the day when part of the downstairs basement was turned into a bedroom for me and my sisters got their own rooms. They were ecstatic to have their own space.
How did your son and your daughter feel?
I’ll have to ask them.
I suspect it was fine with my son because he was an avid reader from the time he was a preschooler. He had books to keep him company and was rather oblivious to his surroundings. My daughter, in contrast, has always been extremely social, so I suspect she felt lonely.
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