Lunar Eclipse
I watched the lunar eclipse with my kids tonight. It was kind of fun for them to be at the age where they can see the eclipse and understand what is causing it. My daughter in particular was quite raucous as she cheered on the shadow to completely cover the light of the moon.
My daughter is the social butterfly of my two children. The unfortunate side-effect of my son’s Asperger Syndrome is that he has no close friends. He has never had anyone invite him for a sleepover and birthday party invitations are few and far between.
The same cannot be said of my daughter. She has her best friend she met in kindergarten, and she was almost immediately invited for sleepovers. However, for the first year or so, when she would attempt a sleepover, there was a certain point in the evening when something would unnerve her, and we would get a call from her saying she wanted to go home to sleep in her own bed. It was interesting to us, because there was no fighting or any kind of altercation between her and her best friend. The only thing to it was that she was 5 years old, and she had never really slept away from home without a relative being there. Eventually, she had a night where she did actually stay the night, and she’s never looked back. This past summer, she and her best friend switched off spending the night at each other’s house for 5 nights in a row. That may seem like an appalling number of nights; but it should be mentioned that the two girls are extremely well-behaved when they are together (almost like little Stepford kids) and so there is no good reason not to allow it.
In today’s For Better or For Worse, little Meredith gets her bump bed, and her mother has explained one of the purposes is so she can invite people to sleep over. Meredith wastes no time getting to it with what appears to be her own cell phone. My kids don’t have their own cell phone, and frankly, I can’t imagine giving a 5-year-old girl a cell phone, although I know parents who do.
The part I find the most interesting is that after 5 years in this strip, Meredith has never been shown playing with any other children her age ever that I can remember not even at birthday parties (not counting parties occurring in the monthly letters). Then when she is given the opportunity to do so, she is so fast with trying to set it up, it makes me think that maybe my perception of her not being around same-aged friends represents reality and is not simply an artifact of the insular story-telling style of this strip (in the same fashion that we have never seen Anthony Caine’s parents, but know that they must exist.)
The other part that makes this odd, is that Lynn Johnston did not do this with Elly’s children. Michael had Lawrence for a friend in the first year of the strip, and likewise Elizabeth and April all had neighbourhood kids for friends very early on. The advent of Karina (assuming we get to see her) may be Lynn Johnston trying to establish a “Lawrence” for Meredith. Karina is the name of a Peruvian pop star, and it will be interesting to see if the For Better or For Worse version falls in the same vein as almost all of April’s friends, where they have to have been born in other countries than Canada.
My daughter is the social butterfly of my two children. The unfortunate side-effect of my son’s Asperger Syndrome is that he has no close friends. He has never had anyone invite him for a sleepover and birthday party invitations are few and far between.
The same cannot be said of my daughter. She has her best friend she met in kindergarten, and she was almost immediately invited for sleepovers. However, for the first year or so, when she would attempt a sleepover, there was a certain point in the evening when something would unnerve her, and we would get a call from her saying she wanted to go home to sleep in her own bed. It was interesting to us, because there was no fighting or any kind of altercation between her and her best friend. The only thing to it was that she was 5 years old, and she had never really slept away from home without a relative being there. Eventually, she had a night where she did actually stay the night, and she’s never looked back. This past summer, she and her best friend switched off spending the night at each other’s house for 5 nights in a row. That may seem like an appalling number of nights; but it should be mentioned that the two girls are extremely well-behaved when they are together (almost like little Stepford kids) and so there is no good reason not to allow it.
In today’s For Better or For Worse, little Meredith gets her bump bed, and her mother has explained one of the purposes is so she can invite people to sleep over. Meredith wastes no time getting to it with what appears to be her own cell phone. My kids don’t have their own cell phone, and frankly, I can’t imagine giving a 5-year-old girl a cell phone, although I know parents who do.
The part I find the most interesting is that after 5 years in this strip, Meredith has never been shown playing with any other children her age ever that I can remember not even at birthday parties (not counting parties occurring in the monthly letters). Then when she is given the opportunity to do so, she is so fast with trying to set it up, it makes me think that maybe my perception of her not being around same-aged friends represents reality and is not simply an artifact of the insular story-telling style of this strip (in the same fashion that we have never seen Anthony Caine’s parents, but know that they must exist.)
The other part that makes this odd, is that Lynn Johnston did not do this with Elly’s children. Michael had Lawrence for a friend in the first year of the strip, and likewise Elizabeth and April all had neighbourhood kids for friends very early on. The advent of Karina (assuming we get to see her) may be Lynn Johnston trying to establish a “Lawrence” for Meredith. Karina is the name of a Peruvian pop star, and it will be interesting to see if the For Better or For Worse version falls in the same vein as almost all of April’s friends, where they have to have been born in other countries than Canada.
posted by howard at 11:13 PM
10 Comments:
Wow, Howard, I guess I don't even know how hard the issue of your son and having friends must be. I'm not sure if he would want them or not--I'm not really familiar with Asperger's, but my guess is that he must feel some kind of frustration or jealousy over the issue. Yet again I am struck by how you seem to handle the challenges of your son's condition with grace.
I agree that the speed of the transition in the last panel makes it seem like Merrie must have a cell phone. Yet I seriously doubt that Lynn would give a child a cell phone. First, she is never one to show new technology in the strip. Second, I don't think she would think to put one in the hands of a small child. So I assume that is a cordless phone.
My first reaction was to say, "Five year olds aren't advanced enough to use the phone that well!" But then I remember how my baby sister Mary, at age 5, wanted some plastic cups with the characters from "The Land Before Time" on them. They were advertised on a cereal box. My mom said no. So my innocent, sweet, quasi-literate baby sister stole $3 out of Mom's purse, addressed the envelope, put in the money and the proof of purchase from the cereal box, stamped it, and put it in our mailbox for the mailman. She was so slick about the whole thing that Mom only found out when the cups arrived.
So I guess Merrie could figure out how to dial a phone. She sounds awfully well practiced at phone conversation, though. Little kids often act awkward on the phone, like they aren't sure they are talking to a real person on the other end. Merrie sounds like she has nightly rap sessions with this Karina girl.
Speaking of "Karina," good research by the Lynnions. That name is thoroughly up-to-date.
And, check out the giant ass on Dee! Glad to know that some traditions will never die.
BTW, don't take the stuff I said over on the Meta-Blog too seriously. I think I was just cranky/depressed because I hadn't taken my thyroid medications for a few days (slow refills). I'm really sorry now that I decided to critique everyone's character choices. I had a lot of fun with the Mike & Liz back-and-forth today, and I hope we can do it again soon. :)
It gives the appearance of being strange that it would take this long for Meredith to make a friend. However, I remember that both Liz and April first met their friends in either pre-school or kindergarten and assume that same is true for Michael. Elly may not have watched them too closely indoors but until the 1990s was fairly vigilant about their outdoor activities.
qnjones,
I'm not sure if he would want them or not--I'm not really familiar with Asperger's, but my guess is that he must feel some kind of frustration or jealousy over the issue.
He is not really jealous of his sister for her friends; but he wants friends of his own. He is part of a social group for kids with Asperger’s Syndrome, which is sponsored by the University of Arizona through their Speech Language development program. When my wife took Speech Language development as a part of her undergraduate at the University of North Texas, the program then consisted mainly of helping people who had speech difficulties. Somewhere in the intervening period of time, at least someone at Uof A has realized that communication difficulties are not limited to speech and they have expanded the curriculum. Even within that social group, he does not have close friends, but at least the kids there will not ostracize him for his behaviour, as the kids in his regular school do.
So I assume that is a cordless phone.
That seems like a reasonable assumption. Lynn may have been thinking that way it is funnier that Meredith has managed to get the cordless phone and return back to her room to make a call to Karina before Deanna finishes making up the bed; without realizing it would make people think “cell phone” and not “Look how fast Merrie is with the cordless phone. How funny!”
But then I remember how my baby sister Mary, at age 5, wanted some plastic cups with the characters from "The Land Before Time" on them.
My 7-year-old son (currently 12) discovered that on Amazon.com there is a button you can push which makes your purchases automatically go to the prior-used credit card, and we were swamped with Bionicle products, before we uncovered how he was doing it and turned it off.
So I guess Merrie could figure out how to dial a phone. She sounds awfully well practiced at phone conversation, though.
My daughter started getting calls when she was 4-years-old from her pre-school friends. However, they were awkward 4-year-old conversations, as you say.
BTW, don't take the stuff I said over on the Meta-Blog too seriously.
I think I was more surprised than anything. The idea that my Mike would come across to anyone as a good parent was very much the opposite of what I was going for.
I had a lot of fun with the Mike & Liz back-and-forth today, and I hope we can do it again soon. :)
Of course. That’s my main motivation for doing this stuff.
DreadedCandiru2,
Elly may not have watched them too closely indoors but until the 1990s was fairly vigilant about their outdoor activities.
I suppose this is the side-effect of doing so many jokes about how beaten down by the kids she is every day. She was not really fond of the idea of play-dates with other stay-at-home-moms, until the eldest child was in those pre-school of kindergarten years.
Howard:My 7-year-old son (currently 12) discovered that on Amazon.com there is a button you can push which makes your purchases automatically go to the prior-used credit card, and we were swamped with Bionicle products, before we uncovered how he was doing it and turned it off.
Wow. I'm impressed. He took my sister's game and went pro.
The idea that my Mike would come across to anyone as a good parent was very much the opposite of what I was going for.
It was more a matter of degrees, but in any case, I just plead temporary insanity. Disregard.
howtheduck, I found the "Liz has a potty on her head" strip--it's in the first collection after all. Not only that, but it's on a page I had already bookmarked for another reason. So much for my powers of quickly scanning. Curiously, this strip ran three strip-days ahead of the one where Michael taunts Lizzie with the cookie.
My 7-year-old son (currently 12) discovered that on Amazon.com there is a button you can push which makes your purchases automatically go to the prior-used credit card, and we were swamped with Bionicle products, before we uncovered how he was doing it and turned it off.
My not-quite-five-year-old plays a few different video games where there is a "store" function, and his favorite thing is to buy, buy, buy, until the budget is completely blown (and then he's distraught). If he were to get into our Amazon account, we would be flooded with Care Bears products. :)
Karina is also the name of a Canadian soprano. (http://www.karinagauvin.com/)
qnjones said... I had a lot of fun with the Mike & Liz back-and-forth today...
and so did I. You guys at ARB and HBB are amazing writers--truly amazing!
Anon NYC
Anon NYC,
Thanks
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