To See at Me or Not to See at Me: That is the Question

Much to my surprise in today's For Better or For Worse, Lynn Johnston opted to go another whole day with this Robin and Meredith fight over whether or not Meredith was “seeing at” Robin. I thought it would have been a single strip joke, but with the reappearance of it, it appears that we are clearly headed toward a long and extended fight sequence which will no doubt end with Michael taking some kind of action against Meredith and Robin. If Mike’s parenting prowess shown in Monday and Tuesday’s strip is any kind of indication, it will be ineffective parenting, if not also inappropriate parenting. At the end of the week, I expect a follow-up punch line with Deanna when she comes home, with Mike either admitting she has had it rough all these years, or Mike pretending he had it easy, when he didn’t.

As an overall sequence of strips goes, if you take the prior week of John and his failures as a dishwasher and his inability to appreciate Elly, Lynn Johnston’s “circle of life” point may be to have Michael praise Deanna for all she has done in the way that John didn’t for Elly. So, yes, I think this could very well be, ultimately, another strip sequence indirectly slamming Rod Johnston. However, it should be pointed out that Michael very rarely praises anyone, especially Deanna and her time spent raising the kids; so it would actually be out of character for Michael to say something along those lines.

As for me and my own parenting style, I have a very low tolerance for the “Yes, you did”/ “No, I didn’t” style of arguing common with kids. I have found that if I let my kids talk things out, while they are arguing, it works out better. I simply throw in little corrections like, “Don’t call each other names” or “Use your pleases and thank yous.”, without saying, “Shut your gobs and stop fighting!” If my kids are progressing in a particular direction towards a resolution, I don’t want to stop them, because I think it’s good for them to learn to do that, when I am not around. However, if they are fighting without any clear progress and it is escalating, then I will interfere.

In today’s strip sequence, Michael Patterson may be holding his head, but I am pleasantly pleased to see Robin make his point about what Meredith was doing that disturbed him and Meredith making her point that she wasn’t doing anything more disturbing than looking at Robin. Why am I pleased? It’s because Robin is not being played as an imbecile for once. Granted he is talking a lot older than 3 years old and Lynn Johnston can’t keep it straight what sounds he can or cannot pronounce, but he is making his point with his father and the kids are taking turns explaining their perspective. If I were Michael Patterson, I would be quite pleased at how suddenly polite my 2 fighting children have become and how well they are putting forth their arguments. I think Lynn Johnston has other ideas, but we will wait until tomorrow to see them.