Conspiring with Your Kids
Today's For Better or For Worse reprint is an odd one. Elly throws criticisms out to John and Michael and they both appear to deserve the criticisms; but they do also establish Elly in the odd role of being the only person in the house who issues criticism. She does not allow John the opportunity to correct Michael, or does so when it appears to her John is not going to; and so John retaliates by trying to bond with Michael over the idea that both of them have been criticized by Elly.
Using children against the other parent is a pretty common thing, and it is interesting to see that early For Better or For Worse tackled that in a humourous fashion. I honestly cannot say that I am above such things. I have learned that my wife is a lot less critical of and a lot more willing to do things, if our kids are involved. For many years now, I have included the kids in the selection of Valentine's Day presents, birthday or anniversary presents for her and that has made those events much more pleasant.
But the classic story was some years back during a Cub Scout horse-riding venture where there ending up being just enough horses left for both my kids to ride and one adult. My wife said to me, "I'm not doing it. You do it." So, I was getting ready to mount a horse, when my kids said to my wife, (and I should mention without any prompting from me), "But, Mommy. Daddy always gets to do the fun stuff. You should ride." And so she did. I would like to say that after doing it, she enjoyed the experience, but that would be a lie. My wife is not the outdoorsy type; but the kids got her to do something she did not want to do.
With John Patterson leaning over to whisper to Michael Patterson, we don't see the effect in that one strip, but thanks to this being a reprint, we know what the long term effect was. In later strips, whenever Elly went on a rampage, the kids frequently turned to dad and many times he undermined Elly. The example that comes to mind is when Elizabeth wants to ride a motorcycle to work over the summer and while Elly flat refuses, John asks what kind of bike. The most recent example was the purchase of the George Stibbs' house. At the very beginning, John has established himself as a co-conspirator with his kids against his wife. Moreover, in this strip, we can see why.
Using children against the other parent is a pretty common thing, and it is interesting to see that early For Better or For Worse tackled that in a humourous fashion. I honestly cannot say that I am above such things. I have learned that my wife is a lot less critical of and a lot more willing to do things, if our kids are involved. For many years now, I have included the kids in the selection of Valentine's Day presents, birthday or anniversary presents for her and that has made those events much more pleasant.
But the classic story was some years back during a Cub Scout horse-riding venture where there ending up being just enough horses left for both my kids to ride and one adult. My wife said to me, "I'm not doing it. You do it." So, I was getting ready to mount a horse, when my kids said to my wife, (and I should mention without any prompting from me), "But, Mommy. Daddy always gets to do the fun stuff. You should ride." And so she did. I would like to say that after doing it, she enjoyed the experience, but that would be a lie. My wife is not the outdoorsy type; but the kids got her to do something she did not want to do.
With John Patterson leaning over to whisper to Michael Patterson, we don't see the effect in that one strip, but thanks to this being a reprint, we know what the long term effect was. In later strips, whenever Elly went on a rampage, the kids frequently turned to dad and many times he undermined Elly. The example that comes to mind is when Elizabeth wants to ride a motorcycle to work over the summer and while Elly flat refuses, John asks what kind of bike. The most recent example was the purchase of the George Stibbs' house. At the very beginning, John has established himself as a co-conspirator with his kids against his wife. Moreover, in this strip, we can see why.
posted by howard at 10:01 PM
3 Comments:
And the amazing thing is that he never once showed a glimmer of remorse. In his ultra-selfish brain, she deserved to be treated like that because she dared disturb his groove. He was happy with himself as he was and thought that any change would preclude his ever enjoying his life. That'S because not only is he a control freak, he also has the brains and foresight of a sack of hair.
dreadedcandiru2,
Well it does take a special man to be able to ignore a kettle whistle going off. The sound is pretty annoying to me. The classic strip for me (and I can't find it) is when the mosquito is in the room and John lies in bed while Elly rises to kill it. At the end she asks him why he wasn't bothered by the noise, and he thinks something along the lines of "I've got you babe." John has long been presented as a man who has taken advantage of Elly's easy irritibility with things, to avoid having to deal with things himself. Case in point is the kettle. It might have bothered John, but he knew that it would bother Elly even more, enough for her to stop what she was doing with Lizzie and deal with it.
That is, sadly, true. John does regard her more as a resource to be exploited than as a person to be taken seriously. He not only taught Mike to be a disrespectful jerk, he taught him to treat people like objects.
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