Friday, August 21, 2009

John Takes One in the Face for Fatherhood

New Run Status: 3 ½ new-runs to go

Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse is in many respects like this new-run strip from last year. Every father learns just how dangerous a young kid with little muscle control can be. John takes one to the face from a ball thrown by Lizzie, but I give him points for playing with his kids. After all, when did you ever see a strip like this with Elly? I consider this to be like a parenting badge of honour.

My favourite story along these lines for me was an occasion when my son was 5 years old. We have a tire swing in our back yard and it is one of those kinds which goes around in a circle and is designed to make someone sitting on the swing dizzy. My son, in his younger and smaller days, loved to get on the tire and ask me to push him around as fast as I could. Thanks to my son having sensory integration issues, he loved the sensation of feeling dizzy, since it was almost impossible for him to feel that way. In other words, what would make most kids vomit and beg me to stop, my son loved and couldn't get enough of.

The only problem with this exercise was that my son also loved to lean his little, rock-hard head back and look at the sky while he was going around. This meant that the person pushing the tire around had to lean back to avoid getting clocked. On one occasion, he leaned back, and I didn’t react in time and I got clocked right across the nose. I saw stars. I went to my lovely wife and told her my story and asked her to look at my face to see if there was anything wrong. She declared there wasn’t. Later on though, the pain was not subsiding and I took a look in a mirror myself to find my nose was dislocated. Then it was off to the emergency room where the emergency room nurse took one look at me and said, “Broken nose.” My wife thinks this story is funny. I am not sure I agree.

As it turns out, if you break your nose, you want to find a doctor to put in back in the right spot before it heals broken. If it heals broken, then the doctor has to break the nose again to put it into the right spot. I ran around and found an Ear Nose Throat doctor who was willing to take me on short notice (not as easy as you might think) and my nose was set right. And all this from the head of a 5-year-old kid who leaned back at the wrong time.

What this boils down to is that today’s For Better or For Worse seems realistic to me. As to whether or not it is funny is a different story. It’s funny in the same way as those video shows of people having accidents are funny, where you might laugh and say “Ouch! That’s gotta hurt!” at the same time. In other words, not very funny. My wife might laugh, but I think I am too close to the situation.

6 Comments:

Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

howard,

What this boils down to is that today’s For Better or For Worse seems realistic to me. As to whether or not it is funny is a different story. It’s funny in the same way as those video shows of people having accidents are funny, where you might laugh and say “Ouch! That’s gotta hurt!” at the same time. In other words, not very funny.

Since Lynn wasn't the one that got clobbered, she thinks that this is hilarious. Not only does that big show-off John get the wind knocked out of his sails by a little girl, he also ends up getting nailed in the face. If it were to have happened to Elly, though, we'd have to endure a week's whining about how the offsprings hate her.

9:50 PM  
Blogger Clio said...

I'm not sure it always has to do with who's hurt.

Once, when I was a very little kid, my mom and dad went fishing. My mom had a big lure with lots of hooks on her rod. She swung back, and the lure caught in something. She tugged, and my dad all of sudden yelped at her to stop.

They went to the emergency room, my dad wearing a baseball cap. When the nurse asked what was wrong, my dad didn't say anything, but just took off the baseball cap. According to my parents, the entire emergency room broke out laughing.

The person who has loved to tell this story my whole life is my dad, the one who got hurt. My mom is just embarrassed by it. I think it's hilarious.

It's similar to a story I have about getting hurt; when I was 5, I went out with my dad and uncle to play baseball with them. My uncle hit a pop fly, and I just sort of sat there under it, mitt held out, not flinching, and it clocked me right on the top of the head. The next thing I knew, I was sitting on the ground going "huh." My dad likes to tell this story (I think he likes it because I got good at baseball later, especially the catching part), and I tell it too, but it still freaks my mother out, and my uncle -- her brother -- still feels guilty about it. It amuses me.

1:20 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

Ouch! I never got a broken nose but did get a fat lip once--leaning down to administer a kiss on the head just as that same head decided to fly back.

ITA the John gets points for actually playing with his kids.

5:34 AM  
Blogger howard said...

DreadedCandiru2

Since Lynn wasn't the one that got clobbered, she thinks that this is hilarious.

Assuming this is based on a real life event, you could well be right that the story-teller enjoyed the story because she was not the one being hit.

9:59 AM  
Blogger howard said...

Clio

The person who has loved to tell this story my whole life is my dad, the one who got hurt. My mom is just embarrassed by it. I think it's hilarious.

Well, truth be told, I am the one who always tells the story about my nose being broken. However, when I get to the part where I talk about my wife completely missing the fact my nose was pointed in a different direction, my wife thinks that part is very funny. My son, on the other hand, is the one who usually feels embarrassed; but that may have more to do with having heard the story so many times than any actual guilt.

Assuming this is based on a real-life story about Rod and Katie, it could well be that Rod enjoyed telling the story. After all, it doesn’t make John Patterson look like a bad person. Given the strips of the last week, Rod may have loved today’s strip in comparison.

9:59 AM  
Blogger howard said...

aprilp_katje,

I never got a broken nose but did get a fat lip once--leaning down to administer a kiss on the head just as that same head decided to fly back.

Broken noses are not any fun. Or rather I should say, getting the nose put back in the right spot is not any fun. It is quite painful. I remember it well. The doctor said, “I have to take this packing out of your nose and it is going to hurt a lot.” He was right.

10:00 AM  

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