Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for April 03, 2012

uh-oh. :-|

How sad. I understand teaching your kid responsibility but it’s a delicate balance between that and letting them be kids. Making her babysit every day of her Spring Break is horrible.

I think what happens next will be ruled justifiable homicide.

Spring break was last week for us. Why is this running THIS week? And Nicole, she has to pay for the boots, remember?

Birth Control?

We babysat a neighbor’s kid for a couple days of spring break. I told him my bedroom was off limits after the first day after what he did.

Considering that Holly already got paid for the Job ages ago with the boots I don’t find it unfair that she has to babysit Max (though she really has to write down the hours she is working and insist on a fair pay rate. If you go with a rate of 8$/hour for a babysitter and her minding Max 5 hours a day she would have worked off 150$ boots within 4 days).

What I do find unfair is that Val sprang it on her like this. Not to talk with her personally and in advance is not nice. Also, what would have happened if Holly, not knowing that she was on babysitting duty, had gone to the mall or out with friends?

If I EVER get the urge to have kids, I’ll just look at Max to remember how horribly wrong that plan can go…

No spring break for her this year!

WEEK?

Maybe by doing this, she’ll learn how to be a BETTER babysitter.

Every school is different. My granddaughters have spring break next week. My college student son has spring break this week.

Okay it’s one thing to have her babysit on weekends but volunteering her on spring break and not even telling her is LOW.I’d recommend that Holly gives Max a bunch of sugary treats and to lock herself in her room, I bet Val won’t try that again.And don’t give me that Holly has to pay the boots, there was no indication of how many times she has to babysit Max and considering the look on Max’s face in the last panel babysitting him once is pretty much paid in full.

dkendraf, spring break is different times for different school divisions. My son’s is next week.

She’s not having to feed animals every day after school. She’s not having to haul hay bales. She’s not having to work a part time job after school for the family to eat. She’s not having to cook and clean while her mother supports the family alone. She has no complaint at all.

Considering Max, she’d probably rather haul hay bales. You can stand clear of a cow….

@comicsssfan: what kills me is how many parents echo your last sentence without any hint of irony. To paraphrase, “It’s great being a parent when you don’t actually have to take care of them”. I’d think this is Jan (as Val) pointing this out, just as she did with the Joan in headphones strips.

Looks like SOMEONE saw Kung Fu Panda today. ;-)

I had to babysit a very hyperactive little boy when I was a teenager. I was worn out when his parents came home. Babysitting isn’t for everyone.

Zing Kiddo!

Just one of the many reasons that kids start to really hate their parents.

I now want to strange Holly’s mother AND the idiot responsible for this story line.

One day she will wish she had family to help and to help her

I’m a parent with four kids, and even I think Mom in this strip should get a firm grip. That’s asinine, and a definite bad thing to do to your kid.

Val and Joan screwed the pooch this time; YES, Holly needs to learn responsibility and needs to pay off for the boots. BUT – Val dropped the ball from the roof to the basement by not giving Holly and Alix SOME time off during Spring Break – and I DO NOT want to hear any crap about “well Parents don’t get a Spring Break from Work!” Hey – PARENTS aren’t kids with no attention span an overproductive adrenal glands! GET those girls out of the house and interacting with other kids – unless Val WANTS social cripples. Supervised, certainly – but get them OUT.