Since its debut in 1979, For Better or For Worse has touched comic strip readers as few cartoons ever do. Cartoonist Lynn Johnston’s eye for detail and her uncanny sense of what real parents and children struggle with daily are a big part of her success. The world has watched the Patterson family grow up in real time, and to many readers, the Pattersons feel like family!
Parents and children alike will relate to the obstacles that the Patterson family faces. Curfews, parent date nights, babysitting, pets and distractions are all hurdles that the Pattersons must overcome in order to enjoy each other as a family. They face the same obstacles that real life families do, which is what makes them so loveable.
© Lynn Johnston Productions, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.
Foolish Mortals by Tom Horacek
For Heaven's Sake by Mike Morgan
Comments (48) (Please sign in to comment)
Nabuquduriuzhur said, 6 months ago
Isn’t it funny that when parents were snotty/snooty about “violence” their kids were usually the most violent in the neighborhoods?
templo SUD said, 6 months ago
Then again…
kfccanada said, 6 months ago
Just how violent can one get with a teddy bear as a weapon?
Can the experts prove that a parent ‘snooty about violence’ actually caused their child….15 years later…to run out, buy a gun, and harm someone? It’s how this woman handles her son NOW ‘because of’ his violence that will help determine how he will behave in the future.
Shirttail Slim said, 6 months ago
Kids like to express themselves.
Lin Collingwood said, 6 months ago
You can find violence anywhere you look. I don’t need no toy gun.A mommas boy doll will work just fine! LOL!!!!!!
bluskies said, 6 months ago
@Nabuquduriuzhur
Not really. By trying to isolate and insulate their kids from “violence”, they also removed the means for them to “play act” their natural aggression and learn to get along with their peers, while adding to their sense of being “different” from them. We had water guns in the summer and cap pistols the rest of the year. Played “Cops and robbers” and “Cowboys and Indians” a lot, but in spite of many an “I got you! No you didn’t!” moment, and an occasional minor scuffle, NOBODY ever used their metal capgun to brain their opponent. That was against “kid rules” and not acceptable. Of course, that was also a time when “I’m disappointed in you” from Mom or Dad meant something.
psychlady said, 6 months ago
Lizzie needs to learn something here, too.
James
said, 6 months ago
Yeah, because only kids who played with toy soldiers as kids are ever violent, right?
dbig 1oohh said, 6 months ago
@bluskies
That’s the truth. I had the same things as you did. Water guns,cap pistols and my trusty old Daisy BB gun.Then I got my Great Grandfathers Williamson 9 round .22 for plinking coke cans,bottles and then hunting rabbits. Next my Moms 410/22 for ducks,pheasants & geese then my Dads 308 or 30/6 for deer.Teach them young for what they’re for & you most likely won’t have a psychotic kid wanting to kill anything or anybody.
Judson Fredrickson said, 6 months ago
Humans are a violent species. We have to be to survive. But we have the ability (not necessarily the motivation or maturity) to modify our behavior by conscienous thought/decision. Parental involvment, cause and effect behavior modification (i.e. punishment that hurts) is the only thing that really sinks into a kids understanding. The world is a violent place, and if you don’t educate a child about what violence is and when it is appropriate (and sometimes it is) they have to learn the hard way, by experience. To say violence is NEVER right is moronic – survival requires it. ALL of your food was killed by someone (plants included). If we are not willing to be violent enough to survive — we won’t. Wishing humans were non-violent is like wishing for the weather in Camelot – pointless and foolish. Humans are ALL potentially violent – ever observed a protective mother when her child is threatened? While it is true that some will simply scream and faint, most will wade into the fray and at least do some damage in defence of their child. I don’t promote violence; I simply recognize there are times and places when it is required and must be ready and skilled to meet it. Otherwise we will be overrun by over-zealous hyper-aggressive morons who don’t have any doubts about the question.
Having said all that, one kid whacking another with a teddy bear is hardly something to get upset about. It’s an opportunity actually teach the kid about violence. What the boy did was wrong, but not cataclysmically wrong. Now is the time to explain the issue and, if necessary, reinforce the lesson with a liitle violence of your own. A 4 or 5 year old is not an adult – they don’t understand philosophy. They do understand getting their backsides warmed.
jim12345 said, 6 months ago
Who need toy guns too be violence ???
Slywlf
said, 6 months ago
Lynn’s Notes:
This is another personally-experienced scenario which reached the papers. Even though we admonished the combatants, we laughed all the way to the food court!
Slywlf
said, 6 months ago
In other words ‘kids will be kids’ and by scolding them but not making a huge deal out of it neither kids was scarred for life nor probably even remembered the incident within a few weeks. Parenting has as much to do with letting a child grow and express him or herself – while teaching them which expressions are appropriate – as about what toys they can use.
Night-Gaunt49 said, 6 months ago
Lynn’s Notes:
This is another personally-experienced scenario which reached the papers. Even though we admonished the combatants, we laughed all the way to the food court!
don57 said, 6 months ago
I had every toy gun I could get my hands on as a kid (and growing up in the 60’s that’s quite a list) but I have never owned the real thing and have only fired a gun (at targets) a handful of times. Toys don’t predispose kids to violence, violent adult role models do.