Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for June 21, 2011
Transcript:
Wally: Hey, kids! How's life in the treehouse? Holly: GREAT! Wally: Guess what? We're all going camping! Holly: WOO HOO. Wally: So you all need to help pack up, set up, clean up...and watch Luci and Max. Holly: How did our summer vacation turn into a summer JOB?? Andy: Maybe if I GET a summer job I can SKIP the vacation.
This whole plot line bugs. Joan and Wally are the adults who made the decision (oh wait! birth control fail!) to have another kid. All of a sudden deciding that they want some time off and hey, free labor! really is not fair to two kids. Frankly, the job of teenagers is to learn in school and grow up, not to do the jobs of their parents. If Andy and Holly need to pitch in with household chores sometimes that’s fine, but that should be part of a discussion of overall familial responsibilities, not Joan and Wally deciding on their own without even talking to Val.