Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for August 13, 2014

Right!…Right?…Right…this says it all, Holly… ;)

Don’t push your step-grandfather too far, Holly.

Knew she’d go there

Hey Holly, how about a matching tablet?

Any other sibing would go there in that situation. Holly isn’t doing anything unique that way. Arnold probably did.

Go on Grandpa, don’t start getting stingy now!

Although I also expect Arnold to pony up another tablet (although Holly wants something cooler than Alex got) but maybe Arnold thought that Holly could use the computer while Alex used the tablet. They had had chats, but shared ones.

; ) Well, if he gives Holly a baby elephant, Alix will have a fit!

present creep

It appears to mean that the more you give them, the more they want.

I’m expecting Arnold to say: “Yeah, and that would be ME…”

Not fair to give one kid a gift, an expensive one at that, and not give the sibling one too.

Not really Holly.

You’d never give a gift to one child and not the other, except on birthdays.

Arnold can be selective if he wants; probably he is following up on information from Evie. Recall that when Evie first told the children about her marriage, it was Alix who responded emotionally by worrying that she would lose her Grandma. Holly just gawked at the ring and made a snarky remark to Val about how you never know what these old people will do.

my god, this storyline is so insipid and boring

@Piano, the entire strip is about family dynamics; the current thread is entirely consistent with that.

I agree that a S.O. has a total right to be arbitrary with gifts (but hope he brought at least a token gift for Holly). Teens are generally self absorbed and materialistic so I started giving grandkids just a gift card at that age (too difficult to follow the whims of their hobbies). Now I don’t gift as I’m on SSA and need to watch my pennies (and their parents still spoil them).

When I gave gifts to all the grandkids, some would ask for specific things and that would set for me the price range for the rest. It got very expensive and I’m glad to be out of it. I had almost no toys as a child and used what I found (and my imagination – which flourished!)

Hope he got Holly a box of stationary.