For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 14, 2022

already the overprotective, honourary aunt, huh, Anne?

Tempus fugit

Did they clumsily spill their coffee or tea drinks? It appears without their hardly moving in mid conversation, the pink tablecloth in panel 2 turns a dark brown in panel 3.

Seems all to often parents rush their kids to grow up too fast. For instance, I wish I had started school at 7 rather than at 6.I know it would have been better for me if that were the case.

And they go fast! Don’t blink.

Well, she’s correct. They grow up quickly, or so it seems when they’ve left the nest.

A memory: our older daughter’s Godmother, K, is a friend from church. Although she is the perfect “mother-type”, she never married & never had children. On our girl’s first day of Kindergarten I invited K to join us. We took the first-day pictures, and included her. Then she & I took our girl to school. As she walked into the school, K & I held each other & sobbed. (Side note: K is an incredible Godmother: every year she takes BOTH of our girls out back-to-school shopping, picking up EVERYTHING they need, including shoes & coats. She also paid a bit towards our girl’s college.)

It happens so fast…..

The nights are long but the years are short

That’s a funny thing about kids. Even some adults. No matter how busy they appear to be, mostly they are waiting. Burning time until …something

Maybe, Annie needs a baby’s love more than she needs the outside job.

My daughter still like a cuddle. She’s a member a AARP…

Wait……What???? No snarky uninformed comments yet from some of the “regulars” around here? Oh my, something must be greatly wrong today. We can’t have that now can we? Let me see if I can fill in for the MIA Debbie Downers.

“Well, selfish Elly and gold digging Anne are ignoring April again. Too wrapped up in their trivial conversation to pay any attention to her. Elly probably hasn’t even cleaned the floor that she plopped April down on for months. Of course Anne, feeling guilty for ignoring her three children and driving Steve into another woman’s arms all of a sudden has to display here false feelings for Elly’s youngest.”

There, I think that about wraps up the Debbie Downer drama for today. We now return you to your regularly scheduled professional pessimists that inhabit this section.

Sunrise, Sunset. Most poignant song ever. Though there’s The Circle Game. And don’t even get me started on Cat’s in the Cradle!

I haven’t seen April in the later comics. did she just fade away?

Cuddle her now, before she starts screaming, “I HATE YOU!” every time she doesn’t get her way. In about 10 fast passing years.

Say good-bye to Anne Nichols. She will not have another speaking role in the comic strip for 8 years. The members of her family have already made their final appearances. See you in 8, Annie.

as someone with a grown up daughter – yes, cuddle them before they’re gone!

If you want the opposite of this, look at Mrs. Doubtfire, or more specifically when he is out of drag. Robin Williams was a good father in that film, but he was not a good husband, and a lousy head of the household. At the start of the movie, he seemed to be all about spending time with the kids, which was good, but he did not seem to grasp that being a father was about duty as well.

Anne’s kids are growing up and becoming more independant

We babysit our toddler grandson three days a week. He is a sweety, but I just can’t grasp whose he is. Our daughter is just in second grade. Oh, yes, that’s right, she’s the teacher.

Absolutely true. Same with grandkids. Same with great grandkids. Damned onions…

Weird that Annie’s the one who can’t handle the thought of April growing up just a little.

Most comics wouldn’t have to worry about this. Unrelated, but I like April’s :3 face in the first panel.

This is very meaningful to me. My oldest daughter was born the same week as April. Now she’s all grown up, with a husband and children of her own.

Ah yes, there has been Connie Thomas, Carol Enjo, and Anne Nichols, or as Elly secretly calls them, Batty, Catty and Fatty!