For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 09, 2024

It’s called “Parents’ Revenge”, John.

You’ll be able to laugh once your kids have surly teenagers of their own.

Son, someday you will be able to look back and laugh at the whole darn thing.

Meanwhile, right now it’s MY turn! HAHAhaahahahaHAHAH

You get what you gave

Yes, John. When your father tells you that you were just like your daughter, “miserable and uncooperative and surly as they come. You complained and sulked.” Not very comforting and kind of insulting.

Funny how nobody remembers their own teen moods. John looks so surprised…

We call it the mother’s (or father’s) curse—to have children as bad as you were.

“Grandchildren are the best revenge.”

Grandpa is a poop.

Remember that old saying: “Grey hair is hereditary, you get it from your kids.” Well, we now have three granddaughters and a grandson. Personally, I can’t wait until they’re all in their teens – it’s gonna be sweet to watch!

There’s a time in all our lives that are parents didn’t know anything. Then miraculously they become wise and smart when you join them in adulthood. Now I just miss them and speak to them in my dreams.

Oh yes, I saw it with my sister and my niece, now with my niece and her four young boys!

In one week - many years ago, after having kids of their own - two of my kids called up and apologized…

Well, I can certainly see the family resemblance in the last panel between the two!

Grandchildren. Or, as we say, “The instruments of our revenge.”

Screaming at Elizabeth for a couple of hours about her attitude should solve that problem.

What goes around comes around

Parent’s revenge takes many forms when they become grandparents.

Interesting, I just finished watching an episode of The Crown where Prince Harry attends a masquerade in a World War 2 uniform with a swastika armband. Some partygoers whip out their cellphones and take pictures of him and sell those to the newspapers. The reactions of the family, from Queen Elizabeth to Prince Charles and the others is varied. Some are angry, while others are like “he was just a teen”.

Grandchildren are your rewards for not killing your teenagers!

Ooga Farley!

Booga Farley!

Googa Farley!

Rooga Farley!

Fifty years ago today, Nixon resigned.

I thought she was older than 14…

You’ll be able to go over to your kid’s house and jump on their furniture

Don’t you hate grandparents with extra-keen memories?

I never got to experience ‘normal’ so when my kids went through it I was overwhelmed and when I reached out to my parents all I got was blame and more abuse.

Attitude Elizabeth should have:

“Yes please, Mom”

“No thank you, Dad”

“I want to be part of this family”

“I will do anything you ask of me, Mistress Elly and Massa John”

Ah yes, one of the great pleasures of being a grandparent. You can laugh at your kids for what they did when they were young and you can give your grandkids a pixie-stick (otherwise knows as diabetes in a straw) right before bedtime.

Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your kids.

Good thing Michael is working at Megafood; now Will got his social security. Taxes collected today go right to OHIP, the Canada Pension Program, and welfare. Michael is paying for the OAPs and the dopes!

Or this for a strip:

John’s Father: Why you were as surly as miserable as they come. We couldn’t take you anywhere.

John’s Grandfather: Well, you were as surly as miserable as they come. We were worried that we would have to leave you if the Germans invaded.

John’s Great-Grandfather: Well, you were as surly as miserable as they come. We were worried that it would have been easier to have the Confederates annex Canada than deal with you!

John’s Great-Great Grandfather: Well, you were as surly as miserable as they come. When America got her independence, we almost figured it easier to leave you then rather than run away to Canada when we had to flee for being Tories.

Best served cold.

Teach them to meditate, and less likely to happen…

Karma is a beautiful thing.

An inconvenient truth. Many think it, but few will actually express it.

“She’s supposed to be negative.”

Not necessarily.

My son has complained more than a few times about his daughter, resulting in me just staring at him until he goes pink when he realises that she’s doing exactly the sort of things he used to do.

Ironically, I just read Harry Potter which took the exact opposite view of this strip, specifically where Harry posthumously loses respect for his father when he finds out his father was a bully who tormented a kid who became one of Harry’s professors. While the character was unlikeable in many regards, Harry felt that such an attitude on behalf of his father was despicable, and takes it out on Sirius Black, who was also a participant in the bullying.

Sirius Black: You have to understand, we were only 15.

Harry Potter: I am 15! I never treated my classmates like that.

Sirus Black: You are right. Being a teenager was a quick, easy excuse to hide behind. I am sorry.

Harry Potter: Glad you understand that, but I am not the one you need to be apologizing to. You need to say that to the one you tormented.