Uh…what kind of school leaves the victim and the perpetrator together without any kind of adult supervision after an incident like this? I’m pretty sure any other kids would be clawing each other’s eyes out if given the chance.
When I got into a fight in grade school (I’ll admit to having started it), we were left sitting next to each other while the principal dealt with some other stuff. The secretary was right there, so there was no problem. After a while I got bored and pulled some cookies out of my backpack, then offered one to the other girl. The secretary sent us back to our classes, probably laughing under her breath.
The meanest jack-booted thug in the roughest high school in town would be hesitant to start anything in the office. They just wouldn’t dig the hole deeper – not if they had any sense.
“We don’t like her because she got what we all want.”
Slap some sense into her!
Even Kiesha can be convinced I doubt Amanda will be. It will probably add to Amanda’s bitterness to see Kiesha and Heather make up. If they do, anyway.
Also, I love every single one of Selkie’s expressions. Nice work!
Ahh, good, good! Go on Selkie do explain to Keisha how childish, bitter and well as she said stupid it is to hold that over Heather’s head. The chances of all three getting adopted at the same time even by three seperate familes is pretty nil; so such a promise is begging to not work out.
Granted they are kids but eh I’m with Selkie, Amanda and Keisha picked a petty thing to be mad at Heather about.
As the others have said, I, too, hope that Selkie will spell it out how childish, naive and impossible the “we’ll get adopted together” promise was. But I hope Selkie’s not shooting herself in the leg with it, as if Amanda, Keisha and Heather make up, their whole attention might then again turn to tormenting Selkie. I’m hoping that Keisha and Heather come to realize what a heartless, self-serving *itch Amanda is, but I rather doubt it’ll be that easy.
I have a feeling Heather once she gets over the betrayal Amanda just dealt her, might just see Amanda’s “nature” is indeed a double edge sword in that it’s just as easy for her to “cut” her friends as it is the ones they make fun of together.
I think in order for Keisha to see Amanda in an unfavorable light would be if she tried to talk her out of her “bitterness” about Heather or try to point out “ya’know if we keep our usual routine next time you or me will be in the office in trouble for something we DID do! Let’s stop”, and Amanda turns on Keisha seeing her as “turning her back on her” for “siding with the freak”.
Plus we don’t know if Selkie will get through to Keisha with what she may have to say next comic.
Female here.
If my fiance called me heartbutt, I would probably laugh at him and playfully slap him, but secretly think it’s cute.
In fact, I may just start calling him heartbutt for fun now;)
Just one more comment on today’s comic; if I worked at that orphanage, Mark wouldn’t just be grounded for a month, he wouldn’t be able to sit for a month. Such an act is worthy of the good old fashion spank to the rear, or in this case multiple times til the buttocks are red. Now I don’t advocate abuse, or “beating” a child into being disciplined; but when I was out of line, a spanking coupled with a time out, or something of mine being taken away until I learned my lesson did wonders.
Children canned be disciplined just fine without spanking. I’ve met a number of upstanding adults who were not spanked. The biggest bullies I knew though suffered from (learned) violent ways one way or another be it from abuse or neglect.
Hey I saw your logic and have to say the violence learned instance normally comes from, and you’re right, abuse or neglect. However in households where spankings occur, when they happen when the parent is in control of themselves and are spanking not out of anger but discipline it works out very well. Households where dad or mom bring down corporal punishment while they are angry normally result in the child seeing this as ‘its okay to hurt other people when you’re angry’. Best thing a parent can do is to let the kid sit down in a corner and step away from the situation to analyze what needs to be done. After taking a breather the parent may find a better solution, or may still spank the child but since this one isn’t out of anger, there is a much lower chance of the child being actually hurt.
I was spanked as a child. Not frequently, but when I was bad it was definitely a possiblity (I can only remember offhand maybe 2 or 3 times… I’d be surprised if I was ever spanked more than a dozen times growing up). My mom was a very reasonable person, not someone who had any natural inclination for violence, so these were definitely by no accounts ‘beatings’. Though when she did spank she tended to use a wooden spoon, which I don’t think I would use in that situation (for one thing, I think it unnecessarily increases the fear level to use a tool/weapon. For another, you’re trying to discipline your kid, not bruise him, your hand should be more than enough for the proper purpose). All spankings stopped by the time I was around 7 or 8, which I choose to believe is more indicative of my improved behavior rather than having ‘grown out of’ being spanked.
Sure, some kids can be disciplined without spanking. But what about the kids that don’t see time-outs as a consequence, or ignore being grounded, or just straight-up don’t care if they’re punished in more ‘acceptable’ methods. Some kids I meet are such little shits all I want to do is crush them into a ball and use them for soccer practice, but ‘they’re just kids’ so they’re coddled and rewarded and told that everything is okay after they’ve spent the last 10 minutes KICKING ME IN THE HEAD. I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING ABOUT THAT ONE. Some kids just won’t learn and they need to be taught that the things they do have consequences.
My nephew is one of those that other methods just don’t work on. My S-i-L swore not to hit her kids because she was beaten as a child. But this kid is so stubborn that she ended up havimg no choice– time-outs mean nothing to him, neither does taking toys or privileges away. The only thing that has ever gotten through to him is a good smack on the rear, and the threat of a second.
If your SIL only knew beatings as a child, I wonder what real resources she used to learn nonviolent parenting and if she actually found real life support for it. There’s a hell of a lot more to it than “time-outs” or other forms of punishment in general (and this is true of even using spanking). How much TV did he get and what was his diet like? Really, it’s hard to say whether it’s the child or the parent until all these things are looked at and I’m a skeptic as most cases I hear people saying their kids “need to be spanked” has been complete crap. It’s usually the parents making big mistakes (like letting their child stay up way too late, or yelling too much at the kid). This is not to say all children are easy to raise, but there’s a lot more to parenting than a child’s personality and whether they fear their parent hitting them or not.
A lot of people forget that discipline is actually derived from a word that means “to teach.” If you are using mind-games and don’t use respect with your child from an early age (CIO, grabbing things out of your kids’ hands, using lots of yelling and/or not setting boundaries), you’re child isn’t going to respond to time-outs. You also need to model the behavior you want (not yelling, not freaking out and grabbing things out of your child’s hands, giving your kid your ears when they need to talk) and this is something most parents forget.
My father used to criticize a family friend for not spanking her spirited son. He became an amazing young man who was a straight A student and is a human rights attorney.
My husband was not spanked. He is a PhD and the only people. He is quiet, mellow, and the only people I’ve met who don’t like him are ones who are manipulators (he sees through them and they know it). Our daughter is not spanked either and we get compliments in sit down restaurants about what a good child she is. I am part of a parenting group that doesn’t spank and a lot of people are surprised when we get together how quiet and well-behaved our kids are. We’re not talking about a few random kids. I’m talking about a parenting group that has 200+ kids.
Also, in Sweden spanking has been illegal for 30 years yet their crime rates are very low (way lower than the US). Spanking is not necessary.
It never ceases to amaze me that something that is called “assault” when done to adults is completely legal and socially pressured in the US when done to young children. Just because you were and turned out okay, doesn’t mean it’s right. A lot of our grandparents/great-grandparents could easily make the same argument for re-legalizing child labor in factories.
When momma lion bites her cub’s ear, is it violence? No. It is recognition that sometimes some pain, administered carefully and without anger, can teach much more than the alternative. Spanking is (and should be) the same thing.
Hey, where do you live? If you wish to tell me, I’ll be happy to drive over to beat your butt red. If you truly believe what you say (that spanking isn’t violence) you won’t press charges on me, right? After all, I’m just making a point and it’s “not necessarily violence.”
BTW, male lions eat the cubs after they kill or drive off another from a pride. Shall we allow stepfathers to do the same (I’m sure some would like that)?
I grew up with two brothers. We were VERY unruly kids. In all that time my mom once grabbed my hair in hurting purpose, and my father thwapped my butt once (and I do mean one hit only) – these instances happened a year or two apart – and that was enough, as it taught me the line that cannot be crossed without serious repercussions.
So while I don’t condone child abuse – regularly beating a child – I don’t think a thwap or two on the butt (or other suitable part of the body) is child abuse. Heck, considering what me and my brothers did to each other (no permanent damage, but if you’re fighting a sibling, you want to fight to win ), a thwap is nothing.
It sounds like your parents (and whole family) were going through a really stressful time to even let things get to that point given that the incidences happened so close together. There are a number of parents who step into sibling fights well before it gets to that point. Your parents probably should have paid more attention.
So I started reading this cuz it’s cute, 1st comment of mine…
Whoa! Being all of seventeen, spanking can be violence when done wrong! But it can also be a method of last resort. My mom beat gave me a couple, can be counted on one hand; like 3. But this was because I’d done something that was inexcusable like breaking something on purpose and then lying about it.
But so a swat on the hand or a pop to the mouth can teach the child a difference if it isn’t used as the only method. I work at a daycare and babysit. When I deal with those kids, I can’t hit them, so I’ve learned very calm and understanding ways to deal with them. You don’t have to beat a child to punish them.
However sometimes it may be needed, a lot of people I know were victims to child abuse beatings. But even they know that one beating if administered as intended can help if there isn’t any other choice. When you let your child run all over a store shouting, breaking things and disturbing people and time out is a punishment, maybe he needed one spanking, doesn’t mean you have to leave welts or marks, it can be done with you hand and done hard enough for your point to get across without scaring the child physically, mentally or emotionally.
But let me tell you this, I helped raise my niece and nephew, they were fine til their mother stepped in. She yelled a lot, didn’t spank them much at all. But there were maybe 2 for each of them. My nephew punched his sister in the stomach and got a spanking, my niece threw the GameCube at him got a spanking.
Those were justified and administered where they knew the consequences for doing something like that again. But they never did it again, normal sibling fights occurred but nothing to the proportion again.
So you get popped once or twice in your life, it does not mess you up for life in most cases, however some people don’t know that the meaning of a spanking is to get the child to understand consequences that they don’t want to incur. It’s almost like with drunk driving vids for teens, it’s supposed to be enough of a scare tactic to ensure bad things don’t happen. If a child is good enough, they won’t be popped ever. But sometimes a child doesn’t understand boundaries enough. You can talk and talk and talk, but they don’t understand.
Beating the living day lights out of anyone in not something anyone should do, but it happens. But all spankings are not violent. I can say that after I flipped my mom the bird as a 7 year old and she told me three times not to do it, when she popped my hand, I never did it again. But the moral to the story is, people need to learn what situations require what, and how their child is developed, because sometimes a spanking or pop isn’t needed, sometimes they don’t get it until you talk to them. Everyone is different, just as methods of punishment should be. If you’ve been beaten the wrong way in life I could see your problem with it, but can you honestly say that as an adult that one pop to the behind or hand (in the sum of developmental childhood years) will completely screw up a child?
First of all some of you are taking the spanking argument too far. I can understand it being taken to far, I know, I’ve lived it. But my brothers and I are a prime example. My father was an abusive A** who would hurt us whenever we were bad or even just in the way.
If it was disciplinary we were spanked but if it was anger we were beaten. My older brother and I got the worst of it since the younger two were still too little to know right from wrong and were protected more by our mother. And don’t get me wrong, she loved all of us but she knew that us older ones were less likely to be killed from the beatings than they were. That and she was scared to death of our father.
I’m not saying what he did was right but it did beat it into me how important restraint is. And after he went to jail after sending my mother to the hospital after he beat her and cracked her skull open and broke her jaw.
My two younger brothers were never beaten and they became lazy and spoiled brats. They take everything for granted and expect to get whatever they want without consequences. The youngest one took after our father and believed that he could use violence to get what he wants. One time he actually hit our mother and we had to call the police, and he actually resisted arrest and tried to fight them because he felt he could do whatever he wanted.
Now, I’m not saying spank every child into acting right but sometimes it is necessary for certain children. I’ve seen plenty of children at my work where a stern talking too doesn’t accomplish anything and the child goes and either breaks something or actually hits the parents and swears at them. So to each their own and hopefully people can just agree that just as every child is special and unique so is the punishment and raising methods required to make them well adjusted adults.
This reminds me of exactly how tough it can be living in a childrens home. I had a guy do this to me…..TWICE! It sucked, and everyone picked on me about it. I feel sorry for Kiesha. Though unlike her, because of what happened to me, I never picked on other kids.
Selkie: Do you knows hows stupids it is to bes mads ats somebodies for getting adopted? If yous was reallys Heather’s friends yous woulds be happies for hers.
I predict Selkie will show Keisha how ignorant she’s being. Heather and Keisha will make up and Amanda will be left alone to wallow in her hate and guilt. Selkie will realize Heather only took her shirt to win back her friends and forgive both Heather and Keisha and maybe even become friends with them. Selkie will realize Heather felt utterly alone and had no other friends and acted out in fear of losing her friends. Selkie, having few friends herself, will understand and forgive them.
panel 5: selkie- ….you’re kidding right?
pretty sure that was every reader’s reaction to those thoughts. I know it was mine. Selkie, everyone loves you lol
That face!! And Selkie’s pose in panel 3 is just perfect. This is a great one, and I’m looking forward to Selkie knocking some sense into Keisha. (Literal knocking not required, though I’m sure it would be cathartic.)
I hope Todd gets there soon and helps sort things out. He seems like one of the only reasonable adults around.
Also, I hereby dub Selkie’s facial expression in panel 5 her “expression of the week”. Are we all in agreeance?
I think the conversation that they may go on to have will make Keisha realize how slim the odds are/were of her, Heather and Amanda all getting adopted together… no offense to them for wanting to stay together and be sisters, but realistically, the only kids who get adopted together are usually only blood siblings. (I’ve seen the show “Adoption Stories” so many times to know how sibling scenarios go…)
I also will admit I am sort of rooting for the whole “Keisha and Selkie may become friends” scenario.
I like Selkie’s expression in the second to last panel. I make that expression when I’m confused with someone, and I’ve recently learned that not everyone can do that. I was called “Leoperraldon” by a ‘friend’ when I first made that expression at her. She laughed every time she caught me doing that face, and she wouldn’t stop when I asked her. I hated it, and she just kept asking me to make that face “again, again!”
So I can empathize with Keisha, and was a bit surprised at how Selkie reacted. Then I ran it through my head again, and okay, makes sense now.
^ BTW, I have no interest in hurting anyone, but I was making a point. Sadly, there are people who believe adults should be allowed to hit other adults, too. I am not one of them (except in cases of self defense).
There’s a fair number of panties that, if stretched, would look pretty thong-like. (But yeah, now that you mention it, those do look more like the panties in Target that the 11-year-old eyed as we walked past, asked if they were thongs (yeah), and then said looked really uncomfortable.)
Man…if Keisha hadn’t been living at the orphanage, Mark could have ended up on the wrong end of a sexual harassment lawsuit. It’s happened over less severe things. I’m surprised they didn’t keep Mark away from Keisha after that.
Ohhh, I hope nothing TOO bad happens to Keisha…or Heather for that matter… However, when Amanda gets hers, I WILL laugh maniacally.
Go, Selkie! Talk some sense into that girl!
Uh…what kind of school leaves the victim and the perpetrator together without any kind of adult supervision after an incident like this? I’m pretty sure any other kids would be clawing each other’s eyes out if given the chance.
The secretary is still at her desk. I’m just not showing her because she isn’t vital at this point.
I think Keisha and Selkie are largely ignoring her. XD
When I got into a fight in grade school (I’ll admit to having started it), we were left sitting next to each other while the principal dealt with some other stuff. The secretary was right there, so there was no problem. After a while I got bored and pulled some cookies out of my backpack, then offered one to the other girl. The secretary sent us back to our classes, probably laughing under her breath.
The meanest jack-booted thug in the roughest high school in town would be hesitant to start anything in the office. They just wouldn’t dig the hole deeper – not if they had any sense.
Tell it like it is, Selkie!
Finally! Talk some sense into her.
“We don’t like her because she got what we all want.”
Slap some sense into her!
Even Kiesha can be convinced I doubt Amanda will be. It will probably add to Amanda’s bitterness to see Kiesha and Heather make up. If they do, anyway.
Also, I love every single one of Selkie’s expressions. Nice work!
Ahh, good, good! Go on Selkie do explain to Keisha how childish, bitter and well as she said stupid it is to hold that over Heather’s head. The chances of all three getting adopted at the same time even by three seperate familes is pretty nil; so such a promise is begging to not work out.
Granted they are kids but eh I’m with Selkie, Amanda and Keisha picked a petty thing to be mad at Heather about.
Love Selkies expression in panel 5! Keep up the great work.
You mean the, “Is this happening? Oh craps, this is *happening*?” expression?
To me it looks more like a “Wait, WHAT?” expression.
Either way, it looks awesome.
As the others have said, I, too, hope that Selkie will spell it out how childish, naive and impossible the “we’ll get adopted together” promise was. But I hope Selkie’s not shooting herself in the leg with it, as if Amanda, Keisha and Heather make up, their whole attention might then again turn to tormenting Selkie. I’m hoping that Keisha and Heather come to realize what a heartless, self-serving *itch Amanda is, but I rather doubt it’ll be that easy.
I have a feeling Heather once she gets over the betrayal Amanda just dealt her, might just see Amanda’s “nature” is indeed a double edge sword in that it’s just as easy for her to “cut” her friends as it is the ones they make fun of together.
I think in order for Keisha to see Amanda in an unfavorable light would be if she tried to talk her out of her “bitterness” about Heather or try to point out “ya’know if we keep our usual routine next time you or me will be in the office in trouble for something we DID do! Let’s stop”, and Amanda turns on Keisha seeing her as “turning her back on her” for “siding with the freak”.
Plus we don’t know if Selkie will get through to Keisha with what she may have to say next comic.
Character development moments are love!
If I had a girlfriend who wore panties with hearts on them, I would call her “Heart Butt”…but privately, and as a term of endearment.
That is, if I had a girlfriend.
Don’t ever call any girlfriend “Heartbutt”. Seriously. It would not end well. In fact, don’t ever call any girl anything that ends with “butt”.
I’m in my mid-40s and divorced. If I get a girlfriend she probably won’t be wearing panties with hearts on them.
Heartbottom?
Female here.
If my fiance called me heartbutt, I would probably laugh at him and playfully slap him, but secretly think it’s cute.
In fact, I may just start calling him heartbutt for fun now;)
Or you could respect that they’re not you and they both like the nickname *rolls eyes*
I’m a bit confused (but then, I’m old) – who are you speaking to? Not mad or anything, just looking for clarification.
Nice body language in every panel dude.
Just one more comment on today’s comic; if I worked at that orphanage, Mark wouldn’t just be grounded for a month, he wouldn’t be able to sit for a month. Such an act is worthy of the good old fashion spank to the rear, or in this case multiple times til the buttocks are red. Now I don’t advocate abuse, or “beating” a child into being disciplined; but when I was out of line, a spanking coupled with a time out, or something of mine being taken away until I learned my lesson did wonders.
Children canned be disciplined just fine without spanking. I’ve met a number of upstanding adults who were not spanked. The biggest bullies I knew though suffered from (learned) violent ways one way or another be it from abuse or neglect.
canned = can – too early in the AM
Hey I saw your logic and have to say the violence learned instance normally comes from, and you’re right, abuse or neglect. However in households where spankings occur, when they happen when the parent is in control of themselves and are spanking not out of anger but discipline it works out very well. Households where dad or mom bring down corporal punishment while they are angry normally result in the child seeing this as ‘its okay to hurt other people when you’re angry’. Best thing a parent can do is to let the kid sit down in a corner and step away from the situation to analyze what needs to be done. After taking a breather the parent may find a better solution, or may still spank the child but since this one isn’t out of anger, there is a much lower chance of the child being actually hurt.
I was spanked as a child. Not frequently, but when I was bad it was definitely a possiblity (I can only remember offhand maybe 2 or 3 times… I’d be surprised if I was ever spanked more than a dozen times growing up). My mom was a very reasonable person, not someone who had any natural inclination for violence, so these were definitely by no accounts ‘beatings’. Though when she did spank she tended to use a wooden spoon, which I don’t think I would use in that situation (for one thing, I think it unnecessarily increases the fear level to use a tool/weapon. For another, you’re trying to discipline your kid, not bruise him, your hand should be more than enough for the proper purpose). All spankings stopped by the time I was around 7 or 8, which I choose to believe is more indicative of my improved behavior rather than having ‘grown out of’ being spanked.
Sure, some kids can be disciplined without spanking. But what about the kids that don’t see time-outs as a consequence, or ignore being grounded, or just straight-up don’t care if they’re punished in more ‘acceptable’ methods. Some kids I meet are such little shits all I want to do is crush them into a ball and use them for soccer practice, but ‘they’re just kids’ so they’re coddled and rewarded and told that everything is okay after they’ve spent the last 10 minutes KICKING ME IN THE HEAD. I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING ABOUT THAT ONE. Some kids just won’t learn and they need to be taught that the things they do have consequences.
My nephew is one of those that other methods just don’t work on. My S-i-L swore not to hit her kids because she was beaten as a child. But this kid is so stubborn that she ended up havimg no choice– time-outs mean nothing to him, neither does taking toys or privileges away. The only thing that has ever gotten through to him is a good smack on the rear, and the threat of a second.
If your SIL only knew beatings as a child, I wonder what real resources she used to learn nonviolent parenting and if she actually found real life support for it. There’s a hell of a lot more to it than “time-outs” or other forms of punishment in general (and this is true of even using spanking). How much TV did he get and what was his diet like? Really, it’s hard to say whether it’s the child or the parent until all these things are looked at and I’m a skeptic as most cases I hear people saying their kids “need to be spanked” has been complete crap. It’s usually the parents making big mistakes (like letting their child stay up way too late, or yelling too much at the kid). This is not to say all children are easy to raise, but there’s a lot more to parenting than a child’s personality and whether they fear their parent hitting them or not.
A lot of people forget that discipline is actually derived from a word that means “to teach.” If you are using mind-games and don’t use respect with your child from an early age (CIO, grabbing things out of your kids’ hands, using lots of yelling and/or not setting boundaries), you’re child isn’t going to respond to time-outs. You also need to model the behavior you want (not yelling, not freaking out and grabbing things out of your child’s hands, giving your kid your ears when they need to talk) and this is something most parents forget.
My father used to criticize a family friend for not spanking her spirited son. He became an amazing young man who was a straight A student and is a human rights attorney.
My husband was not spanked. He is a PhD and the only people. He is quiet, mellow, and the only people I’ve met who don’t like him are ones who are manipulators (he sees through them and they know it). Our daughter is not spanked either and we get compliments in sit down restaurants about what a good child she is. I am part of a parenting group that doesn’t spank and a lot of people are surprised when we get together how quiet and well-behaved our kids are. We’re not talking about a few random kids. I’m talking about a parenting group that has 200+ kids.
Also, in Sweden spanking has been illegal for 30 years yet their crime rates are very low (way lower than the US). Spanking is not necessary.
It never ceases to amaze me that something that is called “assault” when done to adults is completely legal and socially pressured in the US when done to young children. Just because you were and turned out okay, doesn’t mean it’s right. A lot of our grandparents/great-grandparents could easily make the same argument for re-legalizing child labor in factories.
I am so tired of hearing this.
Spanking is not necessarily violence.
When momma lion bites her cub’s ear, is it violence? No. It is recognition that sometimes some pain, administered carefully and without anger, can teach much more than the alternative. Spanking is (and should be) the same thing.
Hey, where do you live? If you wish to tell me, I’ll be happy to drive over to beat your butt red. If you truly believe what you say (that spanking isn’t violence) you won’t press charges on me, right?
After all, I’m just making a point and it’s “not necessarily violence.”
BTW, male lions eat the cubs after they kill or drive off another from a pride. Shall we allow stepfathers to do the same (I’m sure some would like that)?
I grew up with two brothers. We were VERY unruly kids. In all that time my mom once grabbed my hair in hurting purpose, and my father thwapped my butt once (and I do mean one hit only) – these instances happened a year or two apart – and that was enough, as it taught me the line that cannot be crossed without serious repercussions.
So while I don’t condone child abuse – regularly beating a child – I don’t think a thwap or two on the butt (or other suitable part of the body) is child abuse. Heck, considering what me and my brothers did to each other (no permanent damage, but if you’re fighting a sibling, you want to fight to win
), a thwap is nothing.
It sounds like your parents (and whole family) were going through a really stressful time to even let things get to that point given that the incidences happened so close together. There are a number of parents who step into sibling fights well before it gets to that point. Your parents probably should have paid more attention.
So I started reading this cuz it’s cute, 1st comment of mine…
Whoa! Being all of seventeen, spanking can be violence when done wrong! But it can also be a method of last resort. My mom beat gave me a couple, can be counted on one hand; like 3. But this was because I’d done something that was inexcusable like breaking something on purpose and then lying about it.
But so a swat on the hand or a pop to the mouth can teach the child a difference if it isn’t used as the only method. I work at a daycare and babysit. When I deal with those kids, I can’t hit them, so I’ve learned very calm and understanding ways to deal with them. You don’t have to beat a child to punish them.
However sometimes it may be needed, a lot of people I know were victims to child abuse beatings. But even they know that one beating if administered as intended can help if there isn’t any other choice. When you let your child run all over a store shouting, breaking things and disturbing people and time out is a punishment, maybe he needed one spanking, doesn’t mean you have to leave welts or marks, it can be done with you hand and done hard enough for your point to get across without scaring the child physically, mentally or emotionally.
But let me tell you this, I helped raise my niece and nephew, they were fine til their mother stepped in. She yelled a lot, didn’t spank them much at all. But there were maybe 2 for each of them. My nephew punched his sister in the stomach and got a spanking, my niece threw the GameCube at him got a spanking.
Those were justified and administered where they knew the consequences for doing something like that again. But they never did it again, normal sibling fights occurred but nothing to the proportion again.
So you get popped once or twice in your life, it does not mess you up for life in most cases, however some people don’t know that the meaning of a spanking is to get the child to understand consequences that they don’t want to incur. It’s almost like with drunk driving vids for teens, it’s supposed to be enough of a scare tactic to ensure bad things don’t happen. If a child is good enough, they won’t be popped ever. But sometimes a child doesn’t understand boundaries enough. You can talk and talk and talk, but they don’t understand.
Beating the living day lights out of anyone in not something anyone should do, but it happens. But all spankings are not violent. I can say that after I flipped my mom the bird as a 7 year old and she told me three times not to do it, when she popped my hand, I never did it again. But the moral to the story is, people need to learn what situations require what, and how their child is developed, because sometimes a spanking or pop isn’t needed, sometimes they don’t get it until you talk to them. Everyone is different, just as methods of punishment should be. If you’ve been beaten the wrong way in life I could see your problem with it, but can you honestly say that as an adult that one pop to the behind or hand (in the sum of developmental childhood years) will completely screw up a child?
First of all some of you are taking the spanking argument too far. I can understand it being taken to far, I know, I’ve lived it. But my brothers and I are a prime example. My father was an abusive A** who would hurt us whenever we were bad or even just in the way.
If it was disciplinary we were spanked but if it was anger we were beaten. My older brother and I got the worst of it since the younger two were still too little to know right from wrong and were protected more by our mother. And don’t get me wrong, she loved all of us but she knew that us older ones were less likely to be killed from the beatings than they were. That and she was scared to death of our father.
I’m not saying what he did was right but it did beat it into me how important restraint is. And after he went to jail after sending my mother to the hospital after he beat her and cracked her skull open and broke her jaw.
My two younger brothers were never beaten and they became lazy and spoiled brats. They take everything for granted and expect to get whatever they want without consequences. The youngest one took after our father and believed that he could use violence to get what he wants. One time he actually hit our mother and we had to call the police, and he actually resisted arrest and tried to fight them because he felt he could do whatever he wanted.
Now, I’m not saying spank every child into acting right but sometimes it is necessary for certain children. I’ve seen plenty of children at my work where a stern talking too doesn’t accomplish anything and the child goes and either breaks something or actually hits the parents and swears at them. So to each their own and hopefully people can just agree that just as every child is special and unique so is the punishment and raising methods required to make them well adjusted adults.
Panel 2, Keisha is crying so much that there’s a blob of snot oozing out of her nose. Nice touch.
And the logic of Selkie comes to the rescue! Nice job, Dave!
That is an excellent face there in panel 5.
You go, Selkie, it is LOGIC TIME.
Glitter points for Selkie! Provided her reasoning holds up in the next update, hehe.
OMFg I love her expression in that second to last panel XDDD she’;s just like “…… Really??? Seriously?”
Selkie’s eyebrow-raise in panel 5.
…can I icon that???
Sure!
thanks!
Ahhh! You stole my idea!
You’re welcome to icon it too!
This reminds me of exactly how tough it can be living in a childrens home. I had a guy do this to me…..TWICE! It sucked, and everyone picked on me about it. I feel sorry for Kiesha. Though unlike her, because of what happened to me, I never picked on other kids.
Thank you Selkie! You just said exactly what I’ve been thinking!
You’re right, Selkie, it’s a stupid way to behave. Thing is, all bullies are stupid, in one fashion or another. That’s why they’re bullies.
Selkie: Do you knows hows stupids it is to bes mads ats somebodies for getting adopted? If yous was reallys Heather’s friends yous woulds be happies for hers.
I predict Selkie will show Keisha how ignorant she’s being. Heather and Keisha will make up and Amanda will be left alone to wallow in her hate and guilt. Selkie will realize Heather only took her shirt to win back her friends and forgive both Heather and Keisha and maybe even become friends with them. Selkie will realize Heather felt utterly alone and had no other friends and acted out in fear of losing her friends. Selkie, having few friends herself, will understand and forgive them.
panel 5: selkie- ….you’re kidding right?
pretty sure that was every reader’s reaction to those thoughts. I know it was mine. Selkie, everyone loves you lol
That face!! And Selkie’s pose in panel 3 is just perfect. This is a great one, and I’m looking forward to Selkie knocking some sense into Keisha. (Literal knocking not required, though I’m sure it would be cathartic.)
I hope Todd gets there soon and helps sort things out. He seems like one of the only reasonable adults around.
Thats a WTF Face… and yes, Selkie is right, that’s stupid… but… they are childs…
Ah, Selkie; calling it like it is. XD
Also, I hereby dub Selkie’s facial expression in panel 5 her “expression of the week”. Are we all in agreeance?
I think the conversation that they may go on to have will make Keisha realize how slim the odds are/were of her, Heather and Amanda all getting adopted together… no offense to them for wanting to stay together and be sisters, but realistically, the only kids who get adopted together are usually only blood siblings. (I’ve seen the show “Adoption Stories” so many times to know how sibling scenarios go…)
I also will admit I am sort of rooting for the whole “Keisha and Selkie may become friends” scenario.
I second the motion.
Wow, I love that fifth panel.
to everyone criticizing Keisha for being childish —
remember, she’s eight.
Amen to that.
Gotta love RAWR-I’M-GONNA-GITTCHA-Lillian!
Check out the new character in Bad Machinery! A traditional selkie, I opine.
children are so childish
I like Selkie’s expression in the second to last panel. I make that expression when I’m confused with someone, and I’ve recently learned that not everyone can do that. I was called “Leoperraldon” by a ‘friend’ when I first made that expression at her. She laughed every time she caught me doing that face, and she wouldn’t stop when I asked her. I hated it, and she just kept asking me to make that face “again, again!”
So I can empathize with Keisha, and was a bit surprised at how Selkie reacted. Then I ran it through my head again, and okay, makes sense now.
^ BTW, I have no interest in hurting anyone, but I was making a point. Sadly, there are people who believe adults should be allowed to hit other adults, too. I am not one of them (except in cases of self defense).
I had to get this off my chest: why is a child of 8 possessing thong panties?
Sorry if that’s just the way you draw them, but I have a real problem with some children’s clothing that sexualizes the girls WAY too early.
There’s a fair number of panties that, if stretched, would look pretty thong-like. (But yeah, now that you mention it, those do look more like the panties in Target that the 11-year-old eyed as we walked past, asked if they were thongs (yeah), and then said looked really uncomfortable.)
I didn’t mean for them to look like thongs. I just wanted Mark to see where he was running. XD
Man…if Keisha hadn’t been living at the orphanage, Mark could have ended up on the wrong end of a sexual harassment lawsuit. It’s happened over less severe things. I’m surprised they didn’t keep Mark away from Keisha after that.
Ohhh, I hope nothing TOO bad happens to Keisha…or Heather for that matter… However, when Amanda gets hers, I WILL laugh maniacally.
Go, Selkie! Talk some sense into that girl!