Well, she DID say to make her.
Also, I’ve submitted Selkie for consideration in Comic Chamelon. If you would like to see Selkie become a part of the app, requesting it’s inclusion would go a long way towards helping that. Thank you!
Excised a two-to-three panel sequence of Todd methodically and deliberately unbuckling Selkie's seatbelt for brevity's sake.
No, Selkie. That is not the correct answer.
I see Selkie has reached the “testing boundaries” stage. Good for Todd. That’s a great response on all fronts.
Unless you’re dealing with a (technically) adult woman showing the exact same degree of maturity. Strangers call the police and report that they saw a guy “beating the shit out of some poor girl”. When they arrive you’ll be bleeding because you employed Force (no more or less than what’s on this comic page) and she responded with Violence. She will lie blatantly to the cops about what happened, despite that her version of the story has nothing to support it and changed details twice in the telling. They will nonetheless decide to believe her story and chauffeur her home, wish her a good night. They will take you somewhere else entirely. What they wish upon you is best not mentioned.
“Equality” …right.
…I may have a bit of a personal chip on my shoulder on this issue. Doesn’t make me wrong about it.
Um.
There is a small difference between an ADULT and a CHILD.
Todd is required to manage Selkie’s behavior. He cannot let her sit in the car by herself, and he can’t let her go home by herself. She is literally incapable of taking care of herself because of her age.
No, you’re not supposed to manhandle an adult woman this way. I’m not sure why I’m even saying this. Like… adults? children? different?
I do not consider it unreasonable to eject a drunk who is throwing kicks at the head of the driver of a moving car, by minimum required force if she refuses to get out, or tries to jump back in before you can close and lock the door. I do not consider it “manhandling” to overbalance a person who just threw a punch straight at my face, with the intent that she not be able to continue throwing more punches at my face until she stands back up again (by which point, I hoped to be back in my car.)
MANY things about that situation did not go as they were “supposed to”. I stand by my decisions.
I like this side of Selkie. It shows us the kid in her.
She’s not used to formal settings, hence her outburst in the restaurant. She was obviously /already/ worked up and had an amazing amount of energy and nothing but homework or “boring adult things” to concentrate on. Being all worked up made her react more severely to being told she looked sick, and when Todd gave her a mundane task to do she was much less apt to finish it than pretend to work on it and try to move on the the more exciting things. Just because a child refuses to do their homework occasionally and gets a little worked up in public doesn’t automatically mean they’re spoiled. This is a teaching experience, and Todd is doing everything right.
He scolded her at the restaurant, and when she did not correct her behavior (since she didn’t think she was doing anything wrong and she really doesn’t know /why/ he got so frustrated with her, just that he did and she doesn’t think she deserves it) she’ll get an adequate punishment and the next time they go to a restaurant hopefully it will be under better circumstances.
She’s a kid with a lot of energy. It’s cute but occasionally misguided. 🙂
+1 for Amazing Accurate Analysis
Well, all that and being at an orphanage for the last 4-5 years (I forget exactly how long), she hasn’t had the opportunity to use the “make me” line on a parent for the first time yet.
At some point, every child will forget, for a brief moment, that their parents are twice their size and many times stronger and can easily “make them” do anything they want. Selkie is a late bloomer in this regard. 🙂
I had a friend. Her daughter was a little brat on the highest level of bratness. Never listened to her and disrespected her mom all the time. She was ignoring her mom’s requests to come in so she asked me to get her daughter.
I walked up and told her time to go inside kiddo. She told me no, I couldn’t make her. I said this was my last warning, to come in nicely or I was going to shut things down. She stuck her tongue out at me and practically shouted no. So I hoisted her onto my shoulder and picked her bike up with my free hand and walked back to her home with her while advising her that she should treat people five times larger than her with respect including her mom.
Now as an adult, she’s the exact opposite of a little f’n brat.
Of course, you should also keep in mind that she lost that pink bow which obviously was inhibiting her in some way.
Seemed more like it was tracking her.
Perhaps the fact it was separated triggered a gradual increase in the flight/fight response and since she isn’t able to flee from the situations today she is reacting with confrontation.
I think it was both.
You have chosen … poorly.
(For the life of me, I have no idea what I just referenced there.)
One of the indiana Jones movies I think, or how I met your mother?
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It’s a good movie; you should see it.
He did the correct thing…he is the adult and she the child. I would have done the same thing myself.
I agree that he did the right thing, and would do the same myself, but that phase “I’m the adult/parent, you are the child” has always rubbed me the wrong way. It has been used on me in my childhood as a way to say “I have all the power here, you are powerless, your opinions/feelings don’t matter”
I’ve watched children professionally and it’s more, “I’m responsible for you and it doesn’t matter if you feel like it going with me or not.”
Children are just beginning to get a real feel about themselves that they can’t have a real grasp about how their actions affect other people, they only process it from a third party when it affects them back. In this case, he can’t leave her alone, she wants to be, but he can’t. She’s probably used to seeking isolation because of the way she was treated by the other kids at the orphanage, but in the orphanage she was never actually alone so she right now can’t understand the risks that bring both to herself and Todd.
When I was a kid, if I tried to argue with my mother, even try to barter or something, she would ask “The correct response is….?” and if my sister and I didn’t respond with “Yes, Mother.”, it would become a very bad day. To this day, my mother still says it to me and my sister and we even use it on our own kids.
Hope to see your comic on Comic Chameleon real soon! I already sent my Tweet!
it’s good practice to debate and argue with a parent. I’m curious, how would you rate your debating skills/ willingness to argue with authority?
Careful. I called that bluff once myself, on a very drunk and belligerent girl who probably could have benefitted from a 20 minute walk home in the cool air to sober up and consider the ramifications of kicking the back of the driver’s seat while in motion.
After dragging her out of the car, she took several uncoordinated swings at my head. People who witnessing me dodging wild punches called the police and reported “some guy beating up girl on the roadside”. The police decided that the angry yelling girl without a scratch on her got a free ride home, and the calm, composed, completely sober, but slightly bleeding man had to find somewhere else to sleep that night.
“Feminism” has done a lot more to shape our cultures in the last three or four decades than actual Feminism.