Eight year olds and awkward questions are kind of like peanut butter and jelly: fun yet sticky.
…I dunno what that’s supposed to mean. XD
Thought I'd try the old flat/vector background style again. Looks kind of awkward after all the drawn stuff in the last few pages. honestly. Also, I just realized I only drew one sheet of paper for three assessments... doh.
it measn we must now order pizza and breadsticks from out local food joints and um idk i forgot where i was going with this but ya lets eat pizza and laugh our evil laughs MWHAHAHAHAHAHA in fact EVIL LAUGHS FOR EVERYONE MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I wants an evil laugh!
So many layers, and I would like to know how a mother with a full time job as a teacher lost the kid to the father, that is very unlikely here in Australia. Mothers win custody battles more often then not unless there are drugs involved.
Here in the U.S., sometimes religion can also play in to it, believe it or not. It’s absurd, I know, but if they decide the parent’s religion might be harmful to the child’s growth and development, they’ll give custody to the parent with the “safe” religion. This typically happens when one parent practices Islamism or Judaism, while the other practices Christianity. And seeing as the teacher is apparently Islamic, well…let’s just say some very prejudice people hold a lot of power here.
Translation: There’s been a lot of scared idiots running around in America since 2001… Sad to say, both fear and idiocy breed really well together.
Men can get custody of children too, it does happen. I have a friend who recieved primary custody of his son after his divorce. Of course, said friend is significantly more responsible than his ex, but it does happen.
One of my middle school teachers was a divorced father with custody over his son, too… so, it happens.
Or if the parent signs custody to the other parent.
It is possible that, at the time custody was signed over, the father has the most stable and secure home for the child while the mother’s was, though loving, not as stable (she could have still been a student, or not sure when her next full time job would be).
If her child is still with her father it could be that 1) the child is stable/happy with her father and to have her change would be disruptive to her life. 2) there could be a bit of a custody battle where the father has the advantages. 3) it could be the child’s choice.
Wow I didn’t even consider religion. We have a lot of girls that wear the head scarfs when I was in school. I always thought they were very pretty. What a messed up world we live in.
Actually, in Islam, it’s preferred that in a divorce the child should go live with the father. It’s because Muslims believe that if the mother remarried, then the new father will not like the child because they’re aren’t his. Kind of like lions actually. I heard that if a new male lion takes over a pride, he kills all the offspring that belonged to the other leader of the pride. Anyway, that’s why it’s preferable for the child to live with the father. If the father remarried, then the mother might not mind the child as much. :/
Of course, not saying this WASN’T an act of prejudice, just wanted to mention the other possible religious aspects of divorces…
also it could be a type of custody that has the child spen x amount of time with the father and then rotates to the mother’s turn. these types of custody are not the most common now but saw a great deal of use a few years ago.
Probably good if they stop doing the back-n-forth as much. Knew a woman who had that kind of custody. She and her ex turned it into a new battlefield, and the kids were already going loopy from it. Not saying joint custody would always be that way, just that it’s a real danger.
Children over the age of 12 may actually choose who they want to live. I’m living with my dad, too.
And yet, your comment makes sense!
The rash seems to be missing again, thought I’d point that out.
It’s weird, if I don’t draw it in the pencil stage I forget entirely. Thanks for pointing it out.
You should have a big sign on your wall saying ‘DO NOT FORGET THE RASH’
XD
For a second there I didn’t realize he’d dropped the paper and I thought that, for some bizarre reason, Selkie had a tail that had never been mentioned before.
Thank goodness, It wasn’t just me. I was about to ask if Selkie had sprung a tail when I realized it was the dropped paper.
Yeah, I saw it as a tail too.
Guess that was four of us
Same.
Selkie with a tail would be epic though…
…then again, everything is more epic with a tail…
^_____^
I didn’t even notice. Maybe I should change my screenname to “Captain Oblivious” 😀
Dave> The assessments are all online. It’s a sheet of links, lol. But Selkie seems to hop around in each of the panels. Is this an attempt at nagging her dad to hurry up? I’m a little confused.
Only panel 6 seems off to me for Selkie.
Panel 1: Travel to classroom. Panel 2: Enter classroom. Panel 3: Going off screen while grownups talk. Panel 4: Seeing that reason for going off screen was to grab backpack. Panel 6: Move between grownups to stand near desk? It would seem more likely she would continue to stand in foreground. Panel 7: Directing her question at the teacher.
With my kids (especially my daughter), they would try to rush us, hoping we would forget something. That’s what I was thinking Selkie was trying to do.
“Oh? We forgot the math sheet? I guess I’ll have to try and make it up tomorrow… No! Don’t go back to the school! Traffic is terrible! Hey! Is that your friend over there?”
Anything to distract, avoid, or change the subject. 😉
Awkward questions are sadly a part of life, heh. And I laughed out loud at the ‘Changed my minds. I’ll bes a hobos’ line 😀
Heh, Panel 7 looks like Selkie grew a tail.
It just surprises me that they’re having her do the assessments at home. Every time I had to do one of those things in school, even elementary school, there was at least one, if not two extra people in the room to make sure we weren’t cheating and that we were following directions. If someone wasn’t there on test day, they got pulled out of class when they came back and had to take it in a different room with a proctor, they would never have given it as homework because there were too many ways to cheat, even before the internet was widespread.
Also, no one cares about grammar anymore.
Fortunately as a teacher I’m sure Ms. Afghani is used to these kind of questions.
I really think it was mean of the teacher to assign homework right after Selkie has been through such a traumatic event. Surely those tests could have been assigned as homework the next day, so she could focus on feeling better. Insensitive, much. I also wonder at the implications of the teacher not having custody; does she make less than her significant other? Did the child request to be with the other parent? It just doesn’t shine nicely beside the teacher pulling such an insensitive move on poor Selkie.
Eh, I dunno. I’d buy it. Public schools, at least where I grew up (incidentally, Oregon!) are all about teaching to the tests and the bottom line. If you don’t get all those tests in, and all by the deadline, there’s a lot of trouble. Although I guess it would be more likely for her to have to have the test proctored, but it’s not too much of a stretch that I wouldn’t buy it.
Does anyone remember where Selkie takes place? I’m trying to judge the distance between Ms. Afghani and her kid.
The comic takes place in Wisconsin.
I don’t think it’s all that insensitive. Just because there was some kind of incident, it doesn’t mean someone can get out of work. There were several incidents when I was a kid that involved some pretty bad bullying. No one stole my shirt, but at one point a kid did take a pair of scissors to my braids. Never got out of homework though it would have been appreciated. XD
Especially since these are specific educational placement assessments, I think it’s even more so that it couldn’t wait. They tend to have very strict deadlines, so it’s important the children complete them as soon as possible. (Though that’s here in Michigan and back when I was still living in New Jersey, I can’t say for Wisconsin’s practices). If it had been any other regular homework assignment, I guess I can sort of see your point…though I don’t necessarily agree.
I may have been half-asleep when I read this strip first, but for some reason the thought of “budding romance” between Todd and Mrs. Afkhami won’t leave my head. So I’m pretty sure I’m wrong on that end… XD
And believe me Selkie, I know doing homework and tests sucks after something traumatic. Unfortunately in my sophomore year, one of my friends passed away the week of final exams, and it was difficult for me to concentrate and get through my tests that week… I had to go back for a day after school ended to finish my English finals just so I wouldn’t be held back or wound up going to summer school again.
So yes, even if the situation sucks, school is important.
No, you’re not the only one.
I hear you about tests directly following trauma. Less than a month ago, I was informed that an English teacher I really liked had passed away less than five minutes before I had to take a biology exam. There is nos such thing as a good time to learn that someone you know has died, but right before a big test is one of the worse times. I couldn’t make myself double check my answers and I had trouble making myself stop crying long enough to drive home safely. I’ll be going to a memorial service for the teacher this Thursday.
Firstly, I also looked at the last panel and thought “Why does Selkie have a tail?”
Secondly, regarding custody, One of my good friends has had a shared custody arrangement with her ex. When they first split they were still living near one another and their daughter bounced back and forth on a regular basis depending on which parent had weekend plans etc. Both lived in the same school district so it wasn’t an issue. When she remarried and had to move out of state (military) they agreed to let him keep custody while she got visitations until she was back in the continental US. Once she was stateside again they swapped. Once their daughter hit the teen years they let her choose where she wanted to be.
It’s not always a matter of who “gets” custody. Sometimes it’s a matter of two adults being responsible, respectful of each other and acknowledging what’s best for the kid.
I really like the flat vector background, actually. The hand drawn ones are a little more intrusive, but these backgrounds behave exactly as background-y as they are supposed to.
Dropped page makes it look like last-panel Selkie has a tail.
Selkie seems to be jumping around this page alot doesn’t she? Probably really impatient to go, and curious at the same time. I LOVES HER SO MUCH ALREADY!
Yay, Oregon. I mean….sad face :(…. but yay! ^-^
Today, the comic made me smile, but the commentary made me laugh. ^_^
…I dunno what that’s supposed to mean either. XD