I got a couple things to mention today. The first is Comic Mix March Madness. I stumbled on this from some of the other webcomics I read, and I noticed a couple people in the comments section volunteered Selkie for a spot on the vote. I want to thank you for speaking up for me and getting me on the roster. Thanks! 😀 So far I am only 5900 votes away from the top spot! 😀
I also received two awesome new Fan Art submissions over the weekend. Courtesy of Anderhail:
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And The Merry Lurker:
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Thank you both! 😀
I may re-draw Barbara's pose in the second-to-last panel later. Really unhappy with it.
Gonna be an interesting dinner, heh heh heh
Here I’ve been thinking Todd will get in trouble over this at work (I believe he told his clients “I’ll have it to you by 5”), but now it looks like it’ll be beneficial…
i guess..i dont like Barbs ‘explanation’ of ‘You see she’s adopted’
it just rubs me the wrong way
Actually, this makes sense to me.
If I have a 5-year-old dog that I’ve raised from a puppy, it should be trained and well-behaved. If, however, I have a 5-year-old dog that snaps at company, I can very easily see myself saying, “Sorry about that. I just got her last week, and haven’t got her trained yet”. Just an automatic, unthinking, explanation of why the dog doesn’t behave like one would expect “my” dog would – “it’s not my fault”. Very human reaction.
The same way with kids, I believe. If she had had Heather from a baby (whether birth-child or adopted), she might be saying, “I have TRIED to raise her right. I have no idea WHY she would do such a thing (It’s not my fault)”. So I can see “We just adopted her last week (it’s not my fault)” coming out of her mouth without her even realizing what she said.
That’s not a great comparison. Dogs are very different from children. Anyone who has experience with both know this. Adoption is also not a great excuse for bad behavior. I know plenty of folks who were adopted who were more productive (as children and adults) than those who were raised by their birth parents. Now, the *adjustment* of being adopted would be okay. I am guessing that’s what Mrs. Fairweather meant, but while she may be a decent person, tact doesn’t seem to be her strength. She’s a new mom so I’m throwing her a bone. 🙂
For Heather to hear it, though, was bad. She wouldn’t be hearing “It’s not my fault”. She’d be hearing “adopted kids aren’t as good as normals”.
Agreed on both of your points.
yeah i agree with both points as well i just….ehh it just felt like she could have said something for the effect of your first point without saying what she did.
I dunno. It just comes across as “I’m really not used to dealing with this kind of stuff yet”.
I took it to mean ‘She’s gone through a major life change and things are still adjusting.’
Even though it’s positive, adoption does come with challenges.
Also, if they’ve only had her for a week, they didn’t really have the chance to get to know her well as a person yet.
If you’ve raised a kid from birth, (or even gotten to know them for a few years) you sort of know what to expect from them. You’re familiar with what makes them tick, what makes them angry, how they act out…. you get the idea. With Heather they haven’t had her long enough to figure that out yet. Heck, I’d venture to say they haven’t even seen her misbehave yet.
(Random note: Eee! Thanks for posting my Artz.)
Ah, there it is. The reason why I am not going to be a Heather’s parents fan. Not because they are bad people, just…not the kind that I would agree with or want to be around.
Kudos to the author for having a variety of person-types/social class types. It adds depth to the story and character interactions.
Also will make school/class interaction a bit….awkward I bet.
Oo! Carnivorous apologies are the best.
O,o
This should be interesting. Now I can’t wait to see how Selkie and Heather interact at dinner.
Well the next one will be intersting…..”I’m really sorry Barb, but I’m a vegetarian and Selkie has some….very specific dietary needs.”
“Steaks is fines, dads!” 🙂
Barb really has come across as a good parent. I can see Heather and Selkie becoming really good friends after all this.
Except for the “she’s behaving bad cause we just got her, and haven’t broken her in yet”.
I think you’re being a little too harsh on Barb. I interpreted it as “I’m a new parent and not used to children acting out yet.”
I interpreted that as ‘We’re still forming a family, and we’re all still adjusting.’ Especially when you consider that Heather’s adoption led to the current conflict with her friends, even though Barb doesn’t realize that.
In addition to what the others said, you´ll have to give Barb credit for not freaking out when she first saw Selkie. I mean, even Todd bit off a “What are you?” when he met her the first time.
I don’t think Barb’s even seen Selkie yet. I believe she’s been totally into “Heather, you are so dead” and “Oh no, Todd. This is not going to be good at work”, and the little blue girl (not blue – periwinkle. It’s prettier) hasn’t really clicked. I figure once Todd says “yes” or “no” to dinner, she’s gonna look down at Selkie and do a double-take.
Actually, just after I wrote the previous post I remembered that Barb has seen Selkie before, back at the orphanage – assuming the she was “blonde lady last week” that Selkie and Georgie talk about.
It will be interesting to see if Barb immediately makes the connection who Selkie is, or if she says “there´s a child just like yours at the orphanage”.
“There’s another one just like yours down at the orphanage” makes Selkie sound like a collectible figurine.
Asking if Selkie is adopted ls like asking Todd’s parents if HE was adopted. I am reminded of a comedian, Nury Vittachi, who adopted three Chinese orphans.
They were asked by the orphanage “Are you planning on telling the kids they’re adopted?”
Vittachi shot back, “No, we figure it’s obvious that when you mix an Ceylonese and a Caucasian you get Chinese kids, so we thought we’d keep it from them.”
They walked out of the orphanage talking about how they were going to need to get Chinese lessons so they would understand the kids when they started talking.
CM: I don’t know if I can see Heather and Selkie becoming FRIENDS, really, considering we still have meaning miss Amanda all up in this business, but I agree. She’s acting very parental.
I can’t help but think she’s just sucking up though… It might be my skepticism though. -.-”
Terah: Oh it sure will!
Wow, from liking Barb to mistrusting her in only five panels, and wanting to push her off a cliff in six.
“We just adopted her, don’t forget my husband is the son of the CEO of the company you work for, let’s just forget about all this”
I hope I’m wrong. But I think her maiden name might have been Stepford.
Dun-dun-dun-DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!
Selkie: MOAR STEAKS PLZ!!
Tee hee ^^
I don’t know, I don’t actually get a bad vibe off Barb in this. Yeah, she’s worried about how this will affect her family – that’s natural. As for talking about her husband being the CEO’s son, she’s actually being upfront and straightforward about her concerns; it didn’t come across as a threat, to me.
Barb strikes me as one of those people who has a tendency to open mouth, insert foot – and moreover, has at least a little self-awareness, based on the last strip or two. She apologizes and does seem quite genuinely sincere with the apologies, and is upset about what’s happened because stealing is wrong, not just because it could make things unpleasant at home. Bringing up the whole adopted angle was tactless, but I don’t think it was evil; this is, after all, a woman with no prior experience as a parent, thrust into a VERY awkward and unpleasant situation after just a couple of short weeks of being mom. She may be making mistakes – but they’re not evil mistakes.
And she did explicitly say that maybe her FAMILY can make it up to Todd’s. Heather’s in trouble, but it’s the kind of in trouble which means she is a part of the family.
I agree. She seems really open about wanting to make it up. Most people would either do a fake apology or blow them off entirely. I also get the sense she’s mentioning Heather being adopted to emphasize she’s adjusting—just not doing it very clearly as she should.
She also comes off, to me at least, “very blonde”, which is a shame, as the blondes are stupid joke has been done to death, really.
I’m kind of curious about this. What about her reads “dumb blonde” to you?
I cannot speak for Hanna, of course, but for me it was the contrast to Todd, what each of them did after dropping their kid off at school.
Todd said: “She´s a good kid.”
Barb said: “I can´t wait to facebook this.”
Todd is also blonde…
It’s more the way she blurts out things that you might want to think about a bit more – the “little thief”, here the “we’ve only had her for a little while”, her caring more about how this makes her CEO’s son of a husband look bad, than, say, Selkie’s feelings… She’s either “very blonde” or she’s grown up not needing to be careful of what she says, due to wealth/social status/both. The smartest thing I’ve seen her do was to keep Heather’s punishment existant, while still calming her worst fears.
This is very difficult to explain – it’s more of a gut feeling. And for the record, you can be clever without being wise, and you can be wise without being clever.
Selkie and her father eating with Heather and her parents…this can only spell good news. The girls will be forced to contend with each other for a while, and you just know they’ll end up talking. >:] Maybe they’ll understand each other better after this.
Today’s update has further increased my liking of Heather’s parents. XD
*deal with, not contend.
Sorry, bad word usage there…
I dunno…the vibe I’m getting is more like “oh-God-I’ll-do-anything-just-keep-this-quiet-and-don’t-screw-up-our-chance-to-get-ahead”.
Offering dinner is a nice thought, but since Selkie is the injured party it would be nice if the offer – and apology – were made to her. YMMV, natch.
While I don’t like Barb’s explanation, she is just worried about her family. Could she have worded it a bit better, yeah, but she’s a new mother and mistakes are bound to happen for a while.
Also, that dinner is going to be pretty interesting and I can’t wait to see it, haha 😀
New mother my foot. My mother adopted 3 kids and she still uses ‘they’re adopted’ to explain problem behavior – and she’s had them for several years now. Nor is she blonde. She has been known to wax eloquently upon the topic when we’d all prefer she just stuffed a sock in it.
Then again, she’s also been in an out of school routinely having to explain why my adopted sibs have severe learning problems to teachers who taught my five blood sibs.
Barb’s comment definitely makes this comic realistic, from my experience. Real people actually say stuff like that. Often with enough repetition to encourage listeners to bring socks.
I’m giving Barb’s “open mouth, insert foot” habits a bit of squinty-eye myself. On the other hand, as a parent myself, I am somewhat darkly amused at how parenting is a spectator sport. On the OTHER other hand, the theme of this is parents/family/kids, so it’s not like it’s coming out of nowhere!
Favorable spin on Barb’s words: “She’s stressed and is really a good kid. Be sympathetic to the POOR ADOPTED KID (and don’t hate us, augh).”
Unfavorable spin: “I have a hard time seeing other people as real unless I’m directly interacting with them; they are characters in the Book of Me. I want to smooth things over so my pretty little life is not disrupted.”
It will be interesting to see how/if Selkie reacts to Barb “I didn’t mean it like THAT!” Fairweather… >_>
Unrelated to what is going on… I just discovered this comic and read all of it tonight. Now its down to 2 per week 🙁
Selkie’s face in the last panel says, “I hate Heather, but I do like steak.”
I think you are being too judgmental. I know *lots* of people who would say that—and only one is blonde. Hey, I may even feel that way after adopting a kid and I’m a very dark brunette. Look at all the people who post newborn baby pics on their profiles literally from the hospital. Is it really that “blonde”?
To me, it just shows how excited she is, and it’s cute. She seems to keep it in check though when in “mom mode.” That’s not flaky at all! 🙂
That woman does not know how to put lipstick on.
I’ve seen worse, much worse, in real life.
Realize I can’t tell tone from a webcomic, but I didn’t nessesarily read her explaination as “she’s adopted, so she’s bad.” I saw that as “she’s adopted and we’re still trying to figure things out as a family after only a week together.” It was phrased poorly, but to me, she seemed frank with him about why she wanted to keep everything low key.
All I’m saying is I’m going to wait a few more pages before I judge her too harshly. Especially considering I come from parents who have judged me things in a much harsher way.
I agree that Heather’s parenting skills aren’t up to Todd’s, but she seems to have good intentions. To me, she comes across as someone who isn’t usually aware of her privileges but is genuinely contrite when she realizes she’s in the wrong.
Nor is she completely naive; offering someone food to make peace with them is a very effective tool. And I speak as someone who’s used it and been used by it 🙂
I wouldn’t expect Heather to be a good parent yet, she’s still a kid. She has a world of time to grow. Barb on the other hand is getting good training by jumping into the deep end of the pool with her daughter Heather. >:D
Dave> Um… I think Todd has gotten a little… cubic… lately in how you draw him. Looking back at a few of the other strips, he didn’t look that blocky before, did he?
I’ve been trying to make his jawline a little more defined, whereas previous installments he has a very round “babyface” chin. I may be making the corners a bit too sharp, though, now that I look at it again.