There, see how easy that was, Heather? (Granted, admitting you lied won’t always be that easy, and the things being lied about are going to get bigger and bigger, but a foundation of trust is being laid, and that will prove to be a very good thing as she gets older.)
This impending conversation may lead to other important, slightly tangential subjects, and I have a feeling that Heather may well come away with a much better idea of how to be a good friend and help Amanda during this transition period. Also a very good thing.
Okay, but it’s not your right to judge what promises are deemed ‘ok’ to break. You know practically jack sh*t about Amanda. Glad to see he’s acknowledged she has things that need to be worked out though and he’s got his priorities right with the whole ‘hitting is wrong regardless’ thing. Although I think he needs to address the fact that his daughter wronged another person even unintentionally and that it’s not right to break a promise unless there’s a good reason for it.
And there’s no way him nor Heather could foresee this as being the catalyst that finally gets people talking about the damn Sandersons so he can’t claim this was an ok promise to break. Please don’t teach Heather that betraying your friends is ok as long as you think it’s the right thing to do. Unless it’s life threatening or harmful to others, I think it’s wrong.
Or like, “Sorry I broke my promise to have lunch with you, my car got a flat tire and I was stranded without cell phone servics.”
Yeah, I think he spoke up a bit too quickly with regard to that — he needs to get more information. When a kid has guilt over an action, getting rid of that guilt without knowing WHY the guilt exists can be a long-term detriment.
There are times to break promises, and times to lie, and it is a big and complex topic to figure out what sort of guidelines there are for either of those. (Same with when violence is okay, though trying to wrap your head around the circumstances that make a thing okay might be easier with a physical thing like violence (“to defend yourself or another from violence, or in some cases to prevent greater violence from happening”) than with a nonphysical thing like lying.)
Well, in all fairness, he is still pretty new at the parenting thing, so it’s going to be as much a learning experience for the adults as it is the children. Todd and Andi are in the same position, so I’m guessing the next few comics are going to be enlightening for all concerned.
He KNOWS he needs to get more information. That’s why he said “we’re going to have to have a talk.” He’s being a very good father here: He’s doing what he can to make his little girl feel better while letting her know its not over, there will be more to come when he gets more information.
He doesn’t know the full context, but it’s still an important thing to say – if someone is hurting a friend, or a friend wants to hurt themselves, sometimes the best thing to do IS to go get help from someone else. That’s not exactly what was going on in that situation, but…
My biggest issue is he said he’s not mad about her breaking s promise, goes on to say hitting her was wrong and then that some promises are ok to break. It seems like he’s in no way reprimandin Heather at all. Heck, she even lied and he’s ignoring that. I think this is sending Heather the wrong message. He doesn’t need to be screaming at her, but he should be stern in letting her know lying about Amanda and hurting her by sharing a personal secret was wrong.
Heather did right by telling the truth, but now her dad needs to stop pretending like Heather didn’t do anything wrong and is an innocent victim here.
I really don’t even think it’s appropriate for him to just invite himself to follow them. His intentions might be to apologize, but this is a private, personal matter between parents that doesn’t need his involvement.
He means well, I guess. And he is pretty new to parenting himself, as some others have pointed out. That “we’ll talk later” could be the time when he digs into whether she should or shouldn’t have broken that promise to Amanda. I don’t think he knows enough at the moment to tell. Right now, he’s rewarding her with approval for telling the truth to him, and I think that’s a good starting move.
But, yeah, he wasn’t invited to that meeting across the street. His casual assumption that he and Heather will be welcome there just because Heather wants to make things right… He comes across as someone who has always been privileged and deferred to. What he and his family want is always going to be fine with everyone, or ought to be, because why wouldn’t it be, it’s always been that way. Basically a nice guy, but… just a little bit blinkered.
Hey, um… this community is important to me, and so you’re one of the groups I did want to notify: I just started my YouTube channel. Well, had it for a while, posted a video on Halloween, but a couple days ago I posted what I consider to be my first official video. I’m hoping to post regularly (I get distracted easily, so we’ll see how that goes), once I can figure out a better way to handle the acoustics (so much white noise… so much).
It’s taken me a while to push past the resistance to starting, and it’s been people like Dave, and Tailsteak (author of Leftover Soup), and Markiplier, to encourage me enough to actually make a go at it. And I really do appreciate that, Dave. I discuss it at some length in my video, that you really do need to be willing to make the bad stuff to become the kind of person who can make the good stuff (to develop the skills you need), and webcomics have been a big factor in giving me the courage to start.
So anyway, if anyone wants to see what I look like IRL, there’s a video for that now. It’s on YouTube, under my channel (Kilyle, same as I am just about anywhere online), and it’s called “Try, or Try Not (Sorry, Yoda)”.
Topics I touch on include my reasons for starting, my goals for the near future, the mechanical problems I had getting the video, the Markiplier fan game I’m working on, and the dye in my hair. Not in that order or emphasis.
Get a free video editing software like “Audacity” and use that to massage the sound to be much better. Plus there’s tons of info on how to use it out on the “Intarwebbez.” It doesn’t even matter what religion you use, PC, Mac, or Linux, or any **ix. Free download, free use, easy interface. What’s not to like?
Audio-editing skills are going to be a while in coming, partly because I am very busy with other things as well. But I did get Audacity, yes. It’s just that the first time I tried to follow directions and kill the white noise, the sound quality of my voice was horrific.
Just got ActivePresenter and MyPaint (I love MyPaint, glad I remembered to look it up again), which together record my writing (on my Bamboo Tablet) and my voice, so I can make any sort of written/drawn presentation I want. So excited! I’m gonna be giving lessons in Koine Greek if nothing else.
There are some promises that are always okay to break: Like the promise not to tell that you might have given to someone sexually molesting you. “Promise me you will never tell. It would kill your mother if she ever finds out.” Heather’s dad is right. There are some promises that should be broken as soon as you realise you have been entrapped.
Actually, he was so quick to come up with this response that it makes me wonder about his history. My respect for this character went up several notches today. His current empathy for Amanda’s situation is a remarkable turnaround from his “your kid is awful” attitude last week.
It happens, yes. But absolutism is a character flaw. A friend who won’t forgive any mistakes ever is a friend with issues of their own. You are pretty much guaranteed to lose them eventually. No real human being is perfectly trustworthy. Almost everyone is worthy of some trust.
The friends you really want are the ones who will accept you for who you are, limitations and all, while you do the same for them.
Oh thank heavens, a reasonable adult! I’m so glad to see Ken being open minded and empathetic of both Heather and Amanda without necessarily excusing either of them. He’s actually behaving like a person with sense!
Everything we’ve seen so far points to Ken being a good guy – even Todd’s working environment (remember the Klingon themed lunch?) – so even if we see something coming from Ken that we THINK is questionable we should give him the benefit of a doubt and ask ourselves if we’re seeing it right.
You ever read Leftover Soup? “Hey, Nicole, I don’t do sitcom plots. Your scarf’s here, it’s f*cked up, and it’s my fault.”
I also found Girl Genius interesting for this, because there are a few points where it’d be easy to let miscommunication screw up things between the main character and some people who care about her but are out of the loop — yet on those occasions, someone pops in to undo the miscommunication, and the drama springs from a different direction instead. I love it.
There, see how easy that was, Heather? (Granted, admitting you lied won’t always be that easy, and the things being lied about are going to get bigger and bigger, but a foundation of trust is being laid, and that will prove to be a very good thing as she gets older.)
This impending conversation may lead to other important, slightly tangential subjects, and I have a feeling that Heather may well come away with a much better idea of how to be a good friend and help Amanda during this transition period. Also a very good thing.
Okay, but it’s not your right to judge what promises are deemed ‘ok’ to break. You know practically jack sh*t about Amanda. Glad to see he’s acknowledged she has things that need to be worked out though and he’s got his priorities right with the whole ‘hitting is wrong regardless’ thing. Although I think he needs to address the fact that his daughter wronged another person even unintentionally and that it’s not right to break a promise unless there’s a good reason for it.
And there’s no way him nor Heather could foresee this as being the catalyst that finally gets people talking about the damn Sandersons so he can’t claim this was an ok promise to break. Please don’t teach Heather that betraying your friends is ok as long as you think it’s the right thing to do. Unless it’s life threatening or harmful to others, I think it’s wrong.
Or like, “Sorry I broke my promise to have lunch with you, my car got a flat tire and I was stranded without cell phone servics.”
Yeah, I think he spoke up a bit too quickly with regard to that — he needs to get more information. When a kid has guilt over an action, getting rid of that guilt without knowing WHY the guilt exists can be a long-term detriment.
There are times to break promises, and times to lie, and it is a big and complex topic to figure out what sort of guidelines there are for either of those. (Same with when violence is okay, though trying to wrap your head around the circumstances that make a thing okay might be easier with a physical thing like violence (“to defend yourself or another from violence, or in some cases to prevent greater violence from happening”) than with a nonphysical thing like lying.)
Well, in all fairness, he is still pretty new at the parenting thing, so it’s going to be as much a learning experience for the adults as it is the children. Todd and Andi are in the same position, so I’m guessing the next few comics are going to be enlightening for all concerned.
He KNOWS he needs to get more information. That’s why he said “we’re going to have to have a talk.” He’s being a very good father here: He’s doing what he can to make his little girl feel better while letting her know its not over, there will be more to come when he gets more information.
How do we know how quick it was? Dave doesn’t put time-stamps on his panels.
The quick part is from “Hey I broke a promise” to “Sometimes it’s okay to break a promise,” which is a single panel.
He doesn’t know the full context, but it’s still an important thing to say – if someone is hurting a friend, or a friend wants to hurt themselves, sometimes the best thing to do IS to go get help from someone else. That’s not exactly what was going on in that situation, but…
My biggest issue is he said he’s not mad about her breaking s promise, goes on to say hitting her was wrong and then that some promises are ok to break. It seems like he’s in no way reprimandin Heather at all. Heck, she even lied and he’s ignoring that. I think this is sending Heather the wrong message. He doesn’t need to be screaming at her, but he should be stern in letting her know lying about Amanda and hurting her by sharing a personal secret was wrong.
Heather did right by telling the truth, but now her dad needs to stop pretending like Heather didn’t do anything wrong and is an innocent victim here.
I really don’t even think it’s appropriate for him to just invite himself to follow them. His intentions might be to apologize, but this is a private, personal matter between parents that doesn’t need his involvement.
He means well, I guess. And he is pretty new to parenting himself, as some others have pointed out. That “we’ll talk later” could be the time when he digs into whether she should or shouldn’t have broken that promise to Amanda. I don’t think he knows enough at the moment to tell. Right now, he’s rewarding her with approval for telling the truth to him, and I think that’s a good starting move.
But, yeah, he wasn’t invited to that meeting across the street. His casual assumption that he and Heather will be welcome there just because Heather wants to make things right… He comes across as someone who has always been privileged and deferred to. What he and his family want is always going to be fine with everyone, or ought to be, because why wouldn’t it be, it’s always been that way. Basically a nice guy, but… just a little bit blinkered.
Hey, um… this community is important to me, and so you’re one of the groups I did want to notify: I just started my YouTube channel. Well, had it for a while, posted a video on Halloween, but a couple days ago I posted what I consider to be my first official video. I’m hoping to post regularly (I get distracted easily, so we’ll see how that goes), once I can figure out a better way to handle the acoustics (so much white noise… so much).
It’s taken me a while to push past the resistance to starting, and it’s been people like Dave, and Tailsteak (author of Leftover Soup), and Markiplier, to encourage me enough to actually make a go at it. And I really do appreciate that, Dave. I discuss it at some length in my video, that you really do need to be willing to make the bad stuff to become the kind of person who can make the good stuff (to develop the skills you need), and webcomics have been a big factor in giving me the courage to start.
So anyway, if anyone wants to see what I look like IRL, there’s a video for that now. It’s on YouTube, under my channel (Kilyle, same as I am just about anywhere online), and it’s called “Try, or Try Not (Sorry, Yoda)”.
Topics I touch on include my reasons for starting, my goals for the near future, the mechanical problems I had getting the video, the Markiplier fan game I’m working on, and the dye in my hair. Not in that order or emphasis.
Get a free video editing software like “Audacity” and use that to massage the sound to be much better. Plus there’s tons of info on how to use it out on the “Intarwebbez.” It doesn’t even matter what religion you use, PC, Mac, or Linux, or any **ix. Free download, free use, easy interface. What’s not to like?
Audio-editing skills are going to be a while in coming, partly because I am very busy with other things as well. But I did get Audacity, yes. It’s just that the first time I tried to follow directions and kill the white noise, the sound quality of my voice was horrific.
Just got ActivePresenter and MyPaint (I love MyPaint, glad I remembered to look it up again), which together record my writing (on my Bamboo Tablet) and my voice, so I can make any sort of written/drawn presentation I want. So excited! I’m gonna be giving lessons in Koine Greek if nothing else.
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There are some promises that are always okay to break: Like the promise not to tell that you might have given to someone sexually molesting you. “Promise me you will never tell. It would kill your mother if she ever finds out.” Heather’s dad is right. There are some promises that should be broken as soon as you realise you have been entrapped.
Actually, he was so quick to come up with this response that it makes me wonder about his history. My respect for this character went up several notches today. His current empathy for Amanda’s situation is a remarkable turnaround from his “your kid is awful” attitude last week.
How do we know how quick it was? Dave doesn’t put time-stamps on his panels.
Good on Heather for coming clean and good on dad for not making a big deal out of it.
But… losing a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend!
FOREVERRRRR!
Amanda was never a friend. Friendship goes both ways.
It happens, yes. But absolutism is a character flaw. A friend who won’t forgive any mistakes ever is a friend with issues of their own. You are pretty much guaranteed to lose them eventually. No real human being is perfectly trustworthy. Almost everyone is worthy of some trust.
The friends you really want are the ones who will accept you for who you are, limitations and all, while you do the same for them.
Sorry. This was supposed to be a reply to Nyerguds, above.
Oh thank heavens, a reasonable adult! I’m so glad to see Ken being open minded and empathetic of both Heather and Amanda without necessarily excusing either of them. He’s actually behaving like a person with sense!
Everything we’ve seen so far points to Ken being a good guy – even Todd’s working environment (remember the Klingon themed lunch?) – so even if we see something coming from Ken that we THINK is questionable we should give him the benefit of a doubt and ask ourselves if we’re seeing it right.
It’s good to see people behaving like real people instead of manufactured drama for the sake of drama.
You ever read Leftover Soup? “Hey, Nicole, I don’t do sitcom plots. Your scarf’s here, it’s f*cked up, and it’s my fault.”
I also found Girl Genius interesting for this, because there are a few points where it’d be easy to let miscommunication screw up things between the main character and some people who care about her but are out of the loop — yet on those occasions, someone pops in to undo the miscommunication, and the drama springs from a different direction instead. I love it.