Sadly there’s actually an argument the Walkertons might appreciate Danny more than his actual parents. The Wilcoxes didn’t come off too well the last I remember.
“My kids didn’t turn out the way I hoped, which definitely has nothing to do with me. Meanwhile here are some kids I like who, weirdly enough, I had nothing to do with raising.”
well, she said ‘morning’. assuming it’s two days in a row, if i had had dinner with a partners’ parents even if they were more appealing than linda, i wouldn’t exactly be in a rush to have breakfast with them/deal with anyone before noon
Well…Sal’s first interaction with her mother this morning is to show she expects to be unwelcome if she isn’t Danny’s +1. One can see how that might be interpreted as “making a point.”
However it started, the problem between Sal and Linda now is that each one is carrying a big chip on her shoulder. They constantly set each other off. Nothing will improve until one of them decides to forget about scoring and do what it takes to win.
lol if anything it’d be ‘danny’s point’ if he decided not to show up unless they just assume sal told him not to do anything but you’d think ppl would understand if he’d have other plans already or so, or even sleeping in
Well, she’s not getting any younger, and as we get older our true colors amplify…..NPD Momma’s caring less and less about not coming off as a two-bit Karen…
I’m not just yet getting NPD, but we haven’t really seen much from Linda’s perspective, so who knows? I don’t see NPD until I see the craving for admiration, the existential terror around the possibility of being imperfect (and therefore awful). I just see a controlling parent who’s arrogant in the normal ways.
I think under specific circumstances it could make sense. Like what if your kid is just terrible, like objectively an asshole, but their partner was really cool. Like if I were Mary’s parent and she was dating someone awesome like almost any other named character in this comic I would want to hang out with them.
This. My incubator was a premium alpha bongo, and had custody. 🙄 My paternal grandmother was an absolute angel to put up with entertaining the person who mistreated her baby. But she did it. And I am eternally grateful for all that she did for me and my siblings. Thanks to her efforts, we had a real relationship with “Grandma”. My maternal grandmother also committed to us, but was older. She was as loving, but always felt a bit more formal. Dad’s mum was more fun and active. I didn’t learn till much later that they communicated with each other and collaborated to look out for our (the grandkids’) interests.
For my part (two bombed relationships, 1 kid each) I tried to maintain contact with the more reasonable set of ex in-laws. (The first in-law strait up hates me, their words) Sadly, my second ex is so actively hostile (police involvement) that her parents just said, in essence, “don’t call us, we’ll call you.” So I now live closer to one of my kids grandparents than their own daughter, but our kid still never sees them except if their mom goes. 🤷♂️
So I do what I can to be loving for my kids, with essentially zero support from their other families. All of this to say, that yes, it’s a beautiful ideal to see adults put children’s interests before their own issues, and I thought it would be … well, not easy, but do-able with my kids’ grandparents. I’ve seen it done. But evidently it takes a level of maturity less common than I once thought was typical.
There was a kimmy schmidt ep i’d think but unless tehy all worked together or were neighbors that’d run into each other often anyways most ppl wouldn’t rly invite their kids ex at least not right in front of them
My “cousin” had a husband who she was married to for a while and eventually they got a divorce. And it’s like that awkward thing where a lot of us still consider him family but also we don’t know if it’s appropriate to invite him to stuff anymore.
Nah, she’s remarried since and he sucks even more than her. Yeah, I’m not my cousin’s biggest fan; she’s the type of person who got kicked out of a volunteer role for being too mean to children, and everyone in the family who heard about it was like, “Yeah, makes sense.”
What would happen if you asked the “cousin” whether to invite her ex to familial things?
It does depend how Ask Culture vs Guess Culture y’all are, but in my Ask family, asking the blood-relative would clear things up in either direction.
(I have a brother’s ex who shouldn’t be invited, and an uncle’s ex / my lifelong aunt who should totally be invited. The fellows in question were helpfully clear about their different situations.)
guess it’d be up to the host, be polite to give the cousin a heads up but depending i’d think they might have an equal right to be there, unless it was a rly harsh divorce where they’d have to have one on one hangouts as opposed to someone being invited in some group/family backyard bbq or so
I am so glad you explained that. The quotes around “cousin” were driving me nuts with curiosity, but at the same time, it was obviously none of my business either.
Well there’s two reasons.
1. The age gap. I honestly didn’t realize we were “cousins” until it was explained. I spent most of my childhood thinking she was my auntie.
and
2. We’re not actually related by blood. My mom and my “Auntie” were just SUCH good friends in college that my mom slowly just got…integrated into the family. Nobody married each other. There’s literally nothing tying us together except “We like these people, so they’re our family”. We get invited to family reunions and everything!
I loved my ex’s family and wish I could still be invited to things with them, but part of not airing his business/ruining his reputation meant I let them think I was some flighty harpy just using him and going on my way. He got support when I left him and that’s what mattered to me then, I didn’t want him to suffer alone. But it does mess you up, losing people who were your family just because things broke down with you and the person they were blood related to. Really does make bonds seem capricious and shallow.
I suspect my family did that, but I can’t be sure. I divorced them well before the ex-wife, but they did manage to get my address and phone number shortly after the wife divorce when she’s the only one I shared those with (there was still some stuff-division to be done, or she most assuredly wouldn’t have had them either).
My husband’s uncle cheated on his first wife (with who would eventually be his second, and they’ve been happily married for decades), and my grandmother-in-law never, ever got over it. She dropped him like a hot potato and essentially took his ex in under her wing; we still see her around at family functions like weddings and things, but never him. She never speaks of him. She didn’t even invite him to his father’s funeral.
(It’s actually really, really weird. He’s a nice guy, and from what I gather the relationship with his first wife went sour and they were separated before the cheating happened. I’ve never seen such doggedly antisocial behaviour from the grandmother towards anyone else, either.)
I’d worry about an attempt at infanticide…..Especially if Linda’s prospects, that always were what mattered most with her, peaked years ago, because frankly, entitled shits like her with more ambition than irreplaceability have been in greater supply than in demand for decades….
I suppose that, with someone who seems determined to dislike you and disinclined to just walk away, the thing to do is to find the level of difficulty that’s easy for you but still effective.
Yeah, nothing says “good parenting” like accusing your kid of trying to make a “silly little point” when they attempt to spend time with you, yep yep yep
i’m sure some rebellious teens make silly points but seems like it’d be exhausting to deal with in young adulthood too, let alone ppl in their 40s who still live and bicker with their parents
but luckily sal is prolly the type to turn 21 and drive off and probably never talk to them again after this
My father was very much obsessed with the “making a point” narrative at least until my 30s. I was an introvert who mostly wanted to be left alone. Honestly, I don’t think even as a teen I was ever trying to “make a point” or “rebel” – I just wanted to be me, even if me was a bit of a weird person. I think people like my father have a hard time understanding that not everything revolves around them. Linda probably does…
Sometimes I wonder if walkyverse Linda was somehow a better parent than dumbing Linda. Even if we set aside the list of war crimes, she literally chose to swap babies at the hospital, so walky thought his twin was Beef for a while. so at least Sal had loving parents in that universe.
Oh I didn’t realize the spoiler HTML tag doesn’t work here, it works on disqus. Well, I meant to use it in case anyone here: a) hasn’t read it’s walky, b) plans to, and c) somehow cares about spoilers for something that’s 20 years old. So my bad on that front.
Sals words and expression are so casual and neutral up until being accused of making a “silly point” there’s really no reason for Linda to get so defensive except to deflect from answering the question.
In Linda’s sight, without White,
Sal quickly goes from
Golden Child to Scape Goat.
Oh, why bother Sal?
You know your mom will not change.
From her, it is the
Cup of Conditional Love
which runneth over.
That’s just Charles being Charles. His whole persona is being one of those guys who’ll put with, ignore, or passively support a wide range of s*** in the name of ‘a quiet life’. His suggestion that Walky choose Amber over Lucy fits as well. Linda would be less annoyed by Walky having an unsociable white girlfriend over a clearly adoring black girlfriend. So, in the name of a quiet life he’ll hint to Walky that Amber is the preferred choice.
‘Peace’ being a word that here means ‘Linda getting to do whatever she wants and everyone else going along with it.’ You know what would be actually peaceful? If he grew a spine and confronted her about her behaviour, so that either she stopped altogether or at least didn’t do it at her children.
he’s not getting ‘peace’ he’s giving SUBMISSION…which is not in any way the same as securing peace. Submission just leads to MORE infractions, not less.
Hmm.. that puts rather a dimmer tone on his advice to Walky. Personally I thought his point was valid, in as much as Amber has gone to great lengths for the people around her. Sure Lucy likes Walky, but he really doesn’t seem to be into her in the same way. More… along for the ride, as it were. And that is a life Charles has already lived. Yes the skin tone is an issue with Linda, but did that actually influence Chuck’s advice to his son? 🤷♂️
Exactly the way to handle it, I think: ask just that. Look puzzled. Keep asking until you get an answer. Look more puzzled (even if you anticipated this answer) and ask why you would think that way? Should be easy to look puzzled because the answer is probably quite illogical. Keep refusing to acknowledge that this makes sense. Don’t argue; just continue to ask for information and be still more puzzled when it is offered. None of this is rational — can’t fit it into my worldview at all. Are you sure?
Honestly if that thing with walky’s grades being altered and linda blowing up about it didn’t happen, i wonder if linda would’ve been upset/annoyed at danny for seemingly hating walky lol
To think Sal chose to see her parents over something cool like playing video games next to people not wearing pants. It would be easier for her too, her boyfriend has a Nintendo. She wouldn’t have to barter for a lease like a scrub.
i mean, assuming they don’t get into a huge fight ending in a storm off, sal might have a front row seat to walky putting his foot in his mouth and potentially dumping lucy in front of her after some confession about still having feelings for dorothy and/or amber, or lucy trying /too/ hard to get her parents to like her and maybe accidentally saying “walky was right you do dislike me becausei ‘m not white”
Oh. Oh I kinda hope that last one happens. I’d love to see what happens if/when Lucy actively calls them out to their faces. Cause I have no honest clue what would happen, and that’s exciting.
wouldn’t ‘mean girls’ have no issue about that as opposed to being passive agressive, even with parents. she didn’t rly have an issue about it with sarah tho i guess it’s easier to deal with someone your own age than someone that’s a “parent/adult, but i did say ‘ accidentally’ after all lol
They can’t even respect her to her face without her white boyfriend pres–
So Walky’s touched on the “if your roommate dies…” rumors. About the ones where you’re hit by traffic on-campus, what happens if your parents die in an accident on-campus?
When Sydney Yus absolutely has to, Sydney Yus goes by “they/them”. Otherwise, however, Sydney Yus goes by “Sydney Yus” and even refers to Sydney Yus as “Sydney Yus”.
Sydney using Final Atonement to wipe Linda off the map would be perfect in the Walkyverse, surely. I don’t remember their superpowers or if they had any from the bit of Shortpacked! I’ve read.
i’m sure her dad would’ve been cool with it, be nice if they had time to spend one on one without her mom or so (be interesting if they somehow got a divorce too but i don’t think it’s leading quite down that roadj ust yet unless something extreme happens)
Def sucks but what much more would danny and them even have to say to each other compared to last time, if not just fawning over danny the whole breakfast
Very nice. I hope you don’t mind me saying so but, for some reason Joyce reminds me of the kids in Peanuts (probably the body/head proportions and collared shirt) – I like it.
lmao i suppose you could look up ‘unique’ poses if you ever wanted to have more fun with it as opposed to sticking to something realistic (idk if anyone in the cast does yoga but other than carla inventing a machine for it i imagine it’d be tough. or an amizigirlr ‘upside down spiderman kiss’ with someone XD )
https://imgur.com/a/SBACXLz
Here. Compiled them all in one file. I drew this more than even I thought I did. Guess I just find the scenario really hot Fun.
eh, i wouldn’t mind throwing myself under the bus (tho 50/50 chance on it being accidental lol) and say something that’d make ppl think less of me/my friend/their kid look more ‘normal/stable’ in comparison lol
I know we’ve all been saying her parents are racist, but what if they’re not? What if they’re sexist instead. It would remove the irony of being in an interracial marriage from the equation.
Even more likely scenario. Maybe they just kinda suck.
I mean literally I doubt they’re not racist, the narrative seems pretty intentional with that description.
I mean, I think it’s a mix of both, commonly referred to as “misogynoir.” The behaviors Sal’s mom has a problem with falls into negative stereotypes about Black women specifically, which is why Billie gets a pass from Linda for a lot of the same shit.
We have Word of God on the racism thing, even before it became blatant, but it’s true that for a long time there was nothing in the text that proved it wasn’t just sexism (other than Charles’ comment on her hair looking better straight, which was ambiguous because it was the first instance, and Sal had had straight hair all the time until then, so it was possible that Charles was just being characteristically clumsy). Willis quite rightly told us at the time that maybe we should just listen to and believe Sal when she made the accusation, which is fair enough except that there hadn’t been any evidence for the reader that couldn’t also be explained by sexism (Linda choosing Walky to do the audition, being meaner to Sal when they were acting up in that scene, etc.).
Willis has since made up for that and been sure to make it very, very clear that they’re racist, though unaware of the fact. Which actually makes it doubly interesting because they’re both oblivious to their prejudice, so you’ve got a Black guy and a white woman both unconsciously reinforcing prejudices against themselves. (I mean, I can easily see Charles being all “Racism, what racism, I’m married to this hot high-achieving whitie, racism is definitely over [because it’s a lot easier for me to think that way]” and Linda being “How dare you talk abotu sexism, I have gone beyond that and also do you know how hard I had to work to go beyond that how dare you accuse me of being racist when I’ve fought so hard to break my own boundaries.” Though Linda is probably more of a Margaret Thatcher “Feminism is nonsense, you just need to tough it out” sort.)
The Walkertons are quite interesting because their flaws are pretty common and relateable to some extent. They’re not mustache twirling, kidnappers, they’re just arguably bad parents with real flaws. Their racism reads less like a malicious sense of superiority and more like the internalized racism many people struggle with everyday. Like asking if tall, black person plays basketball, or assuming a latin person is an illegal. That plus Linda being highly judgmental and Charles being a passive enabler of that really villifies them, but I think we all can probably think we knew or used to know that’s like them.
Disagree with the “arguably” part but otherwise 110%. They’re very realistic depictions of racism and I think that’s why there’s been resistance in the comment section to this day. It’s easier to accept that there’s something Definitely Wrong when it looks like Blaine or um… Insert First Name McIntire (Macintire??) And people like that do exist but it’s so much more common to see examples of bad parenting come from those who manage to look okay to their peers, who manage to mostly hide their gigantic waving red flags, who don’t look anywhere near as bad as they really are on the outside.
But when we have the victim saying “hey, it was bad and this is why” and people are still decrying it- well, that’s unfortunately true to life too.
The irony is intrinsic to this narrative of theirs. They are irony-poisoned, more or less a narrative tool of education to have the conversation of bias without slandering the character of the afflicted with words that basically mean “monster” to some hyperbolic people. Truth, meanwhile, is uglier, smaller. More granular.
Have little to add to Rabid Rabbit, or wack’d above them, but I’ll do what I can without being repetative as a writer myself, abit.
Unconscious biases. is so much like a stain or infection rather than a personal choice of bigotry, to some like these folks. Yet it takes so much pain and bluntness at some times, subtlety in another, to remedy such sicknesses of thought. As painful as it is, these fragmented thoughts of the elders and others hidden in the dusty corners of society are the bread and butter for the actual authoritarian kick to our current politics, which is built on organized hatred and contempt. Can’t have facismo without a grand enemy to focus the populism towards.
Yes, they obviously try not to see the race of people and like to think of themselves as the “good ones,” don’t we all, yet they fail to challenge themselves on the point of doing the same thing for nearish twenty years now with the same result, as if it will be different now. It doesn’t actually check out. They clearly don’t know what exactly they’re doing.
The narrative pivots on the irony in the classic sense, the audience and perhaps other characters see what they do not about their own lives. Their ignorance of a small thing is highlighted with lazer focus, and we see it actually is the key here. There are steps and processes for racism to develop into what we “see” it as its talked about in most media. Unconcious biases form the basis of every privilaged class as well as every organized, categorical hatred and bigotry.
Pattern recognition is a powerful tool in the wild, on the hunt and in foraging too, even agriculture, but the mental muscle gets bored in the urban jungle and you start to see the jesus in the toast-browning and all that. It’s bad enough when you actively and consciously give your whole life to the wrong pattern-lie, but what if your subconscious didn’t ask your permission to do it? All the time. We must all be mindful. And careful not to make mountains out of molehills, when they are in fact termite mounds instead. Yes, it IS small. Its too big already, and the house is going to LOOK itchy if you don’t HANDLE it. But its not like a continental clash is to blame. They are just termites. Be glad its not fire ants, but DO address them, calm and methodical and thorough.
Might just be 1am grak that means nothing, idle rambles freed of structure rather than given some. Hope I’m makin sense.
i mean it’s not mutually exclusive, intersectionality and all that, and sal clearly being treated unfairly in the past even before she robbed that convenience store
I’ve been operating for a while on the premise that it’s a big juicy mashup of racism and sexism. They have their racist stereotypes and their sexist stereotypes, and where those intersect works against Sal and… I hesitate to say for Walky, because it really doesn’t, but he does catch a lot less overt hostility than Sal.
Basically they wanted their children to be a strong, virile black man and a pretty little white girl, and instead they got a generically beige manchild and a strong, independent black woman. And thus the pressure on Walky to “live up to his potential”, and on Sal to be quieter and look whiter.
she seemed to favor walky well enough til she found out he was failing
tho i c an’t imagine that would’ve been the first time he’d ’cause trouble’ considering how much of a snarky/smart ass he turned out to be, unless they chalked that up to ‘boys will be boys’ or he never talked back to them, and anyone he ever roasted didn’t think it was annoying enough for it to be reported back
Or he was being ‘bullied’ by jen so no other ppl would rly targeting him (there was a throwaway line about ‘being shoved in lockers’ but that’d be more metaphorical probably if not outright deny/rewrite history because “a girl could never do that to me” or some thing like that with how he views his own masculinity or so)
Has Walky ever shown any signs of “a girl could never do that to me” style masculinity?
He’s got his issues with masculinity, but Sal’s his sister and he’s dated Amber, knowing full well she’s Amazi-Girl. He’s never hinted at a problem with not being the tough one.
Charles will always, 100% go to bat for his daughter … unless, of course, that involves any kind of conflict with Linda, in which case it’s time to activate the fading into the background powers.
I think that Charles discovered long ago that he isn’t going to accomplish anything by challenging Linda. Why cause strife when you know you’re gonna lose?
Your first argument seemed to be if Charles woulnt get a personal win it wasn’t worth sticking up for his kids, now your saying he’s doing nothing because Linda is so abusive she would makes things awful him and and Sal in retaliation? Then he needs to open his eyes that he’s not making things better for anyone by doing nothing and divorce asap nor pretend his daugther is the problem.
I’m really hoping Sal can find a sucessful career just so she can eventually sever this toxic relationship permanently. It’s impossible to mend a relationship with someone like Linda because there’s zero chance of holding herself accountable for anything which is why attempts at talking always end in some variant of ” why can’t you be mature about this?”
No, I’m really curious. It could be anything from “my boyfriend isn’t coming to lunch,” which is something Sal actually said, but it’s a reach to assume it’s some kind of point shes making, to “my parents don’t love me,” which is the obvious conclusion to draw from the context, but you’d have to be the biggest asshole of a parents to call that a “silly little point” if you were talking to a four year old whose points you think don’t matter, never mind an adult.
It could be literally anything, Linda’s goal here is to get Sal talking in order to gather material for making herself right about the “silly little point” post-hoc. 😒
It’s classic baiting tactic, much akin to that which Mary used against Carla😬 (TW: transphobia)
Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever told my kids that their points or arguments were silly or little. That’s rude and insulting. Given them a cuddle and said I thought they must be pretty tired and we’d have an early night (because they were being utterly ridiculous – but I would hear them out and acknowledge that they were genuinely very upset and assure them that THEY and THEIR FEELINGS matter to me), yes, but that’s addressing the underlying issues…
Mind, I have ended up with my eldest full on screaming at me in tears until I was crying because she wouldn’t stop because her brother and sister reminded me they’d asked for water so I got water for all of them and she hadn’t particularly wanted any so said “Oh” in a disappointed voice and when I asked what was wrong said she wasn’t thirsty, so I told her in that case not to drink it then and she thought I was being snitty rather than baffled as to what we were having this discussion for because I’ve never made them drink up all their water (encourage them to drink more if they have a cough or it’s really hot, yes. “No leaving the table til you finish your small cup of water”, no)… I still don’t know quite why she got so upset with me beyond “kid has anxiety and doesn’t need to mask with me so sometimes things spill out in confusing and messy ways”…
But yeah. Dismissing your kids is bad. Sometimes communication is hard.
“God, Sal. Implying I don’t love you on your own without a white boy attached to your elbow, ugh. What a silly little point to make of COURSE I love you, Sam.”
And Sal wasn’t even implying anything, Linda kept asking, Sal clarified it would only be her and Linda immediately jumps into passive aggressive stance. Makes me think she’s not as oblivious as she let’s on regarding how she treats her children.
It’s honestly so sad that Linda can’t even be bothered to be around Sal without her ‘good boy white boyfriend’ around. I’m pretty sure they didn’t talk about anything regarding Sal that existed outside of her relationship with Danny. Doesn’t Linda wanna know how Sal’s grades are doing? New hobbies? Maybe learn about her daughter’s roller derby and choir?
It’s just really sad. Why even have kids if you don’t even give a damn about them? Some people shouldn’t be parents. :/
Cheezus, Linda, hope you like losing touch with your kids after college.
Apparently family weekend is a PITA everywhere. It’s this week at ISU. The police in our town put up a FB post which reads in part:
“Did you know, ISU Family Weekend is always a busy weekend for NPD. The Normal Police understands that you are excited to see your family or student, but let this serve as a reminder that you can have fun while also being safe. The worst thing is being arrested for something avoidable in front of your parents or worse the whole family arrested or cited!”
I asked an admin friend and he said yes, this happens often enough to be worth putting up a reminder like this every family weekend. Wow.
The town is Normal, IL. And yeah, they’re pretty normal, drivin’ around in their fascist-lookin’ black SUVs and body armor. But it isn’t all bad. The mayor of the town recently told them “No armored car for you.”
In front of the police station, there’s a sculpture (3 mayors ago) of “The Normal Family“. A fully-abled, white family. In reality, with a state university, and significant Hindu, Japanese, Chinese, and African populations, the town is more diverse than that. Every election it seems to be struggling to weigh the past and the future.
Whelp, apparently the NPD was wrong about the “worst thing” being you or your family getting arrested during family weekend. This weekend a student was shot during a fight near campus. No word on the circumstances, though luckily they survived.
Jokes on all of us, Linda and Charles have a surprise for Danny they really want to give him. It’s a legal summons, they’re process servers now and he’s being sued.
Fuck off, Linda. You will never recognize that you doomed Marcie, and thus caused Sal’s desperation to get the power to help her back through whatever means necessary. You might as well have stabbed and arrested her yourself; and you will never accept this. Thus, you will never be forgiven.
“are you making one of your silly little points” no mother, this may be surprising but danny is a real boy and has a life outside of being your potential son-in-law.
Feels like making a point is the wrong word. Sal’s proving a point, in the true sense of the word. It’s a test, a second umpteenth chance. That’s why it’s up to Linda. Walky, however, did his shenanigans to make a point.
Checked on the Walkerton parents last appearance before this strip, immensely telling that Linda’s exact words when making plans to meet up again are “Can we see you again tomorrow?” (Emphasis on the “you” being in direct reference to Sal, not Sal-and-Danny), and this is how she reacts.
So Linda didn’t even explicitly invite Danny and is annoyed that her daughter took her at her word…Sal needs to go back to low contact asap, this passive aggressive manipulation is just wrecking her mental health.
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“sorry, he wasn’t aware ya adopted him”
Sadly there’s actually an argument the Walkertons might appreciate Danny more than his actual parents. The Wilcoxes didn’t come off too well the last I remember.
it’s probable Danny’s parents would appreciate Sal more, too… they should switch
Anyone else notice Linda looks a bit like a toe with a hangnail?
That seems to be a theme with DYW, villains resemble toes to some extent.
sal comes out for lunch with her family that she was clearly invited to and linda takes that fuckin personally i guess
Linda takes everything personally.
Linda hates her own children.
Hate is a bit strong. But she definitely doesn’t value the kids she has. She just is fixated on the kids she wanted.
“My kids didn’t turn out the way I hoped, which definitely has nothing to do with me. Meanwhile here are some kids I like who, weirdly enough, I had nothing to do with raising.”
They aren’t separate people, they are her status accessories.
well, she said ‘morning’. assuming it’s two days in a row, if i had had dinner with a partners’ parents even if they were more appealing than linda, i wouldn’t exactly be in a rush to have breakfast with them/deal with anyone before noon
When Linda inviter her kids to lunch, she only meant for one to show up, and Sal is not it.
Well…Sal’s first interaction with her mother this morning is to show she expects to be unwelcome if she isn’t Danny’s +1. One can see how that might be interpreted as “making a point.”
However it started, the problem between Sal and Linda now is that each one is carrying a big chip on her shoulder. They constantly set each other off. Nothing will improve until one of them decides to forget about scoring and do what it takes to win.
And probably the parent SHOULD be the one mature enough to do so.
Hey, look, Linda is still terrible!
Whew. Had me worried for no moments there
She had that line loaded
100%.
lol if anything it’d be ‘danny’s point’ if he decided not to show up unless they just assume sal told him not to do anything but you’d think ppl would understand if he’d have other plans already or so, or even sleeping in
I do wonder what if Sal proceeded with, “His parents died”* would Linda still be offended (very likely)
*or any other reasonable excuse
Oooof. I guess that answers Sal’s question about “did I really get my mom’s approval, or was that all you?”
Honestly feels like it came a bit too easy. Linda’s got no subtlety. She’s like the TF2 Sniper bot of microaggressions.
That is an insult to the noble TF2 Sniperbot. Nice shot mate!
thANKS for STANDIN STILL wanker
You got blood on my knife, mate.
And macroaggressions.
Don’t forget mediaggressions. A.k.a. being a plain old bongo (not censored).
Well, she’s not getting any younger, and as we get older our true colors amplify…..NPD Momma’s caring less and less about not coming off as a two-bit Karen…
I’m not just yet getting NPD, but we haven’t really seen much from Linda’s perspective, so who knows? I don’t see NPD until I see the craving for admiration, the existential terror around the possibility of being imperfect (and therefore awful). I just see a controlling parent who’s arrogant in the normal ways.
You don’t need to be subtle when you’re working toddlers. She’s been doing this to Sal for a long time.
That’s my thought as well. 🙁
Hey, I’m just waiting for the parents to drop the other shoe about why they are on campus at all.
Sounds to me like Sal had already answered that question. Hence her microagression.
You don’t know what that means, do you?
I actually prefer just hanging with just my child over them and their dweeb partner if I had kids.
I’ve seen couples break up and the parents remained friends with the ex and invited them over to stuff
Which wierds me the fuck out o.O
I think under specific circumstances it could make sense. Like what if your kid is just terrible, like objectively an asshole, but their partner was really cool. Like if I were Mary’s parent and she was dating someone awesome like almost any other named character in this comic I would want to hang out with them.
Another time it makes sense is if the break up/divorce was amicable
Also if the former couple has a child together.
This. My incubator was a premium alpha bongo, and had custody. 🙄 My paternal grandmother was an absolute angel to put up with entertaining the person who mistreated her baby. But she did it. And I am eternally grateful for all that she did for me and my siblings. Thanks to her efforts, we had a real relationship with “Grandma”. My maternal grandmother also committed to us, but was older. She was as loving, but always felt a bit more formal. Dad’s mum was more fun and active. I didn’t learn till much later that they communicated with each other and collaborated to look out for our (the grandkids’) interests.
For my part (two bombed relationships, 1 kid each) I tried to maintain contact with the more reasonable set of ex in-laws. (The first in-law strait up hates me, their words) Sadly, my second ex is so actively hostile (police involvement) that her parents just said, in essence, “don’t call us, we’ll call you.” So I now live closer to one of my kids grandparents than their own daughter, but our kid still never sees them except if their mom goes. 🤷♂️
So I do what I can to be loving for my kids, with essentially zero support from their other families. All of this to say, that yes, it’s a beautiful ideal to see adults put children’s interests before their own issues, and I thought it would be … well, not easy, but do-able with my kids’ grandparents. I’ve seen it done. But evidently it takes a level of maturity less common than I once thought was typical.
Kudos to you.
There was a kimmy schmidt ep i’d think but unless tehy all worked together or were neighbors that’d run into each other often anyways most ppl wouldn’t rly invite their kids ex at least not right in front of them
Depends on the relationship. People and circumstances differ. One size doesn’t fit all.
Enh, not all breakups are contentious.
This was my mom and my brothers’ exes. I love my brother’s but their girlfriends were way cooler than them, sometimes it just isn’t about that.
My “cousin” had a husband who she was married to for a while and eventually they got a divorce. And it’s like that awkward thing where a lot of us still consider him family but also we don’t know if it’s appropriate to invite him to stuff anymore.
Mu cousin got married and then divorced shortly after a number of years ago, and I still wish we could invite her ex to things instead of her.
Aw, that’s tough. At least your cousin has good taste in partners? Here’s hoping she’ll pick another cool likeable partner that you can hang out with.
Nah, she’s remarried since and he sucks even more than her. Yeah, I’m not my cousin’s biggest fan; she’s the type of person who got kicked out of a volunteer role for being too mean to children, and everyone in the family who heard about it was like, “Yeah, makes sense.”
Guess it’s better that nobody too cool/likeable had to be saddled with the meanie, then.
May they keep each other happy, and far away from you.
(And from children.)
Maybe you should invite her ex anyway. Or at least tell them they’re welcome.
What would happen if you asked the “cousin” whether to invite her ex to familial things?
It does depend how Ask Culture vs Guess Culture y’all are, but in my Ask family, asking the blood-relative would clear things up in either direction.
(I have a brother’s ex who shouldn’t be invited, and an uncle’s ex / my lifelong aunt who should totally be invited. The fellows in question were helpfully clear about their different situations.)
It’s not my place. She’s my cousin but she’s easily 20 years older. It’s more something my aunties and mom should ask, not me.
Makes sense. I hope they figure it out.
guess it’d be up to the host, be polite to give the cousin a heads up but depending i’d think they might have an equal right to be there, unless it was a rly harsh divorce where they’d have to have one on one hangouts as opposed to someone being invited in some group/family backyard bbq or so
I am so glad you explained that. The quotes around “cousin” were driving me nuts with curiosity, but at the same time, it was obviously none of my business either.
Well there’s two reasons.
1. The age gap. I honestly didn’t realize we were “cousins” until it was explained. I spent most of my childhood thinking she was my auntie.
and
2. We’re not actually related by blood. My mom and my “Auntie” were just SUCH good friends in college that my mom slowly just got…integrated into the family. Nobody married each other. There’s literally nothing tying us together except “We like these people, so they’re our family”. We get invited to family reunions and everything!
So cool and fun! Yay for chosen family. ^^
I loved my ex’s family and wish I could still be invited to things with them, but part of not airing his business/ruining his reputation meant I let them think I was some flighty harpy just using him and going on my way. He got support when I left him and that’s what mattered to me then, I didn’t want him to suffer alone. But it does mess you up, losing people who were your family just because things broke down with you and the person they were blood related to. Really does make bonds seem capricious and shallow.
I suspect my family did that, but I can’t be sure. I divorced them well before the ex-wife, but they did manage to get my address and phone number shortly after the wife divorce when she’s the only one I shared those with (there was still some stuff-division to be done, or she most assuredly wouldn’t have had them either).
My husband’s uncle cheated on his first wife (with who would eventually be his second, and they’ve been happily married for decades), and my grandmother-in-law never, ever got over it. She dropped him like a hot potato and essentially took his ex in under her wing; we still see her around at family functions like weddings and things, but never him. She never speaks of him. She didn’t even invite him to his father’s funeral.
(It’s actually really, really weird. He’s a nice guy, and from what I gather the relationship with his first wife went sour and they were separated before the cheating happened. I’ve never seen such doggedly antisocial behaviour from the grandmother towards anyone else, either.)
*TARGET ACQUIRED* 👁️
It’s Linda. 😠
Well at least the blood won’t show on Sal’s maroon jacket. Which is good because it is a very nice jacket and matricide is generally frowned upon.
Hehehe funny you mention matricide,
I was initially quoting the turrets from Portal 2, referencing the strip title,
“THERE YOU ARE”
I’d worry about an attempt at infanticide…..Especially if Linda’s prospects, that always were what mattered most with her, peaked years ago, because frankly, entitled shits like her with more ambition than irreplaceability have been in greater supply than in demand for decades….
Sal’s getting pretty good at treating her mom with the appropriate level of deference.
i’m sure linda would interpret it as her being ‘difficult’ , tho XP
I suppose that, with someone who seems determined to dislike you and disinclined to just walk away, the thing to do is to find the level of difficulty that’s easy for you but still effective.
Yeah, nothing says “good parenting” like accusing your kid of trying to make a “silly little point” when they attempt to spend time with you, yep yep yep
ffffff yeah.
i’m sure some rebellious teens make silly points but seems like it’d be exhausting to deal with in young adulthood too, let alone ppl in their 40s who still live and bicker with their parents
but luckily sal is prolly the type to turn 21 and drive off and probably never talk to them again after this
My father was very much obsessed with the “making a point” narrative at least until my 30s. I was an introvert who mostly wanted to be left alone. Honestly, I don’t think even as a teen I was ever trying to “make a point” or “rebel” – I just wanted to be me, even if me was a bit of a weird person. I think people like my father have a hard time understanding that not everything revolves around them. Linda probably does…
That’ll bring in the son and daughter in-laws with loaded parents, fancy degrees, and other status-worthy merits, yessiree!
Sometimes I wonder if walkyverse Linda was somehow a better parent than dumbing Linda. Even if we set aside the list of war crimes, she literally chose to swap babies at the hospital, so walky thought his twin was Beef for a while. so at least Sal had loving parents in that universe.
Oh I didn’t realize the spoiler HTML tag doesn’t work here, it works on disqus. Well, I meant to use it in case anyone here: a) hasn’t read it’s walky, b) plans to, and c) somehow cares about spoilers for something that’s 20 years old. So my bad on that front.
And by “A while,” we’re talking something like eighteen, nineteen years.
Sals words and expression are so casual and neutral up until being accused of making a “silly point” there’s really no reason for Linda to get so defensive except to deflect from answering the question.
But, but….What about with great perceived prestige comes great exemption from being held to the same ‘givens’ you strictly expect from others??
Heart sinks. Turns to stone. Nestles somewhere in the pit of the stomach.
In Linda’s sight, without White,
Sal quickly goes from
Golden Child to Scape Goat.
Oh, why bother Sal?
You know your mom will not change.
From her, it is the
Cup of Conditional Love
which runneth over.
😔
I love that metaphor.
Walky made 110% the right choice to spend his parents’ visit ignoring them and playing video games.
given Dina is also there, make that 10,000%
(fittingly i am working on a platform game with dinosaurs in it)
The way their faces DROPPED when they found out Danny wasn’t coming.
And yes, it is up to her and sadly we know what Linda’s gonna pick.
dad seemed maybe a bit neutral/blank faced, as opposed to disappointed or maybe an ‘uh oh this might be a thing depending on how badly they argue’
That’s just Charles being Charles. His whole persona is being one of those guys who’ll put with, ignore, or passively support a wide range of s*** in the name of ‘a quiet life’. His suggestion that Walky choose Amber over Lucy fits as well. Linda would be less annoyed by Walky having an unsociable white girlfriend over a clearly adoring black girlfriend. So, in the name of a quiet life he’ll hint to Walky that Amber is the preferred choice.
Professional Boat-Steadier
Yeah, how dare he value peace and long for harmony in his family? Doesn’t he see how wrong that is?
‘Peace’ being a word that here means ‘Linda getting to do whatever she wants and everyone else going along with it.’ You know what would be actually peaceful? If he grew a spine and confronted her about her behaviour, so that either she stopped altogether or at least didn’t do it at her children.
When the peace comes at the cost of his kids well being? Yeah, actually, how dare he, he IS wrong.
he’s not getting ‘peace’ he’s giving SUBMISSION…which is not in any way the same as securing peace. Submission just leads to MORE infractions, not less.
Hmm.. that puts rather a dimmer tone on his advice to Walky. Personally I thought his point was valid, in as much as Amber has gone to great lengths for the people around her. Sure Lucy likes Walky, but he really doesn’t seem to be into her in the same way. More… along for the ride, as it were. And that is a life Charles has already lived. Yes the skin tone is an issue with Linda, but did that actually influence Chuck’s advice to his son? 🤷♂️
Chuck is no Ward Cleaver. More like a Marge Simpson, actually.
I just think it would be really funny if Linda had a heart attack.
Seconded
Can’t have a heart attack if she doesn’t have a heart (or soul)
Then we can settle for the next best thing, her having a stroke (more probable than you think).
> her having a stroke.
I don’t know. Linda’s not really doing much for me, but if Yoto did a drawing of her rubbing off the Dean, maybe I’d change my tune.
I mean given that the history is disappointment and disapproval i think she’d build up an immunity to not be affected that way
Or if she shocked them by saying she and walky were dating but the story wouldn’t go down that route even as a joke (i’d hope) lol
Silly Sally.
Wishy-washy Walky.
Doting Dorothy.
Generous Jennifer.
Jumbled Joyce
Boisterous Becky
Diligent Dina
Sarcastic Sarah…
This is fun!
…Anyone else?
Mary-Jane’d Meredith!
Ridiculous Robin!!!
Foul Faz…
Jolly Jacob!!!!
Joetastic Joe.
Ragingly Ravenous-For-Control Raidah?
I would have gone with Repugnant Raidah, but that works too!
Cowardly Charles.
Litigious Linda.
Docile Danny.
Cool-as-fuck Carla
Fantastic Fuck Face,
“Are you making one of your silly little points?”
What point would that possibly be, Linda?
It’s…. incredibly telling if Linda is acknowledging exactly WHAT THE POINT IS.
Nah, Linda knows Sal thinks she’s racist.
What strip?
“Danny’s getting a new hat and needs to retune his ukelele, it’s gonna be a day trip for him”
Exactly the way to handle it, I think: ask just that. Look puzzled. Keep asking until you get an answer. Look more puzzled (even if you anticipated this answer) and ask why you would think that way? Should be easy to look puzzled because the answer is probably quite illogical. Keep refusing to acknowledge that this makes sense. Don’t argue; just continue to ask for information and be still more puzzled when it is offered. None of this is rational — can’t fit it into my worldview at all. Are you sure?
Honestly if that thing with walky’s grades being altered and linda blowing up about it didn’t happen, i wonder if linda would’ve been upset/annoyed at danny for seemingly hating walky lol
To think Sal chose to see her parents over something cool like playing video games next to people not wearing pants. It would be easier for her too, her boyfriend has a Nintendo. She wouldn’t have to barter for a lease like a scrub.
i mean, assuming they don’t get into a huge fight ending in a storm off, sal might have a front row seat to walky putting his foot in his mouth and potentially dumping lucy in front of her after some confession about still having feelings for dorothy and/or amber, or lucy trying /too/ hard to get her parents to like her and maybe accidentally saying “walky was right you do dislike me becausei ‘m not white”
Oh. Oh I kinda hope that last one happens. I’d love to see what happens if/when Lucy actively calls them out to their faces. Cause I have no honest clue what would happen, and that’s exciting.
Lucy is far too Mean Girl to call them out to their faces.
wouldn’t ‘mean girls’ have no issue about that as opposed to being passive agressive, even with parents. she didn’t rly have an issue about it with sarah tho i guess it’s easier to deal with someone your own age than someone that’s a “parent/adult, but i did say ‘ accidentally’ after all lol
They can’t even respect her to her face without her white boyfriend pres–
So Walky’s touched on the “if your roommate dies…” rumors. About the ones where you’re hit by traffic on-campus, what happens if your parents die in an accident on-campus?
Sydney can finally serve her true purpose.
“Sydney, NO!”
“The name’s Sydney Yus, actually”
Laugh track plays as he decapitates Linda
Sydney goes by they/them, I think?
When Sydney Yus absolutely has to, Sydney Yus goes by “they/them”. Otherwise, however, Sydney Yus goes by “Sydney Yus” and even refers to Sydney Yus as “Sydney Yus”.
Whoops, my bad. They haven’t been in for a while so I forgot
Oh, sorry, I goofed as well. That’s a perfect pun, though.
Sydney using Final Atonement to wipe Linda off the map would be perfect in the Walkyverse, surely. I don’t remember their superpowers or if they had any from the bit of Shortpacked! I’ve read.
you can probably get a medical withdrawal from the term for grief but that’s probably about it
i’m sure her dad would’ve been cool with it, be nice if they had time to spend one on one without her mom or so (be interesting if they somehow got a divorce too but i don’t think it’s leading quite down that roadj ust yet unless something extreme happens)
I like Sal’s new (?) red jacket!
Linda acting like Danny is Sal’s puppy and has to be attached to her at all times as if he doesn’t have his own life or friends, what a goddamn weirdo
“You gotta keep your man under lock and key. Like I do with Charles”
“I miss having friends”
“HUSH. The ladies are talking.”
Def sucks but what much more would danny and them even have to say to each other compared to last time, if not just fawning over danny the whole breakfast
https://imgur.com/a/WOjWMdv
Another of these. Sorry for being repetitive. I think the idea of Sarah trying to be seductive flipped a switch in me.
he’s no touching, that must count on something
No touchy! Nooo touchy! No touch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4uV3icrmw0
Very nice. I hope you don’t mind me saying so but, for some reason Joyce reminds me of the kids in Peanuts (probably the body/head proportions and collared shirt) – I like it.
You’re like the guy that keeps handing me gold dubloons and apologizes for being repetitive
“Sorry. I wish I had platinum…”
“Always with the gold pieces, never any silver or… It gets old.”
If this is repetitive, I think I missed some. This is adorably funny!
lmao i suppose you could look up ‘unique’ poses if you ever wanted to have more fun with it as opposed to sticking to something realistic (idk if anyone in the cast does yoga but other than carla inventing a machine for it i imagine it’d be tough. or an amizigirlr ‘upside down spiderman kiss’ with someone XD )
Poor Dorothy.
**gleeful claps**
Love it.
Also, I don’t think I saw the previous ones. I’ve not been as deep in the comments lately due to schedule, so…
https://imgur.com/a/SBACXLz
Here. Compiled them all in one file. I drew this more than even I thought I did. Guess I just find the scenario really
hotFun.Hahaha what a delight
See, that’s why I never, never can disarm myself with parents.
It’s just walking in a thin ice lake.
eh, i wouldn’t mind throwing myself under the bus (tho 50/50 chance on it being accidental lol) and say something that’d make ppl think less of me/my friend/their kid look more ‘normal/stable’ in comparison lol
I know we’ve all been saying her parents are racist, but what if they’re not? What if they’re sexist instead. It would remove the irony of being in an interracial marriage from the equation.
Even more likely scenario. Maybe they just kinda suck.
I mean literally I doubt they’re not racist, the narrative seems pretty intentional with that description.
What if they’re both and it’s more interesting that way?
They have intersectional implicit biases.
I mean, I think it’s a mix of both, commonly referred to as “misogynoir.” The behaviors Sal’s mom has a problem with falls into negative stereotypes about Black women specifically, which is why Billie gets a pass from Linda for a lot of the same shit.
We have Word of God on the racism thing, even before it became blatant, but it’s true that for a long time there was nothing in the text that proved it wasn’t just sexism (other than Charles’ comment on her hair looking better straight, which was ambiguous because it was the first instance, and Sal had had straight hair all the time until then, so it was possible that Charles was just being characteristically clumsy). Willis quite rightly told us at the time that maybe we should just listen to and believe Sal when she made the accusation, which is fair enough except that there hadn’t been any evidence for the reader that couldn’t also be explained by sexism (Linda choosing Walky to do the audition, being meaner to Sal when they were acting up in that scene, etc.).
Willis has since made up for that and been sure to make it very, very clear that they’re racist, though unaware of the fact. Which actually makes it doubly interesting because they’re both oblivious to their prejudice, so you’ve got a Black guy and a white woman both unconsciously reinforcing prejudices against themselves. (I mean, I can easily see Charles being all “Racism, what racism, I’m married to this hot high-achieving whitie, racism is definitely over [because it’s a lot easier for me to think that way]” and Linda being “How dare you talk abotu sexism, I have gone beyond that and also do you know how hard I had to work to go beyond that how dare you accuse me of being racist when I’ve fought so hard to break my own boundaries.” Though Linda is probably more of a Margaret Thatcher “Feminism is nonsense, you just need to tough it out” sort.)
WAIT. Willis has flat-out said they’re racist? I’m assuming he said this in real-life? Like in the comments?
I’m perplexed as to why people think they are not.
The Walkertons are quite interesting because their flaws are pretty common and relateable to some extent. They’re not mustache twirling, kidnappers, they’re just arguably bad parents with real flaws. Their racism reads less like a malicious sense of superiority and more like the internalized racism many people struggle with everyday. Like asking if tall, black person plays basketball, or assuming a latin person is an illegal. That plus Linda being highly judgmental and Charles being a passive enabler of that really villifies them, but I think we all can probably think we knew or used to know that’s like them.
Disagree with the “arguably” part but otherwise 110%. They’re very realistic depictions of racism and I think that’s why there’s been resistance in the comment section to this day. It’s easier to accept that there’s something Definitely Wrong when it looks like Blaine or um… Insert First Name McIntire (Macintire??) And people like that do exist but it’s so much more common to see examples of bad parenting come from those who manage to look okay to their peers, who manage to mostly hide their gigantic waving red flags, who don’t look anywhere near as bad as they really are on the outside.
But when we have the victim saying “hey, it was bad and this is why” and people are still decrying it- well, that’s unfortunately true to life too.
The irony is intrinsic to this narrative of theirs. They are irony-poisoned, more or less a narrative tool of education to have the conversation of bias without slandering the character of the afflicted with words that basically mean “monster” to some hyperbolic people. Truth, meanwhile, is uglier, smaller. More granular.
Have little to add to Rabid Rabbit, or wack’d above them, but I’ll do what I can without being repetative as a writer myself, abit.
Unconscious biases. is so much like a stain or infection rather than a personal choice of bigotry, to some like these folks. Yet it takes so much pain and bluntness at some times, subtlety in another, to remedy such sicknesses of thought. As painful as it is, these fragmented thoughts of the elders and others hidden in the dusty corners of society are the bread and butter for the actual authoritarian kick to our current politics, which is built on organized hatred and contempt. Can’t have facismo without a grand enemy to focus the populism towards.
Yes, they obviously try not to see the race of people and like to think of themselves as the “good ones,” don’t we all, yet they fail to challenge themselves on the point of doing the same thing for nearish twenty years now with the same result, as if it will be different now. It doesn’t actually check out. They clearly don’t know what exactly they’re doing.
The narrative pivots on the irony in the classic sense, the audience and perhaps other characters see what they do not about their own lives. Their ignorance of a small thing is highlighted with lazer focus, and we see it actually is the key here. There are steps and processes for racism to develop into what we “see” it as its talked about in most media. Unconcious biases form the basis of every privilaged class as well as every organized, categorical hatred and bigotry.
Pattern recognition is a powerful tool in the wild, on the hunt and in foraging too, even agriculture, but the mental muscle gets bored in the urban jungle and you start to see the jesus in the toast-browning and all that. It’s bad enough when you actively and consciously give your whole life to the wrong pattern-lie, but what if your subconscious didn’t ask your permission to do it? All the time. We must all be mindful. And careful not to make mountains out of molehills, when they are in fact termite mounds instead. Yes, it IS small. Its too big already, and the house is going to LOOK itchy if you don’t HANDLE it. But its not like a continental clash is to blame. They are just termites. Be glad its not fire ants, but DO address them, calm and methodical and thorough.
Might just be 1am grak that means nothing, idle rambles freed of structure rather than given some. Hope I’m makin sense.
i mean it’s not mutually exclusive, intersectionality and all that, and sal clearly being treated unfairly in the past even before she robbed that convenience store
I’ve been operating for a while on the premise that it’s a big juicy mashup of racism and sexism. They have their racist stereotypes and their sexist stereotypes, and where those intersect works against Sal and… I hesitate to say for Walky, because it really doesn’t, but he does catch a lot less overt hostility than Sal.
Basically they wanted their children to be a strong, virile black man and a pretty little white girl, and instead they got a generically beige manchild and a strong, independent black woman. And thus the pressure on Walky to “live up to his potential”, and on Sal to be quieter and look whiter.
Cool take. Both of the Walkerton children are swimming upstream against their parents expectations.
I’ve checked, and it turns out Linda’s a woman — irony levels remain stable.
linda is such a cartoon
*aide whispers in my ear*
this is a WHAT
Best comment so far today. Thanks!
How many microaggressions can you fit… into TEN ẞECONDS??
Oh goodie, we get to see more of Linda… and Charles… That’s great…
eh better than more of joyce’s mom, but we will have to see if it’ll lead to lucy and walky’s brekaup if not a strain on their relationship
Red vs Blue
Linda hates her children so much.
she seemed to favor walky well enough til she found out he was failing
tho i c an’t imagine that would’ve been the first time he’d ’cause trouble’ considering how much of a snarky/smart ass he turned out to be, unless they chalked that up to ‘boys will be boys’ or he never talked back to them, and anyone he ever roasted didn’t think it was annoying enough for it to be reported back
Or he was being ‘bullied’ by jen so no other ppl would rly targeting him (there was a throwaway line about ‘being shoved in lockers’ but that’d be more metaphorical probably if not outright deny/rewrite history because “a girl could never do that to me” or some thing like that with how he views his own masculinity or so)
Has Walky ever shown any signs of “a girl could never do that to me” style masculinity?
He’s got his issues with masculinity, but Sal’s his sister and he’s dated Amber, knowing full well she’s Amazi-Girl. He’s never hinted at a problem with not being the tough one.
Linda really can’t even see past her contempt for Sal for a second, can she? Jesus.
Linda takes her contempt for Sal as a personal affront.
Wait
I want a cool red leather motorcycle jacket like that.
can’t go wrong with a cool jacket lol
I still think Charles is an okay guy.
Charles will always, 100% go to bat for his daughter … unless, of course, that involves any kind of conflict with Linda, in which case it’s time to activate the fading into the background powers.
I think that Charles discovered long ago that he isn’t going to accomplish anything by challenging Linda. Why cause strife when you know you’re gonna lose?
So his kids would feel that they have atleast one parent whose openly on their side?
Because she’s treating your daughter like shit.
If I can’t win, I can still lose bigger. Maybe he doesn’t want that to splash on Sal.
It doesn’t have to be very plausible. Feeling powerless leads to strange thoughts.
Your first argument seemed to be if Charles woulnt get a personal win it wasn’t worth sticking up for his kids, now your saying he’s doing nothing because Linda is so abusive she would makes things awful him and and Sal in retaliation? Then he needs to open his eyes that he’s not making things better for anyone by doing nothing and divorce asap nor pretend his daugther is the problem.
Hot tip: calling your adult child’s choices “one of your silly little points” is a fast track to dying alone.
YUP. Infantilization like that is basically begging for permanent disconnection.
I’m really hoping Sal can find a sucessful career just so she can eventually sever this toxic relationship permanently. It’s impossible to mend a relationship with someone like Linda because there’s zero chance of holding herself accountable for anything which is why attempts at talking always end in some variant of ” why can’t you be mature about this?”
life’s too short not to make more lighthearted silly points for yourself or just to troll ppl for u know for the hell of it XD
What silly little point might that be, Linda?
No, I’m really curious. It could be anything from “my boyfriend isn’t coming to lunch,” which is something Sal actually said, but it’s a reach to assume it’s some kind of point shes making, to “my parents don’t love me,” which is the obvious conclusion to draw from the context, but you’d have to be the biggest asshole of a parents to call that a “silly little point” if you were talking to a four year old whose points you think don’t matter, never mind an adult.
It could be literally anything, Linda’s goal here is to get Sal talking in order to gather material for making herself right about the “silly little point” post-hoc. 😒
It’s classic baiting tactic, much akin to that which Mary used against Carla😬 (TW: transphobia)
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/wrong-2/
Ah yes, I forgot how badly I want to see Mary murdered
Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever told my kids that their points or arguments were silly or little. That’s rude and insulting. Given them a cuddle and said I thought they must be pretty tired and we’d have an early night (because they were being utterly ridiculous – but I would hear them out and acknowledge that they were genuinely very upset and assure them that THEY and THEIR FEELINGS matter to me), yes, but that’s addressing the underlying issues…
Mind, I have ended up with my eldest full on screaming at me in tears until I was crying because she wouldn’t stop because her brother and sister reminded me they’d asked for water so I got water for all of them and she hadn’t particularly wanted any so said “Oh” in a disappointed voice and when I asked what was wrong said she wasn’t thirsty, so I told her in that case not to drink it then and she thought I was being snitty rather than baffled as to what we were having this discussion for because I’ve never made them drink up all their water (encourage them to drink more if they have a cough or it’s really hot, yes. “No leaving the table til you finish your small cup of water”, no)… I still don’t know quite why she got so upset with me beyond “kid has anxiety and doesn’t need to mask with me so sometimes things spill out in confusing and messy ways”…
But yeah. Dismissing your kids is bad. Sometimes communication is hard.
“God, Sal. Implying I don’t love you on your own without a white boy attached to your elbow, ugh. What a silly little point to make of COURSE I love you, Sam.”
“It’s Sal.”
“Right, right. Gal.”
And Sal wasn’t even implying anything, Linda kept asking, Sal clarified it would only be her and Linda immediately jumps into passive aggressive stance. Makes me think she’s not as oblivious as she let’s on regarding how she treats her children.
My guess would be “I’m me, Mom, not you. I have my own life. And so does Danny. It’s not all about you.”
Fifteen seconds and already Linda’s cooling off. She’ll be back to baseline within the hour.
“Ya can ask him yourselves ’cause when ah looked for him he was busy playing games in his pajamas with his, er, girlfriend.”
“Was any of that an euphemism?”
“Not when ah saw it.”
Did you misread this as Linda asking about Walky, or has a lot happened in the Sal/Danny relationship that I missed?
I totally misread the name 😶
It’s honestly so sad that Linda can’t even be bothered to be around Sal without her ‘good boy white boyfriend’ around. I’m pretty sure they didn’t talk about anything regarding Sal that existed outside of her relationship with Danny. Doesn’t Linda wanna know how Sal’s grades are doing? New hobbies? Maybe learn about her daughter’s roller derby and choir?
It’s just really sad. Why even have kids if you don’t even give a damn about them? Some people shouldn’t be parents. :/
There are parents who say “my kids” as a statement of ownership. They only see them as extensions of themselves, not as separate individuals.
Oh man, I just want to give Sal a hug. Or a ginger shoulder pat with her full verbal consent. Some kind of comfort.
Sympathy via light physical contact.
Get her parents a ticket back to whatever hole they slithered from and a box of condoms and big bag of weed for her and Danny.
Cheezus, Linda, hope you like losing touch with your kids after college.
Apparently family weekend is a PITA everywhere. It’s this week at ISU. The police in our town put up a FB post which reads in part:
“Did you know, ISU Family Weekend is always a busy weekend for NPD. The Normal Police understands that you are excited to see your family or student, but let this serve as a reminder that you can have fun while also being safe. The worst thing is being arrested for something avoidable in front of your parents or worse the whole family arrested or cited!”
I asked an admin friend and he said yes, this happens often enough to be worth putting up a reminder like this every family weekend. Wow.
They call themselves the Normal Police?
The town is Normal, IL. And yeah, they’re pretty normal, drivin’ around in their fascist-lookin’ black SUVs and body armor. But it isn’t all bad. The mayor of the town recently told them “No armored car for you.”
Oh hey, that town had some significance in an episode of Supernatural.
In front of the police station, there’s a sculpture (3 mayors ago) of “The Normal Family“. A fully-abled, white family. In reality, with a state university, and significant Hindu, Japanese, Chinese, and African populations, the town is more diverse than that. Every election it seems to be struggling to weigh the past and the future.
And here I thought they were from the School of Education.
Well, kinda. The University is quite old, and was originally a teacher’s college. The town is named after it.
Whelp, apparently the NPD was wrong about the “worst thing” being you or your family getting arrested during family weekend. This weekend a student was shot during a fight near campus. No word on the circumstances, though luckily they survived.
Fuck.
Lazy edit. https://imgur.com/gallery/PYXZ6E8
OMGH, Linda’s face in the end is so perfect!!!
#HowItShouldHaveEnded
fuck you linda
Jokes on all of us, Linda and Charles have a surprise for Danny they really want to give him. It’s a legal summons, they’re process servers now and he’s being sued.
Glad we can all be on the same side again in hating Linda
If Walky doesn’t shape up and quick Linda might just try to adopt Danny and replace him… she’d definitely love to replace Sal.
Then Danny and Sal marry and…she’s baaaaack!
Fuck off, Linda. You will never recognize that you doomed Marcie, and thus caused Sal’s desperation to get the power to help her back through whatever means necessary. You might as well have stabbed and arrested her yourself; and you will never accept this. Thus, you will never be forgiven.
“You know, I was happy to pretend to be your mother again, but I had kind of hoped Danny was part of the package here vis-a-vis having-a-daughter.”
“are you making one of your silly little points” no mother, this may be surprising but danny is a real boy and has a life outside of being your potential son-in-law.
Feels like making a point is the wrong word. Sal’s proving a point, in the true sense of the word. It’s a test, a
secondumpteenth chance. That’s why it’s up to Linda. Walky, however, did his shenanigans to make a point.Checked on the Walkerton parents last appearance before this strip, immensely telling that Linda’s exact words when making plans to meet up again are “Can we see you again tomorrow?” (Emphasis on the “you” being in direct reference to Sal, not Sal-and-Danny), and this is how she reacts.
So Linda didn’t even explicitly invite Danny and is annoyed that her daughter took her at her word…Sal needs to go back to low contact asap, this passive aggressive manipulation is just wrecking her mental health.
yep, Sal wasn’t wrong about how her parents hanging around would probably ruin her weekend and possibly her month.