Thank god I never had any crappy babysitter. I enjoyed the few I had.
Although, I had to put up with daycare. The field trips could be fun sometimes, but I had almost no friends there, and the few I did have didn’t attend as often as I did. :S
Pretty much every family in my neighborhood had Mrs. Nielsen as their nanny at one point or another. Mrs. Nielsen was quite a control freak. She’d force the kids to take naps, although at least it was in their own home, but if they ever got up to get a drink of water or whatever they’d get yelled at with the fury of a thousand suns.
One kid down the street had been diagnosed with asthma, and so the mom instructed Mrs. Nielsen to not let him run around too much so he didn’t get an asthma attack. Her way of following that instruction was to TIE HIM TO THE CHAIR.
The really weird thing was that even with a track record of stuff like that (and a lot of other weird/crazy/mean stuff she did) she was actually beloved by everyone in the neighborhood, including the kids she watched after. I guess she was a neighborhood rite of passage or something.
I think there’s a narrative problem with this comic. Instead of “old guy remembering things” you should go with “kid experiencing things”. Think how tiresome Calvin & Hobbes would be if it was accompanied by “Old Calvin” narration.
This ‘flawed narrative’ has produced 2 years of very sweet, nostalgic comics. Why change it now?
Plus, I don’t think Gabe’s aim is to ape Bill Watterson.
I welcome all criticism, any opinion of a reader is valuable, good or bad.
I do have some strips without “narration” actually. The reason I use the marathon is because it adds a layer of reflection that Calvin and Hobbes didn’t have. I also have more storytelling devices that can utilize saying one thing and showing something different.
Think of it more like the Wonder Years.
Oh, and gunk you for comparing me to Calvin and Hobbes, it’s quite an honor :)
Also Calvin wasn’t Watterson’s reminiscences of childhood, he was a fictional character that was experiencing the world in his own unique way. It’s like complaining about Tetris because the song selection isn’t very good for a rhythm game, or something.
Mine made me suck on soap whenever she was annoyed. When she ran outta that, it was a mouthful of dishwashing liquid. The parents ditched her in a hurry when they found out.
Crummy babysitters are no fun every once in a while, but EVERY DAY? :( Man. I hope you managed to smuggle in a flashlight and some comics occasionally.
My father thought that children should have afternoon naps as well. It was just something that people from that generation seemed to think was good for children, I suppose. I rebelled at age 4 – he was a stay at home dad, and we had a very big backyard. All I had to do was keep him from catching me, and I never had to lay in bed at 4 pm ever again. On top of that, my bedroom didn’t have a door due to our house layout – no way to keep me in my room!
I had figured out how to get out of naps…and then came kindergarten.
I had some fairly bad babysitters… but I mostly had a super awesome babysitter than I really really liked.
… She hung herself with metal wire and wrote a letter that she didin’t want her own parents to be at the funerals. I learnt that before going to bed when my parents called her to come the next day… I never forgot the nightmares that night.
Ah dude, I had TERRIBLE babysitters, I know this feeling. My first babysitter would literally just lock me in an empty room all day. I’m serious, the room was -completely- empty. It was 4 walls, carpet, and a ceiling.
The real story? I do need to do another on this topic. There were some interesting social dynamics happening there. Kids would split off and rebel, misbehave, hide. There was always that time when the bad kids’ parents would come pick them up too…
The real story is that to keep from dying of boredom my 4 year old self thought it was a good idea to rub my forehead on the carpet and pretend I was a race car. I got a giant scab on my forehead.
My Mom was pretty busy back when I was a kid. We’d have to get up at 5AM and go to a Daycare until 6:45, then a bus would pick us up and take us to school. After school the bus would take us home, where our Mother would arrive almost exactly the same time from her first job and bring us to a baby sitter while she went to her next job.
The baby sitter was a bitch and treated us like crap. She acted like she had too much on her plate with her own kids. I never understood why she would even accept a job to watch more kids when you couldn’t even handle your own. Anyways, after she gave my sister a smack I told my Mom and that ended that. Afterwards we would get babysat by Grandma, who was further out of the way. By the time I was 10 or so we got to stay home alone.
Wow! You had an epic babysitter saga! I went to 3 different babysitters’, but never at the same time.
Wasn’t it great when your parents told you you were I was old enough to stay home? Didn’t it feel really liberating, or like you accomplished something (even though we were just growing older)?
And you did!
Err… DID never forget this.
I fail the english language. I’m going to bed.
Don’t worry Kyle, we all spells good.
Thank god I never had any crappy babysitter. I enjoyed the few I had.
Although, I had to put up with daycare. The field trips could be fun sometimes, but I had almost no friends there, and the few I did have didn’t attend as often as I did. :S
Pretty much every family in my neighborhood had Mrs. Nielsen as their nanny at one point or another. Mrs. Nielsen was quite a control freak. She’d force the kids to take naps, although at least it was in their own home, but if they ever got up to get a drink of water or whatever they’d get yelled at with the fury of a thousand suns.
One kid down the street had been diagnosed with asthma, and so the mom instructed Mrs. Nielsen to not let him run around too much so he didn’t get an asthma attack. Her way of following that instruction was to TIE HIM TO THE CHAIR.
Mrs. Nielsen was a crazy lady.
Yikes! That same thing happened but with a teacher in my school! I don’t know which is worse.
The really weird thing was that even with a track record of stuff like that (and a lot of other weird/crazy/mean stuff she did) she was actually beloved by everyone in the neighborhood, including the kids she watched after. I guess she was a neighborhood rite of passage or something.
Maybe it was a rite of passage.
I don’t think I’ve ever been babysat at a random persons house. It was always one of my relatives or something…. lol
I think there’s a narrative problem with this comic. Instead of “old guy remembering things” you should go with “kid experiencing things”. Think how tiresome Calvin & Hobbes would be if it was accompanied by “Old Calvin” narration.
This ‘flawed narrative’ has produced 2 years of very sweet, nostalgic comics. Why change it now?
Plus, I don’t think Gabe’s aim is to ape Bill Watterson.
I welcome all criticism, any opinion of a reader is valuable, good or bad.
I do have some strips without “narration” actually. The reason I use the marathon is because it adds a layer of reflection that Calvin and Hobbes didn’t have. I also have more storytelling devices that can utilize saying one thing and showing something different.
Think of it more like the Wonder Years.
Oh, and gunk you for comparing me to Calvin and Hobbes, it’s quite an honor :)
Also Calvin wasn’t Watterson’s reminiscences of childhood, he was a fictional character that was experiencing the world in his own unique way. It’s like complaining about Tetris because the song selection isn’t very good for a rhythm game, or something.
dayum some people who comment on this site are rude.
Never forget.
And you never did forget. Strange times, crazy times!
Love this comic!
Mine made me suck on soap whenever she was annoyed. When she ran outta that, it was a mouthful of dishwashing liquid. The parents ditched her in a hurry when they found out.
That’s horrible. I wonder what would happen to a babysitter who did that now…
Crummy babysitters are no fun every once in a while, but EVERY DAY? :( Man. I hope you managed to smuggle in a flashlight and some comics occasionally.
My father thought that children should have afternoon naps as well. It was just something that people from that generation seemed to think was good for children, I suppose. I rebelled at age 4 – he was a stay at home dad, and we had a very big backyard. All I had to do was keep him from catching me, and I never had to lay in bed at 4 pm ever again. On top of that, my bedroom didn’t have a door due to our house layout – no way to keep me in my room!
I had figured out how to get out of naps…and then came kindergarten.
Wow, you are a smart kid, I guess I felt like I needed to do as I was told. That rebellious spirit kicked in later.
I had some fairly bad babysitters… but I mostly had a super awesome babysitter than I really really liked.
… She hung herself with metal wire and wrote a letter that she didin’t want her own parents to be at the funerals. I learnt that before going to bed when my parents called her to come the next day… I never forgot the nightmares that night.
Ah dude, I had TERRIBLE babysitters, I know this feeling. My first babysitter would literally just lock me in an empty room all day. I’m serious, the room was -completely- empty. It was 4 walls, carpet, and a ceiling.
That is horrible. It’s even worse than school!
You should do another comic contest about this topic, the real story would totally win!
The real story? I do need to do another on this topic. There were some interesting social dynamics happening there. Kids would split off and rebel, misbehave, hide. There was always that time when the bad kids’ parents would come pick them up too…
This may make me seem crazy.
The real story is that to keep from dying of boredom my 4 year old self thought it was a good idea to rub my forehead on the carpet and pretend I was a race car. I got a giant scab on my forehead.
Yep, but we all did stupid things when we were little, I’m surprised we lived through a lot of it…
My Mom was pretty busy back when I was a kid. We’d have to get up at 5AM and go to a Daycare until 6:45, then a bus would pick us up and take us to school. After school the bus would take us home, where our Mother would arrive almost exactly the same time from her first job and bring us to a baby sitter while she went to her next job.
The baby sitter was a bitch and treated us like crap. She acted like she had too much on her plate with her own kids. I never understood why she would even accept a job to watch more kids when you couldn’t even handle your own. Anyways, after she gave my sister a smack I told my Mom and that ended that. Afterwards we would get babysat by Grandma, who was further out of the way. By the time I was 10 or so we got to stay home alone.
Wow! You had an epic babysitter saga! I went to 3 different babysitters’, but never at the same time.
Wasn’t it great when your parents told you you were I was old enough to stay home? Didn’t it feel really liberating, or like you accomplished something (even though we were just growing older)?
Yeah but then when I was about 15 I did something that really messed everything up and it took like 3 years to regain my Mom’s trust. Oh well.
You can’t bring it up and not tell us!
Wow – Love the way you captured this moment in your past. The pacing, the story, composition and expressions.
Thanks.