How Baby

So I’ve been reading a lot of how-to-parent?? content lately, as you do when your child is being bafflingly difficult, and it’s been pretty vindicating. A lot of you shared stories of your kids starting school and turning into unrecognizable little beastly creatures overnight, so lord, I am trying to be patient, but it’s trying.

I’ve learned that there’s a cool term for what’s going on: after school restraint collapse. Basically, they listen and follow directions all day from everyone else in the world, and then they come home to you, and they think: oh, it’s you, I’m gonna unload all my frustration on you because you have to love me.

The interesting thing is that, as adults, we go through it too after a long day, but the difference is that we have more control over our activities and can take a break or self-medicate. But kids, they have so little agency, so it gets worse and worse for them because literally everyone is telling them what to do, and they never get a break.

There’s been a lot of closing my eyes and muttering ‘this too shall pass’ under my breath recently.

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I’m headed to FanExpo this weekend here in Vancouver! I’ll be at table A70, peddling wares and waving at babies. It’s my last show of the year (yaaaay) and I’ll be dropping the Monday comic as usual to give myself some breathing room. See you there, or see you on the other side!