My wife and I aren’t having the greatest time reading them to our toddler (she’s probably too young for them, but she says she really likes them). Calvin’s parents don’t like him! I don’t like exposing her to parents who are resentful toward their kid.
Also, shortly after he retired Bill Watterson ate at my dad’s restaurant. My dad recognized his name on the check, and told him how much of a fan I was. Bill then drew Calvin on a napkin for me. And... I can’t find that sketch! Each time I visit my parents I spend half the visit digging through boxes for it.
There are plenty of C&H strips that show his parents love him. This one comes to mind, but there are many others: https://i.redd.it/wgwm23u9k4sx.png
Kids are not stupid and you don't need to insulate them from everything that isn't 100% happy, fluffy and wonderful. As a former kid who had loving parents and loved C&H, the only message I remember taking from the strip in this regard was that parents are people too and that things I do might annoy them.
I love how in the middle few panels, just 2 little dots for eyes are able to convey the frustration about "why am I wasting my life on paperwork when my real life is waiting for me?"
This strip is beautiful. As a parent living with snow on the ground in Ohio, I just lived this experience when my children asked me to go sled riding. Work will be there after they go to bed, but these years will be gone before I know it.
As a kid in Texas reading Calvin and Hobbes, the snow aspect always seemed so magical. I know as an adult it is probably a beating most times, but still fun to think about.
We actually got snow in DFW this year and my first actions were to have my kids build a snowman, and then find the steepest hill we could to sled down :)
Sure, but we started reading them to my daughter when she was about 20 months old. I don’t think it’s being over-protective to gloss over the dozens and dozens of times (to every one happy moment like the one you chose) when the parents express regrets at choosing to have a kid. They didn’t even go to his school play!
I mean, I loved it, too, growing up. I still think it’s great. But some things ring differently as an adult with a kid. And I can wait a bit to expose my kid to that.
I guess if your daughter isn’t yet old enough to realize how infuriating and exasperating Calvin is for his parents, maybe the strip isn’t for her yet.
Good guess. But I’m afraid you’re wrong. She loves the strip. And she doesn’t notice this behavior by the parents. I was only expressing how my own perception of the comic has changed now that I’m an adult.
Keeping it real with Biological kids is important.
Adopted kids basically dont feel loved no matter how much you do or say. Although one day it will start to click.
Sure it varied a lot. But I learned quickly that I had to really certain kinds of jokes.
I get the sense that Watterson is sharing his own childhood relationships with adults and author figures. And by and large they aren’t happy, healthy relationships.
His parents regularly debate whose choice it was to have a kid, and despite the exceptional strip shared by another reply to me, for the most part his dad seems happier working than being with Calvin. I definitely didn’t notice or care about this dynamic when I read these as a kid. And I don’t think my daughter will notice or care. But she’s only 3, and I’m cool with sheltering her a bit.
Watterson stated many times that he was nothing like Calvin and his parents were nothing like that either. He just built the characters and then progressively explored their relationships as a way of reflecting on the pressures of modern society. It just so happened that he was exceedingly good at building realistic personalities.
Personally, C&H probably kept me alive as a teenager. When I was questioning the point of it all, Calvin’s sense of wonder and fearlessness injected some happiness into me, and I wished so hard that I could have been more like him growing up. I read a lot of it with my kids when they were very small, and then let them alone with it as they started reading on their own. They embraced the methods of Calvinball, which melts my heart when I watch them play. To them Calvin’s parents are silly in their worrying about worthless stuff like “washing”. If you didn’t notice certain things while reading it as a kid, chances are your child won’t either; that’s one of the marvels of this strip, like the best art it speaks in different ways to different people at different stages of their lives.
Thanks. Yes, I definitely agree that my daughter will likewise not notice what I didn’t notice. And I continue to read it a lot because we both love it.
In the Anniversary collection, Watterson notes things like “this is basically an exact quote from my dad.” (For example, in the strip where good dad says they should put the Christmas tree in the garage and not decorate it.) So I don’t think they are totally divorced from each other.
Our 5yo daughter loves looking through our old paperback versions, but we generally won't read them to her yet as the story and comedy is way over her head in most cases. She can grow up reading them over time as I did daily in the paper growing up.
One day we'll let her read our first edition color hardcover boxed set. But she probably should start acting a little less like Calvin first.
My daughter loves pretending she has a transmogrifier. She ZAPS us into different creatures.
We read a ton of Get Fuzzy right now. And she’s turning into Bucky. Yesterday while doing yard work she said to me, “hey Pinky, put me in the hammock.”
