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Oh my Goodness!! Is it any wonder men don't want to try and parent?

I see nothing wrong with giving a child the opportunity to learn to be in the kitchen and I've not yet heard any stories of catastrophic emergency trips for children being stitched up after using a potato peeler.

Many times a parent could give one child something to do and the other child would never have even cared. Then sometimes you get what you saw in the strip.

Sherry, Mansfield

Hi, Lynn! Thank you so much for this week's strips featuring Merrie and Robin. Now I have something to show people when they ask why I don't want children.

Pam H, Birmingham Alabama

The sibling rivalry between Meredith and Robin is very spot on. My own children did the same thing when they were little. The phrase "seeing at me" is a classic one. Michael and Dee are doing their best. I don't think it is wrong to have a child help peel carrots. They must learn sometime and helping dad with dinner is a good place to start.
Keep up the wonderful work on my favorite comic strip.

Mrs. S, Indiana

Personally, I see nothing wrong with Michael allowing the kids to help him with dinner, even (gasp!) using the peeler. In Montessori programs, children ages 3-6 routinely use peelers, banana slicers, apple slicers and even saws, hammers and other tools.

Heather S, Ohio

A five/six year old can certainly handle a vegetable peeler (they even make pumpkin carving "knives" for kids that age). I, for one think that Mike is definitly doing the right thing. Kids get "bored" because parents do not let them contribute to the family unit. Most kids who do chores are secretly proud of what they can do. Merry and Robin (yes, he's old enough) need chores. Go Mike!

Jill, Akron, Ohio

Good morning from Cincinnati!

I've been coming to your website almost every morning as part of my ritual-check emails, check FBOFW.However, today I discovered the "Meet the Pattersons" link. I had never noticed the letters there. I really enjoyed Elizabeth's--this helped me understand her more.

How you develop such a wonderful strip yet give us such insightful background--it is beyond me!

Michelle, Cincinnati

In the FBorFW 2-3-08 strip in our local newspaper, the Messenger Post,you suggest a following distance of a few car lengths traveling at 80km (about 50 mph). This few car lengths (average 15') following distance calculates to a little more than a half of a second.

As a driving school instructor/owner, I teach the minimum 2-4 second following distance rule, which is also recommended by the US Governor's Highway Safety Association. Today, most schools of defensive driving instruction use a time measurement rather than the older, outdated car length system for measuring following distance. The argument is, and I believe it's valid, is that it is easier and more accurate to count off two seconds-one thousand and one, one thousand and two, or, one mississippi, two mississippi, than it is to estimate car lengths, especially when we are moving. Two seconds following distance at 80km would be about 10 car lengths.

You have an excellent forum for reaching drivers, especially parents and new drivers as you do in this strip, with important defensive driving safety tips. I would be glad to offer you other suggestions for safer driving such as using an eye-lead time of at least 15 seconds, or driving to the right on multiple lane highways where we can more safely travel at the speed limit and not disrupt traffic formations, or the need to go with the flow of traffic, unless, of course, the flow is exceeding the speed limit. The last box of the strip is right on the mark in emphasizing the effect our emotions and attitudes have on our behavior, especially when driving, where many of us have a tendency to take things personally.PS I enjoy the strip. Thanks.

Bob W, Canandaigua, New York