Adult Supervision
| Adult Supervision | |
|---|---|
| (Intermission) | |
 | |
| Chapter | “69.1” of 129 (list of chapters) |
| Published | December 10, 2013 |
| Page count | 9 |
| Major characters | Mike, Chris, Haley |
| Minor characters | Ellen, Frank, Sandy, Daisy, Abbey, David, Paulo |
| Locations | Mike’s house, Daisy’s house, Abbey’s house |
| Collected in | Volume Three, Omnibus 1 |
| Chapter navigation | |
| ← At Loose Ends | Piece of Cake → |
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Mike’s parents are out for the evening, Haley has snuck off in a party dress, and Mike is left holding baby Chris for the very first time. How much damage can one infant do before midnight? Quite a lot, as it happens.
Synopsis
Mike’s parents head out for a night on the town with one instruction: put baby Chris to bed by eight.[1] The door has barely shut before Haley drops her housecoat to reveal a party dress underneath. She dumps Chris into her startled brother’s arms and announces she’s off to meet friends for pizza. Mike protests that he’s never watched Chris before, and gets a flat “Time to learn.” for his trouble.[2]
Mike barely gets settled on the couch, wondering how hard this could be, before Chris falls off it and comes up wailing with a swollen eye.[3] Soon the eye is black and swollen shut, and the baby is cheerfully parroting Mike’s horrified “Oh, gawd!” right back at him.[3] Mike reaches for the phone to call his parents, then pictures the scolding he’d get and thinks better of it.[4]
Casting about for someone good with kids, Mike involuntarily thinks of Lucy and groans. A call from Sandy lifts his spirits instead, so he holds the phone out for Chris to say hello. The baby lunges at it shouting “Lucy? Lucy!!”, and Mike ends the call in horror.[5] His friends aren’t much more help with first aid. Daisy’s icy washcloth lasts about a second before Chris squeezes it all over himself. The baby drinks Abbey’s ground parsley straight from the bowl and ends up queasy over the toilet.[6] David asks whether Mike has a live leech on hand, and Paulo, the last resort, just laughs at him.[6][7]
Eight o’clock arrives, and Mike tucks Chris in with real fondness, only for the baby to tip face-first out of his race car bed the moment Mike says goodnight.[7] At midnight the parents come home to a quiet house. Mike’s mom kisses a peacefully sleeping Haley, who opens her eyes once the coast is clear and wipes off the lipstick she never removed.[8] Mike gets a pat on the shoulder for a job well done. He sleeps on until his mother’s scream jolts him awake: Chris, both eyes now bruised and swollen, beams up at her with a delighted “Mommy!”[8][9]
Character dynamics
- Mike and Chris: The night is the brothers’ first real one-on-one time. Mike has never once watched Chris before, and every remedy he tries makes things worse. Muddling through it alone leaves him genuinely fond of the kid all the same. By bedtime he’s lingering in the doorway to say goodnight.[2][7]
- Mike and Haley: Haley does what she wants. She offloads the baby and enjoys her evening out while Mike absorbs the consequences. She fakes sleep well enough to collect their mother’s thank-you. Even in Mike’s imagination, she’s the one pointing the finger at him.[2][4][8]
Trivia & observations
- The chapter was originally exclusive to the Volume Three print book, and only joined the web archive in the May 2021 overhaul alongside On the Sidelines. Veronica’s commentary calls it “a very cute way to close out this part of the archive, after two very dark chapters.”[1][10]
- Veronica’s commentary notes that Haley is normally the one in charge of Chris. “Middle child struggles,” as she puts it.[2]
- Veronica notes that Mike’s imagined scolding has it backwards. In reality Haley would be the one in trouble for sneaking out, “but this is Mike’s mind, and he’s an anxious goody-goody. Only he gets in trouble.”[4]
- This is the first chapter to put both of Mike’s parents on panel together.[1]
- In December, Mike told Lucy “I am not going to be your babysitter anymore.” One chapter later, he gets a crash course in the literal kind.[11][2]
Related chapters
- December: Chris made his debut there, squealing “Lucy! Lucy!” when she visited the house, which is exactly what he shouts at Sandy’s phone call here.[12][5] It’s also the chapter where Mike tore into Lucy, which is why the mere thought of asking her for help makes him groan.[11]
- Curtain Call: Chris’s next appearance in the comic. He plays the baby in Sue’s play, and Mike is once again the one minding him, handing him off with a “Can you watch Chris for a minute?”[13]
- Second String: Much later in the series, Mike babysits Chris again, and this time he volunteers for the job. Ellen hugs him and calls him “a lifesaver” for it.[14]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Adult Supervision, page 1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Adult Supervision, page 2
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Adult Supervision, page 3
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Adult Supervision, page 4
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Adult Supervision, page 5
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Adult Supervision, page 6
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Adult Supervision, page 7
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Adult Supervision, page 8
- ↑ Adult Supervision, page 9
- ↑ “May 2021 archive overhaul newspost”. 2021-05-24.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 68: December, page 23
- ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 14
- ↑ Chapter 74: Curtain Call, page 34
- ↑ Chapter 124: Second String, page 19