Lazy Train

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about when you make plans way in advance only to dread the idea of leaving the house when those plans finally come around. I don’t want to spoil it here because I kind of spell it out in the comic, but yes, this is a feeling I have often. I don’t know why the idea of leaving the house, particularly at night, has become so exhausting to me. Just the idea, mind you. Not the reality. And you could blame it on COVID but this predates that. Certainly didn’t help, but still. I just think getting older just drags you down. And having kids. You know, when you’re young and free, you can go out all night then sleep late the next day. As a parent, it doesn’t matter what you did Friday night. Saturday, you’re up at 7:00.

But yeah, doing stuff is fun. We should all do more stuff.

Domestic Flights… of Rage

I’ve been pretty busy lately so this week’s new Dustinland comic is just a quick two-panel strip about… well basically what happens just about every day at home. And you know, I think a big part of having a family is being able to not fly off the handle at stupid little things, like the way the dishwasher is loaded. Just chill, because half the time the thing that wasn’t put back in the right place… it’s something you did and just forgot. Except for when the kids don’t close the cabinet doors DAMMIT HOW HARD IS IT?!

The Point

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about the point of life, more or less. I think when you’re a parent, these sort of things take on a new urgency, because it’s one thing to stumble through life believing whatever you believe, doing what you can to stay sane, but it’s another thing to teach a new human what to believe and what ideas should guide their life.

As I say in the comic, I don’t really know what the point of it all is, obviously. I’m not religious, so I don’t have that to guide me. And I try to be a good person and all that, I try to live in the moment. It’s just hard. These days, the more information I receive, the more depressed I get. And yet a life of blissful ignorance also feels irresponsible. So I’m really not sure what to do or think these days, and that certainly makes it hard to be responsible for someone else’s life. But kids grow up and figure things out and adopt their own beliefs. The best I think we can do is make sure they turn out to be good people, kind, nice, grateful, insert positive adjective here, you get the picture.

Man, now I’m bumming myself out as usual. Sorry! Next week I’ll go back to wacky zany honk honk clown horn.

Unskinny Bop

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about how I’ve always been skinny but maybe in middle age I have reached the point where if I don’t take care of myself, I will grow a dad gut. We’ll see! It’s hard to take care of yourself when you’re busy all the time, and also when you’re bored, uninspired and depressed. You know, it’s like, I can have abs, but does it really matter if democracy is crushed across the globe as the Earth becomes an uninhabitable hellscape?

Tuesdays, amirite?

Drunk With Power

I’ve covered this topic before, but in this week’s new Dustinland comic I discuss what happens when parents try to crack down on their kids’ entitled behaviors. I think a lot of this is an age thing. Unless you raise your kids all strict and stuff (which is probably awesome), they reach a certain age where they are in the middle — old enough to want to do stuff on their own, but young enough to still cling to the convenience of childhood when mommy gets them what they need because if they try to do it on their own it will just create a huge disaster for everyone. Either way though, I wind up drinking by the end.