2012-03-01
Explanation
This comic satirizes helicopter parenting and the ironic lack of self-awareness that often accompanies it. A parent calls a teacher, Mrs. Stratton, to aggressively argue that their daughter'''s essay deserved an A+ instead of a B+. The parent escalates from claiming the teacher is biased, to threatening to call the principal, the PTA, and their congressman. The teacher caves, saying "Thank you. An A will be fine."
In the final panel, labeled "Later...," the parent proudly tells their spouse, "I got her a good grade." The spouse asks the reasonable question, "Shouldn'''t we let her do that on her own?" The parent responds with the perfectly ironic line, "Well, kids these days aren'''t very self-reliant." This is the central joke: the parent is literally undermining their child'''s self-reliance by fighting her battles for her, then turning around and complaining that kids aren'''t self-reliant enough. The parent is the direct cause of the very problem they'''re lamenting.
The votey extends the irony with the parent adding, "Yeah, and they should be more assertive too!" -- oblivious to the fact that the child never had a chance to be assertive because the parent asserted themselves on the child'''s behalf. The comic is a pointed critique of parents who simultaneously over-involve themselves in their children'''s lives and then blame their children for lacking independence.