rusty i’m begging you to tell me the little girls aren’t in present time like “well dad was always nice to US” or else i’m gonna go crazy

No parent wants to tell that truth to a child, definetely not one this young. In fact, this very moment represents Meriam making that same choice again: to remain silent and put a fracture into her bond with Shez or answer honestly, knowing that her kind daughter will feel the guilt for it…

Shez’s facial expressions are awesome. it’s an extreme sort of sadness that doesn’t often get portrayed for girls in media. snot coming out, chin wrinkled from how hard the mouth is grimacing. it’s not focused on being pretty or graceful or cute or funny, just on shez’s conveying pain. it makes me glad you’re the one drawing this sort of story.

and oof, the meriam’s words! such impact! poor shez might feel like it’s her fault that her mother got pregnant for her sake

I really appreciate that you show this sort of conflict in your webcomic, women rarely get to be imperfect in media and while it sucks seeing Shez take her anger out on Meriam here, women and girls are not immune to misogynistic bias, I think we’ve all fell prey too and had to unlearn this victim blaming at some point in our lives.
 

I remember thinking this way when I was a child, I would see those charity ads of a woman in poverty standing there with 10 children and a baby on her hip and thinking “if she can barely feed herself then why does she have so many kids?” I was too blind to see the bigger picture. Society often forgets that pregnancy takes two people when it doesn’t benefit men, reproductive control is arguably the foundation of misogyny and fear of retribution is a powerful influencer. Everything Shez is frustrated by here is technically true, Meriam did “choose” to get pregnant and it is a terrible “choice” to make in these circumstances, but when a woman is forced to choose between survival or submission how much choice does she really have?
 

A lot of mother daughter relationships end up tainted by generational misogyny and the unspoken resentment born from it, the relationship between Meriam and Shez is so refreshing, I love how open Meriam is with Shez and Shez in turn, how much they support each other, it just sucks that they have to support each other against this. None of them should have to learn this stuff.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! SHEZ DID LOSE IT! so sad to see Shez yelling at her momma! There’s some of that abuser tearing apart the family stuff I was worried about!!! This could have gone so much worse but Meriam responded in such a calm and composed way while understanding where her baby is coming from. she shouldn’t have to. she shouldn’t have to carry this burden of managing the abuse of this awful man and trying to be composed and nuanced and understanding while she’s pregnant with a child she didn’t want but has no choice but to have. It’s so hard to be Meriam.
 
Trying to abort the child at home could kill her and leave her daughters alone with The Thing. Having the baby is the Least Worse option. And unfortunately I can Not imagine this baby Not Happening. I don’t think this baby necessarily came from the Incident where Meriam was protecting Shez. A man like Chris is going to feel like it’s his wife’s Duty to satisfy him, he would get angry and scary if she wasn’t doing her Wifely Duties. Even if Meriam is fine with facing violence herself, Chris would be willing to threaten the children to get Meri to do what he wants…..
 
I didn’t know if we would see the women in this family harming each other or not. It is very realistic, I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had these kinds of tensions and snapping at other family members while living with abuse. But sometimes Lease Bound can be unrealistic in the best ways. (we love you yonique) I didn’t know if you would go for realism or go for the like, happier outcomes that we women love to fantasize about. Where every woman is just Getting Along All The Time. They’re still okay tho, they’re all still doing well here, it’s natural for A CHILD to have such a hard time carrying all this rage inside her. And women can have conflict with each other while still loving and supporting each other. We’re all human. Shez is going to Lose It on someone who’s safe and won’t hurt her, instead of the true cause of her anger who could easily beat her to death………… She can’t express herself to the moid who deserves it. She can’t bottle this all up inside all the time. It’s sad but I do think Meriam will be thinking about moments like this forever. There is so much self blame and guilt going back and fourth between these two, while Crystal and Krissy don’t even know. 🙁
 
Your comments in response to our very intelligent Norm L Esbian got me worried. But it’s so realistic. It is so very realistic. There is a danger in not showing other women the truth, in covering up something trying to protect them. My mother did that for my father, and as I slowly got older it was more up to me figuring out my dad Did Not Care About Me on my own. My mom only confided in me about the truth of some of the stuff he was doing or NOT doing when I was a full grown adult. She told me she was trying to protect me. I wish she had been honest, because her honesty would have saved me a lot of pain. I kept hoping for my dad would begin to do things a little differently when I was a kid. If he loved me then he would pull it together, eventually all the random excuses mom gave like him being busy at work would stop, right? But I learned. I had the chance to get older and look at my mostly absent father myself with a brain that was more capable of analyzing and understanding. In the IDEAL situation, these women are going to leave and Chris will DIE!!!! While Crystal and Karissa are extremely young. So they really won’t know through first hand experience. All they will have seen are those happy childhood memories.
 
There really is no option to bring them in and help them understand, though. You can not tell kids that young “daddy is a bad scary man and we have to leave but SHHH pretend to be happy and don’t tell daddy we’re leaving!” hello????? they can’t play the mind games that Meriam and Shez are playing! Both Shez and Meriam have moments where they’re barely able to hold it together! But you know, at a certain point as they get older, it’s on Crystal and Karissa to figure it out themselves. Look at your mother’s behavior, look at your big sister’s behavior. Know how unwavering their support has been, how caring and how much they’ve scarified. LOOK AT SHEZ’S EYE! If they can look at Shez’s eye and still think Well Dad Was A Good Dad Tho 😀 well………. that’s on them… 9_9