Jam-smeared scamp and supernaturally calm mother shill dishwashers

Oh that scamp. Poor Mom. Check out that beatific expression.

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: ads • Gadgets • gender • illustration • Kids • Old school

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http://twitter.com/espenandersen Espen Andersen

Come on, Cory, this is business as usual. Deeply impressed by the high heels and spotlessness of the surroundings, though.

Back when my children were that age, a neighbor and I fantasized about designing a child washing machine – perfect for dropping them in after nursery school (which, in Norway, children largely spend outside happily exposed to sand, dirt and each other), preferably with a washing cycle taking a couple hours….
- digi_owl
  
  5 point harness, pole, power washer and some motors comes to mind.
  
  Strap kid into harness attached to pole on top of one motor. Other motor moves angle of power washer hose up and down while the pole rotates so that one give the kid a good washing on both front and back.
- Wreckrob8
  
  And half an hour in the tumble drier just to finish them off!
Rotwang

Beatific face = Mother’s Little Helper. Librium FTW!
- msbpodcast
  
  Its some form of drug.
- niktemadur
  
  Lady has been nipping on the cooking sherry again.
- niktemadur
  
  Lady has been nipping on the cooking sherry again.
DJBudSonic

You mean clothes washers, right?
- awjt
  
  No, DISH washers, that’s what the yellow things are. That’s how we do it at our house too.
- http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
  
  Don’t you feed clothes into your top-loading dishwasher?
  
  It’s all the rage.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Don’t they have multitasking washers in Europe?
  - Guest
    
    A friend has a top loading dishwasher, not a terrible design.
http://twitter.com/Stoutlagger Rob

Call it ocd, but I just can’t help myself. That isn’t chocolate, it’s grape jelly.
- BookGuy
  
  I just assumed it was a mix of blood and feces because all the kids were tougher back then, and parents let them have science kits with plutonium, knives, guns, and fetish parties, and they all grew up to be just fine, goshdurnit.
  - http://netsperience.org decibel_places
    
    Yeah, when I was kid and a thermometer broke, my mom gave the liberated MERCURY to me to play with; and I had a chemistry set that caught fire once… Happy Mothers Day!
  - http://twitter.com/Stoutlagger Rob
    
    lol, oh the memories. Good times.
fuzzyfuzzyfungus

I’m guessing that junior’s belt will be exploring exciting new opportunities in the field of juvenile corrections when father gets home from his unidentifiable-but-definitely-white-collar job and hears about this…
totally80s

the little boy looks like he’s just been in a car accident. OMG- funny how ashes and dryers haven’t changed much since then
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Indeed, mom looks more baked than supernaturally calm. Rock on, mom. It’s your day, and you can toke a few if you want.

Notice the tantalizing glimpse of the den in the next room. Green sofa, with a dart board overhead. I bet there’s a bar in there, and the old TV set.
- colleen2
  
  She does look baked. Those were days when both Valium and really good pharmaceutical Dexedrine were surprisingly easy for middle class housewives to procure. Marijuana not so much…
- Preston Sturges
  
  A friend bought a nice old tract house with the finished basement bar setup and the whole room in 1950′s knotty pine paneling. Not particle board, real pine paneling. It was very retro and cozy.
coolvoodoo

And that’s grape jelly not chocolate……
Cefeida

That’s not chocolate! Look at the jar. That’s grape jam or blackcurrant preserves. Sheesh. Bet if it was BANANA MUSH you’d have LOOKED AT IT!
Teller

Wash his clothes, he’ll be clean for a day.
Teach him the dials…
- http://www.microcar.org microcars
  
  …and the machine will be broken for weeks.
DevinC

I’m not so much impressed by Mom’s equanimity as by her ability to resist the temptation of the Gordian solution, i.e., just throwing the kid in, clothes and all.
technogeekagain

Given where the jar is: “Hold still, Johnny — you missed a spot behind your left ear.”
http://profile.yahoo.com/THLK3B5LCMP2F4OXYPH7GKXK7Y AllanM

I think you meant clothes washer, not dishwasher.
tsa

Why is mom still wielding that jar of jam?
- chgoliz
  
  I’m quite sure there’s been a rap on the noggin already, which would explain the crying. What kid cries because they’re covered in jam?
  - IronEdithKidd
    
    You may have been raised in the Dr. Spock era of parenting, but your grandparents followed the University of Minnesota Spanktological Protocol.
MollyMaguire

I like the yellow! Way better than white, black, or polished stainless steel. How boring we are now!
- teapot
  
  People who worry about colour-coordinating their laundry need to get out more.
  
  I’m loving the adorable jam hand print next to the stairs though.
- http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
  
  So paint yours.
rattypilgrim

The boy in the illustration looks amazingly like the breast feeding four year old on the Newsweek cover. The two images would look extremely bizarre if positioned together.
purple-stater

Look at her face. That poor woman is so tired she’s practically depressed. No energy left to get mad.
- timmaguire
  
  That’s what I thought. She’s not beatific, she’s exhausted. And she probably hasn’t seen that hand print on the stairway yet.
rattypilgrim

Before PhotoShop illustrators set the standard for women’s perfect proportions. In this ad little boy’s waist is twice as large as unrealistically skinny mommy’s.
pjcamp

That’s a damn fine top loading dishwasher.
TimRowledge

If it’s “self-setting” why there all those buttons and a knob on the damn machine?