Some of you are parents. Others probably know parents. Most of you had parents. Is this something any parent had likely ever said, particularly given the skimpiness of the original outfit?
What saves this from an Arlo tag is that Amend’s women are recognizable as women, but not sexy. One can imagine what this would look like drawn by, say, Brooke McEldowney of 9 Chickweed Lane.

In my younger days, my parents never let me wear shorts for the sole reason that there are mosquitoes.
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The only thing that is holding that outfit up is the reader’s “suspension of comic disbelief”. Given that Paige is supposed to be 14, I’m glad that Bill (Amend) did not show the second outfit, and I’m really glad that Brooke “softporn” McEldowney did not draw this “strip” (pun intended).
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No, but that’t the point. It’s a comic way of saying it’s hot.
How hot is it? Hot enough to have a mom tell her daughter to go undress.
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Karl is correct.
Paige has been drawn wearing less before. (Not much less; a bikini.)
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Speaking of which . . . today’s strip . . .

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Karl definitely has it.
P.S. @ Powers – I was not able to find a drawing of Paige in a bikini (bikini top & shorts as shown above doesn’t count), but the overall effect is supposed to be detrimental to the eyes:
However, I did find a picture of Jason in a bikini (I admit that it’s not quite the same):
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P.P.S. @ Andréa – What a coincidental re-run! (The original is from 2001.)
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Great minds think alike – and check out the same comics every day . . .
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@ Andréa – Foxtrot is only on my “Sunday” list: I have not been reading the daily re-runs, otherwise it would have been a heck of a lot easier to find that link above.
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The joke is that Mother says the opposite of what you expect a mother to say.
You see this kind of joke in Fox Trot. Peter makes 16 sandwiches for his own lunch. Paige: “16 sandwiches? WHAT are you THINKING?!” Peter: “You’re right. I’d better make a few more in case I get hungry in the afternoon.”
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Today/s “9 Chickweeed Lane Classics” shows Edda in a two-piece suit on their annual Polar Bear Plunge. I believe Edda is about 15 in this timeline…
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@ zbicyclist – “Amend’s women are … not sexy”
Part of that problem is that they all have ears the size of Princess Leia’s “cinnamon buns”.
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Whereas McEldowney’s have no chin… I mean, seriously, like they have no jaw bone…
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@Sheep: “In my younger days, my parents never let me wear shorts for the sole reason that there are mosquitoes.”
Now my grandkids don’t wear shorts where they might get into tall grass (ticks).
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Saturday’s 9CL shows a high-school Edda and her mom in swimsuits. I have no problem with the depiction of Edda’s 2-piece suit – it’s no more revealing than Paige’s in the OP.
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Saturday’s 9CL
That’s the Classic, not current, strips.
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