34 thoughts on “Single Mom

  1. JoeFoo says:

    Awesome. Just really awesome. What a great story.

  2. Chris Battle says:

    Dude– that’s awesome. I’m gonna play Red Dead Redemption with Sophie tonite.

  3. Matt says:

    really makes your eyeballs sweat don’t it? very sweet story
    My mom and I have always played video games together, one of our favorites was Street Fighter 2 and we’d both pick Blanka. Nowadays whenever I come home from college we always try to work in a session or two of Wii Sports and Sport Resort. My dad plays on occasion too but one time he got so excited playing Super R-Type on SNES that he fell backwards off the stool he was sitting on.

  4. Chad Tower says:

    Wow, prior to the point where the mom brings home rented games, that may as well have been about me. I knew it was going to be an NES before I scrolled down. Perfect!

  5. computemus says:

    Great story, great cartoon, great mother !

  6. Thndrchld says:

    You have completely captured my childhood right here. NES was the main vehicle for spending time with my mother and grandmother. For us, it was Double Dragon 2. My poor grandmother always fell asleep while she was watching, but she never turned down an opportunity to hang out with me and the Nintendo. That NES eventually succumbed to the flashy-screen-of-doom syndrom, but I’ve always made it a point to keep a working model in a closet just in case an opportunity to use it ever comes up.

    Is it dusty in here, or is it just me?

  7. African child says:

    context is everything. I’m sure your mother had to do without a lot. You still do not understand what going without really is unless you are an African child, VIVA AFRICA, VIVA. Amandla!

  8. three bcs says:

    I was not a single mom ,but a single dad and this most definetly brings back MEMORIES- super marios. ALL WAS GREAT UNTIL I LET AN EVIL PERSON INTO OUR LIVES,now all i have are memories which are great to have in our old age. Thanks KIDS

  9. mama to 3 says:

    Talk about a teary-eyed trip down memory lane! Any 3 of my beautiful children could have written this. Of course, they’re all grown and moved out now, but whenever we have the opportunity out comes the Nintendo, in goes Mario Bros. or one of the other Classics and away we play until the sun comes up! Nothing better than quality video game time with my offspring! Love my children – no matter how old they are!

  10. proudamerican says:

    To the African child:

    I would like you to not that african kids are not the only ones in the world that are going without. Surely you do not think you have cornered the market on poverty? It would seem that you are at least able to afford a computer, and internet access. Perhaps you are using one at your school though. At least you have a school to go to. Perhaps you are using one at a local library. Should that be the case, be grateful that you have enough leisure time to read a story on the internet. Many of us need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and realize that someone is most definitely worse off than us. Just think, someone out there can’t afford a computer, nor does that person have time to access one at a library. He or she is too busy struggling to find out IF they will eat today. He or she is too busy worrying about where they’re going to sleep tonight. Think about that before you complain about how rough you have it. At least the author of this article wasn’t so pretentious as to claim, “You don’t know what it’s like to go without, until you can’t get an NES.” I’m willing to bet that Mr. Kuehnau is aware that he had it better than most.

  11. zwenkwiel says:

    meh
    we weren’t poor and getting a NES was just as awesome

  12. Abi says:

    This really hit’s home to me. We never had heaps either but we would get by, but the Christmas me and my brothers got the nintendo 64 was probably the best we’d ever had. Mario kart was the first game we got and I remember waking up late one night to see both my parents playing Mario kart, they did this on a regular basis and to this day I play the old 64 with my parents every now and then and it’s just like we were back in our old house sitting up late at night playing 🙂

    I should mention that we also had the first Nintendo game system and still do have it sitting in the cupboard at home, and every so often it gets some play.

  13. We never did buy the NES. Our first console was the PS1 and it too binded our family closer during the weekends.

  14. Terra says:

    This almost made me cry. I had a very similar experience. At the age of four, my father got us both gameboys. I had Pokemon Blue, and he had Red. Unfortunately, he died three years later. Every time I see an Acanine, his favorite Pokemon, I get a little choked up.

  15. Nick says:

    This story just made my day.

  16. Alex says:

    made me cry

  17. Tuezy says:

    Your story is so similar to my experience with the NES. Only we were a family of 3 kids 🙂

  18. bittramp says:

    This is such a sad story. I thought it was going to end with him getting a job writing video games and making tons of money or something like that. Instead, it was just as much a waste of time as playing solitaire

    1. Jeremy D Kuehnau says:

      Not all stories have a happy ending, coming from the contest winner. Thanks for making me feel bad.

  19. Human Guy says:

    Awesome. I can’t tell what the hell you are, but I want you to know that human kids love video games too! With this tale you’ve bridged the human/talking-chipmunk-thing gap. I hope that your species and mine can learn a lot from each other. I still consider my people superior (chipmunks don’t win Smash Bros tournaments) but I’d still chat with you guys on AIM or something.

  20. Courtney says:

    oh my gosh… this is my mom and me… we do the SAME THING!

  21. A.D. says:

    That pretty much summed up my childhood right there. This is awsome. Thank you.

  22. JoystickQ says:

    This was an awesome story. I love it when people share a meaningful story with others, it just makes you want to hold your mom and NES close. ^_^

  23. lawr says:

    I loved this story – it brought a tear to my eye : )

    BTW; your mum sounds awesome! (Please give her a hug from me)

  24. @african child says:

    Believe me African kids are not the only ones in poverty… and in some cases, its thanks to the parents/government, and corruption that they end up in poverty. I’m an African kid myself. But I’m really getting tired of Africans saying oh its going so bad with us… ect, and then everyone sends money, and stuff, what happens to it? It either gets sold, to buy alcohol or some kind of substance. It RARELY goes for what it was intended to go for.

  25. u.l. says:

    Spelling the word “mother” with a capital m in English doesn’t look respectful, just saccharine and ignorant.

    Also, there is no such game as “Mario Bros. 3”. There were only the original arcade Mario Bros. and Mario Bros 2. And if you were actually talking about SMB3, then, unlike MB. and MB.2, you can’t play a “round” of it, because it’s not a competitive type game. I think you’re full of shit on the subject of the “life-long addiction” here, since you only mention the most famous NES game and still manage to mislabel it and/or mix it with it’s distant prequel.

  26. SanoZen says:

    I found this comic at random a few weeks back and was compelled to read from the start. I’m now back to this comic after reading what came before, just about to click the next button to continue reading my new favorite web comic. Keep up the amazing work, and I hope the best for you and this comic.

  27. @u.l. says:

    Really? You’re going to flame over ONE word that’s missing? And how the heck is spelling “mother” with a capital “M” ignorant? Sounds like someone needs to get off the internet for a while.

    Anyways, very sweet story. Makes me remember my own childhood, playing the Atari, NES, and SNES with my family. c:

  28. BeepBeep says:

    I had the same experience with my family’s NES. My Mom had six kids, though, and I was the second to the last so I didn’t get to play very much but I had a blast just watching my brothers play. They would get so mad at me because I would trip over the cord and lose their progress. My Mom would only play the easy parts of the games and make my brother beat all of the hard parts for her. I remember when we got Zelda for the gameboy (I Didn’t get to play that at all). She would wake My brother up at three O’ clock in the morning and ask him questions because he had already beat it. GOOD TIMES. We all still get together occasionally and play Super Mario Brothers on my sister’s Nintendo. The funny thing is…I’m a freakin’ adult and I still don’t get to play!

  29. joris says:

    Thanks. Can’t say a lot more really. Just an enormous amount of thanks!

  30. Cheshire says:

    ..Why did you draw yourself as a tailless beaver?

  31. hawken says:

    well they didnt call it the family computer fer nuthin! (famicom; fami-ly, com-puter)

  32. Fray says:

    I can so relate to this. Thank you both.

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