For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 10, 2011

Wow! He got a present AND he didn’t have to go Christmas shopping? All for stealing? I’m gonna shoplift this year! Thanks for the advice, Lynn!

Awwwwwwwwwwwww !!!

@thisisretarded. If you count it up, he had to go Christmas shopping TWICE, and wait there for his mom to come talk to him. If that’s what you’d prefer-go right ahead.

I tried it. My case comes up next week.

love the expression on his face, last panel.

This is yet another example why I link this strip to my main website.

vey nice…………….

Haha! His tongue is sticking out in that last panel!

I was worried my prediction at the start of this was gonna be wrong. I’m glad to see I have a clue (at least in comics).

This whole premise is soooo wrong! I think that this is the first sequence I’ve absolutely hated!

Yeah, I’m not thrilled with this one either. Sure, it’s great he was honest, but to get a gift for it? His gift should have been not being punished for shoplifting.

One day when I was about 8, my mom gave me one of those cheese & crackers snacks and I went to the corner store to get a comic book. I walked inside munching on the snack, and in front of the comic book stand the proprietor grabbed me, accused me of shoplifting, chewed me out, and called my mom. Who told him that she had given me the snack at home ten minutes earlier.

The proprietor let me go, rudely chasing me out of the store. He never apologized for grabbing me, yelling a me, humiliating me in front of a bunch of neighbors.

I did nothing wrong, and was punished. And I remember it 40+ years later. Mike steals, changes his mind, and gets rewarded. Nice to live in a fairy tale world.

That’s how things might work in a perfect world. In the real world, Michael was tazered, handcuffed, and perp walked out to a waiting police car by the local Gendarme’s. That will teach him right from wrong!

I’m sure if we wait it out, a serious ‘talk’ is forthcoming. The Patterson family is a GOOD family..and they’re involved parents. Mom & Dad weren’t there when this happened—so give “them” the benefit of doubt that a lesson is on the way. I once took a deck of cute animal rummy cards from my Aunt’s house (she’s now 80…I’m 45)…these cards were stuffed away in a game closet FULL of so many things, you had to dig through the shelves. I secretly walked out to our family car & placed the card set under the seat of the car…not knowing that my Dad saw me…and wondered why I had walked out to the car before we were ready to leave & head home…. When the family walked out to “hug and kiss everyone bye”, my Dad announced that I “had something” that I might need to give to my Aunt…when I tearfully returned them, she hugged me and said I could have them…that she hadn’t even remembered having them. I still remember the nauseated feeling…and those animal cards. Public embarrassment & being held accountable for your own actions are both powerful teachers.

…..and no…I no longer wanted anything to do with that cute set of animal cards..

Great! Now everyone will try that.

You all seem to forget that this comic strip action happens in CANADA, not the US, where paranoia is rampant

It’s a Hallmark moment!

Many of you miss the point. Michael gave in to Lawrence’s peer pressure but was fortunate not to get caught. But his conscience, fostered by his upbringing, continued to tell him (through a teddy bear’s eyes) that what he knew was right, that what he had done was wrong. So he acted on the impulse to do what was right, and THAT is the behavior and the choice that the “reward” is intended to reinforce. Those who think the shoplifting was reinforced need to look into your own consciences.

And Duck, there were many days in the 50’s that I was left to my own devices and did not need my dear mother looking over my shoulder constantly. The culture did a much better job of teaching proper behavior in those days than it does today. Even in the time in which Lyn developed these stories, a parent did not need to monitor their children’s every move. It is sad if we have lost that innocence and that a child’s every moment must be planned and monitored by adults.

Thanks for saying what needs saying.

@howtheduck- I’m sure you’re the person who was essentially ‘chased away’ from this board for repeatedly attacking others regarding the views they posted. Please don’t start critiquing my posts. That type of behavior serves no purpose…except to perhaps, again receive the reaction you got before.

I still think he should have just walked up to a clerk and said he found it lying on the floor outside.

Please remember that these sequences are FROM THE PAST. Michael is a grown man with Children of his own nowadays. This sequence is probably set in the 70’s or so, and things WERE handled differently “back then.”

This is one of the most unfortunate subplots in the whole strip. If the author wanted to transmit a positive message, I don’t know what it is.

I was hoping to do my Christmas shoplifting early this year so I would have time to return everything and get rewarded with a bunch of crap that I could turn around and give as