Y’know, I have a problem with this. Not the burglary – the assumption that teenagers have any great need for alcohol in the first place.
My circles never did. Doesn’t mean it was absent, but few people were drinking in significant quantity.
We’ve successfully changed the social equation so kids who smoke are largely considered idiots rather than cool. I think it’s time to start thinking about how we can achieve the same with kids who drink to excess just because they’ re getting away with something or think it shows they’re “adult” when it’s actually proving they’re far from.
Yeah, I know, this is a slice of the author’s life, at a time and in a place and so on. And yes, I’m being a bit idealistic about this. But I’d have been much, much happier if the word “troubles” in the very first panel was changed to “troubled”, past tense.
Be careful what expectations you set. Kids can read them, and will live up – or down – to them.
