Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott for October 28, 2024

Self-Esteem is overrated. Some people see it as the solution to all the world’s problems, but it’s not.

All weapons are banned at schools, even paper towel tube swords.

Your self esteem will survive, Hammie!

This looks like it’s a job for CPS!

What the hell is wrong with that woman?

That is among the worst Halloween swords I’ve ever seen. Swing it through the air, and it will fall apart. Grasp the handle firmly, and you’ll crush it. Somebody needs to demand a refund.

Stupid kid! Since when parents care about their kids’ self-esteems?

Is it just me or do the sidewalks in their town float above a body of water?

Hammie, you do realize if the teachers see a cardboard toilet paper roll, they’re going to freak out.

Kids are getting so much smarter and sophisticated these days. …but not more than mothers!

So did Darryl fix up Hammie’s sword with some sort of laser beam?

“My name is Hamish MacPherson. You killed my self-esteem. Prepare to die…”

Self esteem is an important trait in all of us but, it is wrong to blame failures to achieve happiness & success on the inability of one to recognize the good in themselves.

Not nearly as damaging as having all the kids in class laugh at you Hammie. Take it as a lesson learned.

It seems like a perfectly respectable costume to me. Though I do notice that neither Zoe nor the kid in the background is in a costume either, so maybe the issue is that today is not Halloween at all? (And indeed it’s not, but comic strips aren’t always entirely faithful to the dates of holidays if they have several strips’ worth of material.)

I had no idea people still said “Phooey”

The teacher wouldn’t have batted an eye…we ARE talking about Hammie

Self-esteem is fine but it needs to be tempered by other virtues, like empathy. Or it becomes self-entitlement.

Save it for Halloween Hammie.

Save it for when Halloween comes, Hammie. She might let you where it then.

Phooey is right Hammie.

It was worth a try.

We used to be able to wear our Halloween costumes to school on Halloween.