For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 03, 2023

especially an alarm clock with a mouth as big as that one.

It’s been proven that teenagers are some of the most sleep deprived people on the planet, even before video games and cell phones. Their bodies don’t release sleep hormones until late at night, and because of all the changes in their bodies, they actually require more sleep.

I slept to 3 pm once when I was a teen in jr high. I guess I was pretty exhausted. Fortunately, MY mom let me sleep.

So if he’s got nothing on the schedule that day, leave him alone!!

I had a bedtime right through my senior year of HS. No ifs ands or buts. And I work with teenagers for a living. And many admit they are up until 2am or later on their phones. And they are on their phones constantly in school. We’re fighting a losing battle. So what happens when these kids start jobs at 18 – 22 that requires them to be at work at 7am? Where are the excuses then? We teach them time management in HS. But we can’t make them do it. I love my kids, but there are way too many distractions and the biggest one is what they are holding in their hands – their phones.

Yep… 17 y.o. teenage male – a 12 noon wake up is common.

I remember after cramming for finals one year I slept for more than 24 hours

1500 hours?! What happened; did Michael get a job as a night watchman or graveyard shift worker?

Sadly true, Mike. But 3 o’clock IS pretty late.

3 pm………?

Why do some people insist that everyone should be awake when they are?

Sometimes those are the only ones that work.

Wow. Michael has to shave.

Yo, Helly? Michael graduates in less than a month, ever think he might have been up late STUDYING FOR FINALS!?

Is he supposed to be anywhere, or has a tasks to complete, or are you just a jealous Mom who cannot stand it that he is not up because it bothers you! Dam mit, leave him alone.

Three consecutives strips with slothful behavior in all three of the Patter-sins.

April is closer to infancy than puberty. What are Elizabeth and Michael’s excuses?

If he has a responsibility to deal with, then her actions are “excusable”, otherwise she is just being a “bully” with all the attendant connotations of that term.

I never slept that long when I was a teenager, nor up during the night to sleep that long. Parent’s not allow it.

It’s Monday in real life,but it better be Saturday or Sunday in the strip.

I hardly remember the last time I slept in at 1500.

Are you asleep?

No dead. Leave the flowers and get out.

Sounds like a King of the Hill episode:

Bobby is in bed. Hank opens the blinds, shining sunlight on Bobby’s head and waking him up. Bobby groans

Bobby{groggy}: "I am still sleepy. I did not go to bed until 3 A.M..I was watching the Taxi marathon on Nick at Nite.

Bobby{impersonating Andy Kaufman}: “Dank you veddy much.”

Hank: “Bobby, in this house we do not use our summer vacations for sleeping in. Nor do you get to stay up all night watching what were probably reruns like some shut-in.”

The pontificating hippie. Initially supremely annoying. Still annoying at the time this strip first appeared. A pathetic period piece now.