The Buckets by Greg Cravens for January 23, 2019

They should start feeling the bite – cut their allowances.

All my lamps had wood bases when the kids were young, now I have very few lamps, but those are metal. (I have parrots now.) :)

it’s not that she doesn’t expect it and ALWAYS buy crappy ones.

And make them use their allowances to buy the lamps. Hit ‘em in the money and just maaaybe they’ll be more careful…naw, who’m I kiddin? !?!?!

My mother used to make us play in the dark if we broke the lamps. Or maybe I’m confusing “my mother” with “the natural consequences of not having anymore lamps.”

“I agree that confession is the right thing to do.” Anyone else think Panel 3 would be, “Mom! Toby broke another lamp!”

Here’s another option. “We like to take things apart and put them back together again. Just to see how they are made and how the run. It’s a learning experience.” Any bets on whether she’ll buy that?

Maybe they can convince their parents to let them create a new lamp base for an art project – a lamp base simply being anything to hold the bulb, wiring, switch, and shade together. They can literally use anything solid, non-flammable and non-explosive.

Oh, and one-of-a-kind lamps sell for hundreds of dollars!

I never broke a lamp in my life. Of course I’m so much older than my brother that I was babysitter, not playmate.

My sister and I broke my Mom’s favorite lamp. We decided our best bet was to run away forever. We made it all the way to the end of the family orchard. My Mom and Dad found us. It was not pretty!

Whoa, Toby is maturing. I would’ve expected him to say “I agree that confession is the right thing for you to do”.