For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 20, 2024

Clearly this strip was not updated. Nobody writes checks anymore these days except perhaps the older generation, the Baby Boomers. If Liz were to pay her parents her rent and utility bill portion, she’d likely be transferring funds from her bank account to a Zelle or Venmo to wire the money or directly into their bank account if she banks with the same banker. Currently I am living in a rental and I Zelle to my landlord. When we had our own house before we sold it, we wired payments directly from our bank account to the mortgage company through their website. I have to say I am glad to be done with checkbooks. They were PIA.

The best thing that happen to me. 18YRS. old pay room and board or get out and join the service ( Navy ) !

In the last panel, Elly resembles those lazy characters from other strips, whose eyes are never seen: Beetle Bailey, Chip Flagston, Jeremy Duncan… :-D

Talk about proper motivation.

You think college is expensive now… Just wait…

Five children and never paid a single dime. Because higher education is free.

I rarely write a check anymore, and I am a boomer!

It’s called food and board

For more on this subject, take a look at Bill Whitehead’s Free Range comic today.

When I was at school, I always looked forward to my mother’s SAG letters. Those were the ones that contained a cheque or cash. She always wrote SAG ( Saint Anthony Guide ) on the envelope flap as a prayer that the money would safely arrive. Must have worked, as I always got them – and often, just in time!

I think LIz thought she had her mom trapped with the alternative thought of not attending college and staying home, and was hoping for the cheques to come her way anyhow. Her expression in the last panel shows what a wake-up call that thought process was!

In other words, no free ride after high school.

Turnabout, and all.

Liz was just informed she doesn’t live at home for free after she completes her education and turns 18.

My parents’ rule was, the second you got a job, you paid “rent”. I started paying a small, nominal “rent” at 16 with my first part-time job. Personally, I felt – even at the time – that it was fair.

no checks from her! Insist on cash only

As predicted. Mike just tells his parents what he is going to do, and they just pay for it. The joys of being rich! It’s good to have a father who is a dentist running his own practice in Canada.

Go into the Military and see the world.

She misspelled check.

Is Elly implying that sometimes Canadians are forced to pay for goods and services??

I took care of my mother from 2015 to 2022 (she had dementia that was worsening). When we still went to the grocery store together, I remember her pulling out her checkbook to pay for groceries. She was 88 then, but everyone would patiently (or impatiently wait). What I wouldn’t give to stand in line with her one more time.

And that’s the first lesson of growing up.

Must be nice to just receive money in the mail while you are at college. The haves and the have not, amiright?

And yes, I realize even putting one’s self through college makes one a ‘have’ in terms of most of the world’s people. Just saying, parental ‘cheques’ would have been nice!

Score 1 for Mom!

Cheque and double cheque.

Nice way, Elle, to get Elizabeth to start thinking ahead of time just what she is going to do after high school ( love the ‘stunned’ look on Elizabeth’s face, in last panel) ! ! ! !

All people should go to college and go out more, no one should stay home because right now even single young people in the 21st century are staying home and spending time on the internet.

Mikes a lucky kid having his folks paying his expenses while he’s in school, not that common now and even 30 years ago it indicates a certain upper middle class white status that a lot of folks who carried most or all of the load themselves can’t really relate to, it’s not just the reference to checks that’s old school here.

She can learn the fine art of hanging paper

Anyone got $20 million to spare? I am a bit in a money crunch here….Maybe Lynn Johnston can spare a few million???…

I am 75. Yes, I still use a few checks, to pay utilities and to send gifts to certain relatives, because I can limit the amount of personal info going on-line. Besides, mailing checks supports USPS which I don’t want to lose.

I still write checks. Property Taxes for sure. They want 3% if paying via EFT or Credit Card. Not paying that much extra when I can write a check and drop it off. Also still write them for other things that I want a guaranteed record of paying on.

Welp…off to COLLEGE!!