Oh come on! Pat's mother isn't dead - she's very much alive and pouring his liquor down the sink - I think that's a cheap shot Mignon.

Everyone has a different story. I'm deeply sorry for you - for anyone - who loses a parent at an early age. I have had friends in similar situations; it is one of the worst fates to befall anyone.

But it does not give you the right to preach lyrical about respect for parents. If your own mother had lived, heaven knows, you might well have argued and fallen out a lot, and even had cause to curse her as Pat curses his own mother.

The reality of family life is that you can't live with it when it's there, and miss is sorely when it's not. It might seem like a trivial teenage hangup but Pat shouldn't be made to feel abnormal or wicked for venting his feeling just because your mother sadly died before her time.