TVSquad

What constitutes a good kid these days? I ask because if I go by the standards put forth by some of the daytime soaps, it's a pretty low bar that's been set. Take, for example, a good kid on Guiding Light. Daisy, Harley's daughter, was told last week that she would not be allowed to graduate with her high school class. Her mother was dismayed. How could they do that to her daughter? Daisy is such a good kid, Harley said again and again. She'd worked hard to get her grades up and she deserved to graduate with her classmates.

Hmm...sounds reasonable, right? But what Harley was conveniently forgetting was that Daisy had been busted by the cops for being the ring leader of a counterfeit ID operation. She stumbled upon the idea of manufacturing false IDs for profit when someone admired the fake she'd created for herself and a friend. "Hey, I'll give you $100 for one of those." Entreprenuerial Daisy could not turn down the offer; she went into business. Not exactly the actions of a Girl Scout, right? Of course, if this had been her first indiscretion, it wouldn't be so bad. But Daisy had already been incarcerated in juvvie for her part in vehicular manslaughter and drug use. She's also terminated a pregnancy because she had unprotected sex. In other words, Daisy is in no way, shape or form "a good kid."

She's not alone. My heart really bleeds for Michael Corinthos, Jr. on General Hospital. Michael, mob boss Sonny's eldest son (that we know of), was recently the victim of shooting. While spending a day with his father at the coffee warehouse (Sonny's legitimate business enterprise), a sniper took aim at Sonny and tried to blow his head off with a single rifle shot. At the last moment, Sonny saw the reflection of the light on the rifle and pushed Kate, his girlfriend, aside. The bullet ricocheted and hit Michael instead of Kate or Sonny. The damage to his brain from the bullet has left him in a permanent comatose state. He's been moved to a care facility in Manhattan where he will, presumably, never come to. This story, as I said, is heartbreaking. You never want to see a child -- in this case a 12-year-old boy -- violently and senselessly hurt. But, when Carly and Sonny cry and claim that Michael was a very good boy, they're not exactly impartial.

The fact is that Michael was the victim of an accident, but he had been teetering on the edge of going bad for months. He didn't listen to his parents. When they discovered that he bought a gun from some street kids, thinking that he would protect his family, Sonny told him that he never wanted him to touch a gun. Carly grounded him and let him know that guns were unacceptable. Still, Michael found a way to buy bullets and carried the gun. He then accidentally shot Kate, and left her to die! Okay, he thought she was already dead, but his reaction was not to do the right thing and call the authorities (or his parents). No, Michael went on the run. He was not acting like a good kid. Good kids don't do that.

One more good kid to mention, One Life to Live's Starr Manning. Her mother says all the time what a good kid Starr is. Her father, Todd, is determined that she remain pure and good and virtuous. Well, Starr tries to be good, but her youthful passion for Cole has resulted in her teenage pregnancy. True, that's really not a sin, especially in the soap universe. But it also doesn't make her a saint. She loved a boy, they had sex, something went wrong with the condom, and boom, she's preggers. With a crazy father like she has, going to the folks for help wasn't the thing to do. She ran away. With the boy. Again, not bad, but would call that the actions of a good kid?

It's ironic, some of the really good kids on soaps are no longer on the canvas. Georgie, on GH, was about the nicest kid around. Smart, ambitious, generous, moral... It really doesn't seem just that she died at the hands of a serial killer. And on The Young and the Restless, the death of Cassie in a car crash is still being mourned. When they talk of her being a good kid, they speak the truth.

Soap drama is what it is. You expect troubled teens to drive storylines. I accept that. But, please, just don't blow smoke up my butt by claiming every troublemaker is really just a good kid. It's simply not the truth.