For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 13, 2016

Elizabeth’ll supervise while John’ll clean up.

Always worked for my son!

She is learning the wrong lesson here. But failing is a good start to learning.

Would not even dream of trying that in my house. The Parental Solidarity Union would have just gotten me more work than was initially assigned.

My dad would have laughed at me and said ‘nice try, now get to work’.

Mine and my siblings’ rooms never got cluttered like that. Two reasons, maybe: 1) We never had all that much stuff to scatter about. 2) Until we were older, we didn’t have rooms to ourselves, so we each kept our own stuff where the others wouldn’t have an excuse to touch it.

If that were one of our daughters, my husband would say, What did your mother say? Or, he would ask me. Vice versa. The girls learned at a very young age not to pit one of us against the other because we communicate.

I must admit I would have no defense against a “Please, Daddy?” However, girls need strong fathers.

At our house it was “Grammy lets me!” whenever they wanted to do something and I said no.

Ah yes, magic words indeed.

Proof that we learn early how to manipulate Daddy.

My girls’ daddy would laugh and say something like did I help you make the mess? No? Then I won’t help clean it up.

I wish was newspaper wouldn’t cut the opening panels. When I read this in the paper this morning I wasn’t quite sure why she felt the need to clean her room and hang up her clothes. now I see Ellie was behind it.

“Was” should have been “my”.

Do it yourself, you little twit. The world is full enough of people wanting others to do their work…

She has her hand on the door which happens to be the edge of the panel too.

A messy room is not fair to Elizabeth’s mother and worst of all, it isn’t fair to herself. She is one who has to live in that pig pen.

Did everybody miss the fact that she used “the magic word”?

Don’t even think about it, Dad!

At least she learned to smile.