For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 20, 2022

har-dee-har-har, Mikey

If the glass has been there for a week, it’s obviously not needed for anything.

She wanted to be dramatic and Mike obliged

Roll with it, Mom.

That’s what you get when you have lazy kids

A week? On step where someone can easily trip over it? Isn’t there a toddler in the house who might be inclined to fall over or to break such an easily-reached glass? Elly may be complaining to Michael, but I will bet that poor Farley has been exhausting himself keeping April away from that glass all week long. No wonder he seems so interested in Panel 3.

If i tried that with my mom i’d be picking my teeth up off the floor.

Hasn’t Elly been upstairs anytime in the last week?

My question is who moved the glass at first? In the second panel the glass appears to be on a top stair almost level with Elly’s shoulders and the top of the door. In the third panel the glass is on the lowest stair near floor level. And another question, who actually takes the trouble to place a glass on the lowest stair? If you are over 5 feet tall you’d have to purposely stoop down to do it! That has never occurred to me. Why not just place it on a stair at arms length? Was Michael lying on the floor as he was drinking from the glass?

“Oh, my my my. That was a real struggle, wasn’t it? Apparently you need more physical activity and exercise to build your stamina… I know! No driving for a week! The extra walking will do you good!”

No way would I ever allow a breakable GLASS in the bathroom with kids in the house. It needs to be an unbreakable plastic cup.

I’d boot him in the a$$.

Is someone trying out for the Drama-Club?

He’s only dramatic if there is an audience. She should have continued on into the kitchen.

Maybe Michael has a future as an actor.

This picking up after themselves does NOT happen until much later, and expecting good common sense is just not there. I certainly wasn’t that thoughtful towards others when I was younger, but now? It is almost like dare to myself to make everything clean and tidy (I even started tidying up the bomb-blast shirt display at The Bay store in this town.) That was nuts… When it comes to kids laundry, and WHY DIDN’T YOU WASH MY CRAP? Here’s the soap, and the machine. Use it. No Gym uniform? Tough.

Michael does a great imitation of his father from a couple of months ago. LOL.

If my kids act like that when I ask them to do a simple task that should’ve been done a long time ago, I’d ground them for a week!

I need to send this to my Mom.

Love the way posters take a really humorous strip and analyze the irrelevant bits to death. Life is SO serious!

No sympathy, Mikey. None.

My parents house had a small landing on the stairs to the 2nd floor. My mother would put things there to be taken upstairs. Everybody ignored them and she would go off on occasion. Then it would happen again, LOL!

I didn’t start making those noises until I was in my 50s…

Just a thought here but I personally wouldn’t want to use a glass that had been sitting there for a week. It should go back to the kitchen and be washed again. BUT Michael gave good laughs today!

So he hasn’t brushed his teeth in a week?

(Darn, smartass teenagers!)

But what have they been using in that bathroom for a week?

Growing up, sometimes I would leave the door open. My mother would ask “Do you live in a barn?”. I would replay “Mooooooooooo”.

A future drama major no doubt.

Mom the Drama Queen

dramatic much… oh, who am I kidding, some of us kids still do it today… for fun anyways. :)

Ahhh….good times!

if that was my mom, her foot would be helping me up the steps !

This would never happen at my house. I like a tidy home and would have picked that dangerous GLASS on the stairs and put it in it’s proper place (after a wash) as soon as I spotted it. Of course I would give the miscreant a lecture on WHY it had to be picked up.

For Ellie to know the glass has been on the stairs for a week, implies she’s on strike and not willing to be the one that puts the glass back where it belongs. Or, she has forgotten the old advice, “Never expect someone else to do something you won’t do yourself.”

Made my day.

She should just announce, “Best performance by an overly dramatic teenager asked to do the bare minimum goes to MICHAEL!” And she should have videoed it, and posted it to Instagram

Maybe he should take up acting?

That would be my grandchildren. And they pass things that they learned from watching, to each other. I know that I only showed one of the grandchildren how heavy Nanny’s purse, and all of the boys make it seem to be the heaviest thing around. I am the ‘mean’ grandparent, but I am the FAVORITE.

“What would it take for you to move the cup?’

“A spocked fiver”

I would have applauded his performance….

Michael must be practicing theatrics…

To me, whoever left it on the step is responsible for putting back where it belongs. But in this case, since Michael acted like such a “smarta**”, he wouldn’t be allowed on any social media or seeing his friends for the day.

My first thought is, how many times has El passed the glass on her way upstairs in the past week? Does she never go up there? Is she so decrepit that it would kill her to put the glass in the bathroom herself? If it’s so important to her, she should just do it herself and shut up. Second, but most important, shared bathroom glasses are totally gross. Next she’ll be moaning about the whole family being sick.

His mom said it was there a week. Why didn’t she just bring it up instead of letting it annoy her? By the way, glass in a bathroom is never a great idea. Unbreakable is better.

If I did that, my mother (rip) would have given me a kick in the pants.

Heck, let him do it his way and enjoy the show

That’s me!

My first thought of seeing today’s comic was “Wow, Michael sure is in bad shape!”

Come on now Michael, after all Lawrence would do it without question. When has Lawrence ever done one single thing wrong?

OMG that’s what I do when I pick up after my husband.

“And the Oscar goes to..”

And the Oscar for Biggest Smartass goes to…

Touche, kid! Not that he’s right, but few things are more gratifying than bringing down a pontificating ex-hippie.

Sign that kid up for proper lessons; he’s over-acting.

Still too late to make the Oscars;

Reminds me of my ex-neighbors. They would drop a bag of trash outside their door and leave it there. Four people living in that house, and every single one of them would walk past it numerous times without throwing it in the garbage tote. Then they’d get mad when a rat got into it and the mom would scream her head off at the others.

That kind of behavior would not have been allowed either in the house I grew up in or my own house later. That smug look on Mike’s face in the last panel would have earned me a slap on the face.

Don’t ask anything. Tell him to do it.

My young manager asked me to “throw out” a basket of put-away items after close recently. I told her I was tempted to toss it on the floor, and she said as soon as she said it, she knew I would say something like that—I mean, a statement like that is pretty much begging for a snarky reply in my family (and three of my siblings also work there)

Yo Helly! Do you even know if it was MICHAEL who took it out of the bathroom, or was he just the most convenient target!? I bet you would have spent less energy putting it back YOURSELF than you used b!%(#ing at him in the first place!

Next time, shut up and DO THE JOB YOURSELF, you lazy old hag!

Try “slow clapping” to show appreciation for his performance.

Elly, it’s a freaking glass. How many times have you gone upstairs all week? This is what you are hanging your flag on? Pretty pathetic.

Michael is Canadian. As such, he should only respond three ways:

1.) “Yes, Mom”.

2.) “No, Mom.”

3.) “Anything you want, Mistress Elly and Massa John.”

When he goes to college,Mike will major in sarcasm.

His first name is Mike, but is his last name Hunt?

How difficult would it have been for YOU to do it, Cru-Elly?

Or were you just looking for an excuse to berate someone?

Do you know it was Mike who took the glass OUT of the bathroom!?

Why don’t parents think their kids have been things to do?