For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 09, 2023

Did you actually tell her to come straight home and start dinner?

So when she does come home will mom react by being relieved before the axe falls

It took me a minute to realize what she was doing. I completely forgot that most people had an electric can opener under the cupboards.

Elly is carrying a lot of plates for 4 people.

Please what appliance is Elly using in the first frame?

F’cryin’ out loud—stop being such a b!tch and send for take-out!! With the salary from your new job, you can afford it.

Why does everyone expect Elly to do everything? Obviously, because she can.

I can’t believe Elizabeth listened to that pair of idiots, she really is very easy to influence.

That is like me and my cats “You scream to go outside… fine … go”. 10 minutes later I’m looking out into the back yard and freaking out because I can’t see them. Then when they come in it ISN’T “You made daddy scared”, it is “Here … some treats…”

Because it’s really hard to heat up a can of soup, right? I suppose Elly really could’ve gone for broke and made a box of Kraft Dinner to go with it.

Elle, is a good Mother and like a good Mother, her child is missing and she’s worried. She may sort the child out whe the child gets home but NOW she is concerned for her child’s safety ! ! ! !

Worry is starting to set in.

I don’t blame her for being worried nowadays.

My mother. If you were 10 minutes late it was because you were DEAD!! Couldn’t be any other reason. Talk about dying a 1000 deaths, I think over the years we were all DEAD at least that many times.

IF she comes home.

I may have missed something here; where is the toddler April when Mom is at work all day. No one else is in the home as she must “put on dinner” when first coming home.

Elly, you will be so glad to see her, you’ll forget to scold her.

As a record collector, I often sift through piles of 45s by various bands from the late 1960s with names that reflect the times in which they aspired. If I ever run across one with the name the Pontificating Hippies, I’ll know it’s one that inspired Elly.

Hmmm. Was there ever a fuss about when Mike came home and started dinner? How come girls are expected to take care of everyone? Why doesn’t dad make supper sometimes? When someone asks me “What’s for supper?”, I ask them “What are you making?”.

My kids were more considerate at calling than my wife. She owned two 7-Eleven franchise stores for several years and would work more than ten hours a day. During that time, when she was running late which was often, I’d have to call her stores to see if she left. She rarely ever called to say she’d be late.

If only they had cell phones back then.

What happened to all that excitement and joy of getting a job?? Plus, I don’t remember a strip when Elle sat down with Liz and gave her instructions: “Now that I have job, there are some things that are expected of you as you are usually the first home in the afternoon.”

“Are you OK?” “Yes.” “Good. HOW DARE YOU….”

Reminds me of the Mafia game series. In one of them it is discovered that Sal Marcano, the Mafia kingpin, has covert plans to build a casino to go straight. His son Giorgi is not as enthuiastic.

Giorgi Marcano: I am telling you Pop we can make double, maybe even triple as much bread moving heroin than we could from some dumb ol’ casino.

Sal Marcano: This ain’t about the money.

Giorgi: You’re joking, right? All I ever hear from you is this

Sits at his father’s desk and pretends to bark into a telephone

Giorgi{mocking his father}: Don’t give me that excuse, you understand? You will pay me what’s owed!

Sal: My son, do you think this is a game? If so then it is my fault for humoring you and not setting your straight. But this is real. pours himself a glass of bourbon This crud wears on you; grinds you down. I ain’t had a decent night’s sleep in 43 years. Then after what happened to my brother Lucio. sigh

Giorgi: Hey, we got every one of those guys that did it.

Sal: Yes, and your uncle is still dead; ain’t he?

Giorgi: Yeah, oh well…

Sal: You think sitting in that chair makes you special, eh? Somehow puts you above all of other people’s problems? But it does exactly the opposite. It turns your head into a target and bullseye. There is a price to be paid for all this, you understand? And I am sick of paying it. But mainly I am worried that I am going to get a phone call that they found your dead body in a gutter somewhere.

Giorgi: What do you expect me to do at this casino? Work the door, glad hand people when they come in? Why don’t you just tell me to get a job at the department store?

Sal: You’ll run it with me. After a few years I will retire when I am confident that all this has settled down and you will take over. You will get yourself a trophy wife and give me some long-awaited grandchildren.

You got a job Elly, invest in a crockpot with a timer. And don’t you have a microwave?

“Fume fume fume!” “Where’s my baby?” “I hope she’s safe!”

Hey Cru-Elly, maybe she expects you to make dinner because you are HER MOTHER? But no, you never ask anything of your children, you simply DEMAND it. Did you ask if Liz had anything planned or going on after school!? I’m certain you didn’t. Why don’t you take both barrels and stick one in each ear!?

I remember in the days when this strip first ran, sometimes there was no way to tell someone that you weren’t where you were expected to be, that you just had to wait patiently for everyone to get home on their own, and then the parents would give the kids an if-you-ever-pull-this-again-so-help-me-God lecture, as Elly describes here.

For most adults I know, it’s only a dim memory by now, and it feels bizarre. And of course for Zoomers it’s as alien a thought as washing clothes by hand or filling a bathtub with water heated in pots over the stove.

As I’m so often reminded, this strip is a product of the time in which it was made. The idea that changing the year when it’s occasionally mentioned in dialogue turns this into some sort of evergreen is absurd.

Growing pains. All around.

Well it is a well know fact Elizabeth that there is no I in team, but there is in Family, and Family comes first.

They expect you to do everything because you DO everything. Maybe try making it clear you expect THEM to pick up after themselves, do their own laundry, clean the bathroom, etc. As for supper – you’re opening cans. Big whoop.

It is time for Elizabeth to grow up. We saw this when her father demanded to know that she was being responsible with her allowance money. In this case Elizabeth’s mother expects her to help out around the house and that certain chores be completed upon Elly’s return from work. Elizabeth did not do that. In the service that was called (for lack of a better term) screwing your buddy. Elizabeth needs to understand she is part of a family. There will come a time when she gives birth to children of her own. The sooner she is a part of the Patterson family, the better prepared she will be to part of whatever family Elizabeth marries into.

And Elly is back!

If she can’t pack a decent lunch how can she be expected to prepare dinner?

Wow!! Just because you got a job doesn’t mean she can’t have a social life with her friends. She should have asked I’ll grant, but this level of anger is a little over the top.

Actually,aside from t he worry that meal looks downright unappetizing