For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 02, 2024

Yeah. I’m one of those women who don’t like sharing a kitchen. And work alone in the kitchen. I rather everyone else to stay out and wait to be called to the table. And I do my dishes alone and everything returned to their places exactly as I set them up. I get pissy when someone misplaces something. I am weird that way. That’s my only OCD. Just mess with my kitchen. Or with me while in kitchen.

I and my family are Jewish. My mother had separate dishes, cutlery, and cookware for meat and dairy dishes—plus additional sets for Passover.

My brother and I don’t follow that practice—especially since there’s nothing in the Bible that says that we have to!

All it says (Leviticus and Deuteronomy) is “Thou shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” To this date, I have never done that!

Day 2 and I forgot we had this joke here. Not a bad one just forgetable given what’s about to happen.

There’s generally a “universal order” to how most people organize their kitchens, so it isn’t too hard to figure out where things go in a strange kitchen. What does change from cook to cook is what items are considered indispensable.

Gramma Carrie made cake and taffy and gingerbread men and we readers just get to be told about it. Like Elly’s lavish description of her cruise yesterday, it sounds like a lot of great comic strips that are only being described to us. Why not show us those? I would love to see Gramma Carrie bonding with her granddaughters.

Grandma should’ve put everything back as she found it but I guess you have to take the bad with the good. She did take care of the kids while Elly and John were away.

Elly can’t even look at her daughter when she is talking

Be glad you have family who are willing to fly halfway across the country just a babysit your kids for a week. Many people have family living locally who will not do that.

My apartment’s only entrance is thru the kitchen. Man, I hate that!!

Seriously, DON’T reorganize someone else’s kitchen!

I am not sure Grandma did much reorg. Anyone from 1930s to 1970s would have all those glasses upside-down to keep out the cockroaches, that was my mother would say and the excuse for flipping all my wife’s glasses one time, “just a habit”

I had a SIL used to help with dishes, I’d wash and she’d dry and put away, trouble is, after she left, I could never find anything! You’d think you’d ask or find items like it!

That’s what happened when my wife retired. Nearly everything that wasn’t nailed down got rearranged, stored or disposed of without consulting me, from tools to kitchen utensils.

I keep all the wooden utensils in a separate drawer than the metal utensils

Did they send Granma home via UPS? She’s just gone?

Husband never used to help put things away, but somehow dementia has changed that. And I can’t ask him where he put it because he doesn’t remember.

This reminds me of my Aunt Cherri. Whenever she visited her sister (my mother) or her mother, nothing in the kitchen was in the same place after she left..

I don’t like sharing my kitchen, but I will put up with it.

My grandmother lived on an old-fashioned farm – no heat, no Air conditioning, no indoor plumbing except for the hand pump at the kitchen sink. But, there was an old refrigerator (That’s where the Pepsi’s were). My Dad and Uncle bought her a gas stove to cook on. Grandma used the new gas stove to store her pots and pans. She continued to use that 19th century wood stove until she passed. Will never forget the taste of those Sunday roasts with that distinctive aroma and taste from cooking in that old wood stove.

Ah yes, the old, have them care for the kids for a week, now I can’t find anything problem.

Late in his life, one of my Dad’s carers rearranged the china cabinet. Dad was not impressed (not in the least), changed it back to what he was used to since it had been the same arrangement for over 60 years…. took him all day. Carer got dismissed for changing it back again and insisting on the change. Dad’s safety and security was in knowing where everything was, is and will be for the duration. Some changes, while looking logical and practical, can be hazardous to one’s health.

The egg beater is in the freezer and the pork roast is next tothe wooden spoons. Simple, isn’t it?

I have never understood people that can’t put plates back when there is a plate in the spot, or glasses, or bowls. Utensils — if people would just pay attention where they got the items in the first place

You can’t anything you want because your hair is covering your eyes in the fourth panel, Elly!

Time for a haircut.

This message on not rearranging things or telling other people what to do came from Elly; one who is constantly nagging Elizabeth about her room and hinting that Michael needs to get rid of his hair and his beard.

This actually happened when my sister was born! And again when my mother had to go back into the hospital!!

Elly’s mom rearranged the kitchen too! January 14, 2015

That’s the price you pay for free child care.

Next time Elly, have an illegal immigrant look after April. When the immigrant asks about her pay, report her to the border patrol.

Since I retired I cook a lot more than I used to… I still honor my wife’s kitchen arrangement. Why mess with perfection?

Panel 3: Elizabeth, in the kitchen, stuffing her face, once again…

Aren’t mother in laws supposed to get on your nerves every time they visit?