For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 12, 2018

Oh, the doggone guilt trip.

“What did you do with the milk?”

Is it my imagination, or does Elly’s question imply she thinks Liz has hidden the milk away somewhere and it can still be recovered?

Mom we shouldn’t cry over spilled milk. (that’s my story and I am sticking to it )

Could this be a lactose moment of lack answers?

The truth always comes out, Liz

It was an accident. It’s not like she deliberately took the money and bought herself a toy or something.

Odd that the child is so frightened of telling her mother that she had an accident. And why the story of a robbery? What has mom been instilling?

Odd that the child is so frightened of telling her mother that she had an accident. And why the story of a robbery? What has mom been instilling?

Somebody on Etiquette Hell claimed she lied to her parents every time she did something because she preferred the punishment she received for lying, getting spanked, because she would avoid being grounded for the original offense.

There was a Foxtrot strip similar to this, where the kids spilled soda on the keyboard of Mom’s computer. Because the father earned a reputation as a klutz, he was the chief suspect, and Mom is screaming at him. Eventually the kids are overcome by guilt and confess. The mother says “Yes, I am angry at you kids spilling a drink on the computer. Even so, it was an accident. However, when I came down on your father like an iceberg on an ocean liner and you kids sat there like lumps, was not an accident. I am angrier with what happened afterwards. Your behavior was indefensible.”

Keep in mind that Elly has been known to scream when the slightest little thing is out of place. Even E-L-L-Y has the same exact letters as Y-E-L-L.

This reminds me of when I was a kid. My mother always told me that I couldn’t do anything that she wouldn’t find out about. One day we were out of school and the theater downtown had a free showing of the original Planet of the Apes. Later she asked me about going to the movie. A friend of hers had seen me there. So everytime I did something I imagined how she would find out.

Ooooo….the plot thickens…will Elizabeth come up with another whopper, as an answer…after all it’s only Monday…

As my grandmother said “Lies make baby Jesus cry”.

What’s up with readers saying Elly is not a loving mother, who yells and intimidates her children…?? Armchair parenting? She is an average mother. She is teaching Liz to be truthful, to face consequences of her actions whether her actions might upset her elders. Liz is not afraid of her mother – she is afraid more about upsetting her, failing her, not OF her. She felt like such a big girl when her mom sent her on an errand and what did she do? Carelessly tossed around the bag that the milk cartons got destroyed. She failed in her errands and her mother. She rather blame the loss of the milk to others than herself so she invented a story about being ambushed by a group of bullies. Deep in her consciousness, she knows her mother will not buy her story but she did it anyway. She is very young and inexperienced. Elly is using this as a teaching moment – to admit doing something stupid and to make amends and it doesn’t have to be painful or punishable. A good mother does that. Mothers who only coddle her children, ignore the outlandish story, let it go and go to the store by herself raise children who will become problematic adults – of which we are seeing more and more nowadays. So I guess that explains the comments I am seeing here shooting down Elly.