For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 01, 2019

For the purposes of this comic strip. long time readers will have to forget that normally Elly has mats in front of and behind the doors to the outside. Long time readers will also have to overcome their shock at seeing the Patterson kids do yard-work.

Time to get out the vacuum and carpet cleaner

I like the way Lynn does sound effects.

This is why we have laminate and vinyl flooring at our house. :P

Houses were never meant to be clean all the time. It’s life.

The disgustingly dirty, stinky things should never be allowed in the house……a the dog stays out too…

I love panel seven, as Farley just looks at Ellie, thinking “What’s she all upset about?”

Just shows again,IMHO, that Elly is very poor at parenting. Why yell at your children when you have failed to teach them about cleaning up before entering the house.

Another great example of a pontificating hippie/ex-hippie getting short circuited while pontificating. Makes my day.

Dog butt wipes are the worst.

Well, face it. If you have a dog you have a mess.

A little grass in the house to clean up is a small price to pay for the kids doing the chore in the first place. We usually just get to see the large amount of whining these two kids do when told to do yard work.

After I do the lawn work, I go back into the house through the garage. That gives me a place to take off my shoes and socks so I don’t mess up the floor.

In my house; it’s the aging cat that causes messes. My wife is very tolerant of her “Baby” If he knocks something off a shelf or table, she’ll reward him with a treat!

This one reminds me of the time we were looking at houses—long time ago when there was no staging, and such, and people used to look at houses when the owners were at home. So there we were in the living room of one house, and the wife was accompanying the agent and pointing out the view, and the built in shelving, etc., and in comes her husband covered in saw dust which he’s shedding as he’s walking in his work boots and making tracks on the living room carpet. You should have seen the look on the wife and agent…

Lynn’s Comments: I’m looking back at these drawings from a grandmother’s point of view now…and the first thing that came to mind was, “Why is Elly criticizing the kids when they have actually mowed and raked a lawn?!—For heaven’s sake, girl, leave the complaints for bigger misdemeanors!”

She agrees with you all now! It’s just hard to see when you’re in the middle of trying to teach and you wonder where you’ve gone wrong that they can’t remember…

Come on Ellie, they’re kids who have been working in the garden, give em a break!

Ellie you’re picky picky get a life

Call Steammaster.

My goodness, Mike sure has shot up this year,,he’s going to be tall like Daddy.

Okay kids, earn you keep. Clean it all up.

No point yelling at the kids for getting dirty while doing your work.

To paraphrase an old joke in data processing circles: “To err is human, but to really mess up the floor you need a shaggy dog.”

This is best strip without words.