For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 29, 2021

Ooh, busted (kind of late).

Mothers have a nose for nicotine, but no sense to actually do anything about it?

Oh, Elizabeth. Elly doesn’t care about the haircut. Elly just wants to know who the “troublemaker” is she can blame everything on. Bad haircuts and cigarette smoking are about the same level of evil in her book and only one person can be responsible. Dawn or Elizabeth don’t have any agency. Dawn got a haircut yesterday for the same reason that Liz smoked cigarettes two months ago. She allowed herself to be manipulated by someone and now Elly has a name.

Candace. Elly knows you now and you will feel the full brunt of Elly’s fury. When Elly comes after Candace, she will not know what hit her. When her motherly protection goes into full force, we will see a massive display of power and anger. Threaten Elizabeth and Dawn with smoking and bad haircuts, will she? Candace is in for a whole world of hurt!!

Just kidding. Elly is probably going to give Elizabeth a really long lecture all while ignoring just how much food April is putting in her hair.

EVERYONE has a nose for cigarette smoke. That stench does not go away easily. That’s why some people will not let passengers smoke in their car.

Didn’t you know, Miss, there are mothers who know everything, they are not naïve and you have one of those mothers who know everything!

Not only do moms have a nose for nicotine, moms also have had an illicit smoke or two in their younger days. ;D

So did April swallow the spoon?

When you don’t have any smokers in the house, the smell of a cigarette really stands out, even if it’s only one. We are non-smokers, and when we visited my in-laws (who both chain-smoked), we ended up reeking of it. To cope with this, we always wore clothes that could be washed often, because when we came home, we’d all strip off and stuff everything into the washing machine immediately. None of us could stand the smell, but we couldn’t say anything because it was their house after all. Luckily, they respected our preferences and did not light-up when they visited us.

After buying their only home, my folks taped a small NO SMOKING, PLEASE sign to the front door. I never knew why since the only members of the family with the habit seldom made the trip to visit and (to my knowledge) none of their friends smoked. Maybe it was aimed at door-to-door salespeople or home repairmen.

Timing is everything , Liz

And dope.

Candace is bad news.

April apparently eats by osmosis…

My Mom used to call some of my friends’ “undesirable”. I never hung out with them to spite her, and frankly they usually wanted to hang out with me. (Usually after a street light got shot out somewhere)

First its cigarettes, then its pot

The moment you realize that because a parent doesn’t say anything doesn’t mean they don’t know anything.

At least Candace is not Chandler, cigarette smoke at least dissapates, babies are forever!

Somewhere in my dim past, I saw a comic strip where a teen had smoked and the parent accused the teen. When asked how he/she knew, the answer was “My olefactory canals”, The teen then asked how he/she could get some of those “old factory canals”. I thought it was hilarious and totally apropos. Elly could has said the same thing here.

Mothers have a nose for nicotine and eyes in the back of their heads. Also, a bunch of nosy friends who call up mom to tattle on what they saw your kid do.

Candace sounds like an agent provocateur.

As a mother I can verify that this is SO true!!

We’ve just been helping a friend clean her house. She’s a hoarder and a smoker so you can imagine the size of the job. She swore her kitchen cabinets were beige until we showed her different!

L.S.M.F.T.!

Maybe nicotine, but not for burning rubber, as Marian the Pot Holder Burning Mother has shown.