Go ahead and hit the kid and get it over with, Elly. You know you want to. Just do it and make it official: you wouldn't know how to communicate with a child if you had ten of them, and your ego is so fragile that a "look" from your son is enough to set you off and drive you to the brink of violence.
The third pre-Patterson collection hints broadly as to why: we're meant to slobber over the unfairness that is a child thinking for him or herself.
What's more, she never learns from her lifetime of flying off the handle
and being arrogantly dismissive of her children's needs:
Whatever April might be doing can't possibly matter because she's a child so insisting it is, well, that is wrong. It is a clear sign that the kids don't respect her. This takes the form of their......uh.......well......having free will and seeing things the 'wrong' way.
And the way a deflated, long-since defeated John slumps into April's room to tell her to apologize to her mother reminds me of QualiaSoup's video about living with his own narcissist mother; especially how his frightened father would constantly tell him and his brother to walk on eggshells around Mom and Do Whatever Mom Says Immediately and Avoid Mom She's Having a Bad Day etc. Eventually his father died of cancer; in his final months, QualiaSoup was unable to have a phone conversation with dad because he learned Mom was berating Dad after each one for absorbing so much attention and taking so much of the spotlight from her. I think Iris was a sneak peak into what Elly would become with John- a controlling, dominating loon with a martyr complex that only punished her husband and made him long for death.
"Don't look like that. Don't stand like that. Don't have that attitude. Stand there while I define everything you've done since you walked into the house in a way that makes me look like a victim."
Meanwhile, I'm assuming, the door got closed rather quickly.
Elly, you are the Queen of Narcissism. Get over yourself.
The other kids are wondering why Liz never came back outside. Eventually they'll remember who her mother is and figure that she's probably been sent to her room for absolutely nothing, again, and should just bring an extra pair of gloves, a hat, a scarf, and everything she needs out with her the first time rather than risk returning to that horrible house.
April but, yeah, Elly has a reputation that she doesn't know about and would call unfair because it's the truth. Another example of this is when Liz parrots passive-aggressive crap John says about Elly without really thinking about it much because that's been.....ah...disincentivized:
Rather than admit that Liz is just repeating John's nonsense without actually agreeing with him, we get this slop about them treating her like she's not worth respecting:
Elly does not want to admit that her refusal to pick her battles, her need to stand around inertly with a stricken face when action is desperately required while becoming a screaming ifreet howling about horse buns when it doesn't matter worth a lick, that's what makes her children act the way they do.
so someone looking in the general direction of a twit coming on to her boyfriend is an enemy.
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Go ahead and hit the kid and get it over with, Elly. You know you want to. Just do it and make it official: you wouldn't know how to communicate with a child if you had ten of them, and your ego is so fragile that a "look" from your son is enough to set you off and drive you to the brink of violence.
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The third pre-Patterson collection hints broadly as to why: we're meant to slobber over the unfairness that is a child thinking for him or herself.
What's more, she never learns from her lifetime of flying off the handle
and being arrogantly dismissive of her children's needs:
Whatever April might be doing can't possibly matter because she's a child so insisting it is, well, that is wrong. It is a clear sign that the kids don't respect her. This takes the form of their......uh.......well......having free will and seeing things the 'wrong' way.
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"April, please close the door." If you raise your kids even half-competently, that works much better.
"I admire your determination to finish a task before taking a break" also works better than nagging.
"I've had it with motherhood, I quit!" Add another panel for a much better, more accurate punchline- "when did you ever start?"
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And the way a deflated, long-since defeated John slumps into April's room to tell her to apologize to her mother reminds me of QualiaSoup's video about living with his own narcissist mother; especially how his frightened father would constantly tell him and his brother to walk on eggshells around Mom and Do Whatever Mom Says Immediately and Avoid Mom She's Having a Bad Day etc. Eventually his father died of cancer; in his final months, QualiaSoup was unable to have a phone conversation with dad because he learned Mom was berating Dad after each one for absorbing so much attention and taking so much of the spotlight from her. I think Iris was a sneak peak into what Elly would become with John- a controlling, dominating loon with a martyr complex that only punished her husband and made him long for death.
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"Don't look like that. Don't stand like that. Don't have that attitude. Stand there while I define everything you've done since you walked into the house in a way that makes me look like a victim."
Meanwhile, I'm assuming, the door got closed rather quickly.
Elly, you are the Queen of Narcissism. Get over yourself.
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The other kids are wondering why Liz never came back outside. Eventually they'll remember who her mother is and figure that she's probably been sent to her room for absolutely nothing, again, and should just bring an extra pair of gloves, a hat, a scarf, and everything she needs out with her the first time rather than risk returning to that horrible house.
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Rather than admit that Liz is just repeating John's nonsense without actually agreeing with him, we get this slop about them treating her like she's not worth respecting:
Elly does not want to admit that her refusal to pick her battles, her need to stand around inertly with a stricken face when action is desperately required while becoming a screaming ifreet howling about horse buns when it doesn't matter worth a lick, that's what makes her children act the way they do.
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"we don't ask for much"
LIE
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If those horrible people have a motto, it's likely to be It's not a lie if I believe it.
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I still say most parents would KILL to have a kid who actually WANTS to do homework!
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"Horse buns"? Really?
Elly looks like she took some skin in panel #8.
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