For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 03, 2021

Looking at the door, I recognize it as the front door to the Patterson house. This means that Elizabeth brought home her giant pile of purple, stinky gym clothes and dumped them on the floor behind the front door. So, it is not just that Elizabeth is too lazy to wash her own clothes, but that she is also too lazy to get those clothes to the laundry room or in a dirty clothes hamper. It’s as if she got past the front door and said, “Whew! I managed to make it into the house. Time to drop my clothes on the floor and leave them there for my mother to notice.”

While, they are your gem clothes. Are they not.

How do you expect yourself to be independent later in life, Elizabeth?

Well, Liz, you DO have a pair of perfectly good hands and a pair of functional legs so walk to the laundry room and wash them. Not that hard.

Oh, the trauma, quick someone call CPS, NOT!

They’re your gym clothes Elizabeth, you wash ’em!

Elizabeth is old enough to do her own laundry and, at least in this case, should.

Lynn knows the unrecognized and unappreciated life of a mom: https://youtu.be/FOVCtUdaMCU

By the time I was 14 (1958), I was doing all the laundry for the household every Saturday—gathering dirty clothes and stripping bed linens. We had an automatic washing machine, but no dryer, so I had to take each load out to the back yard, wipe the clotheslines clean, and hang everything out to dry, then later take it in, fold it, and put it away. On my 14th birthday, Mom got me horseback riding lessons, which was a powerful incentive to get all the laundry done and hung before I had to leave for my lesson. Sure, I griped about it, but it was my job so I did it.

That could be considered a stinking decision to give to a teenager. One could consider that it even smells of retribution of some sort. Or an odor of revenge might be perceived by someone.

To be honest: my teenage kids dont have to wash their clothes – only get them to the laundry room.

Yes, YOU, ya piggish little snot!!

I was a teen in the era when these comics were new, but I had older parents where traditional household roles applied. Washing, cooking, cleaning, etc. was woman’s work, and the boys did lawn cutting, wood chopping, farm labour, etc. When i was forced to start doing things for myself i was completely clueless. I was cooking for almost 2 weeks before i figured out that the burners on the stove didn’t have to be on maximum to cook food, and that not all clothes were permanent press. It’s good seeing both kids learning life skills in this comic as that was so different from my upbringing.

It’s not hard to run a washer and dryer.

Our kids got instructed in their early teens on doing their own laundry. Our son, bless his heart, once decided that separating was too time consuming, so everything, whites, lights and darks were washed together. Unfortunately he added bleach along with the soap. He never made that mistake again.

I’ll never forget the look on my mom’s face the first time I asked her how to work the washer dryer, she teared up and must of thought how wonderful my little man is growing up and wants to help. HA!! Little did she know, once I learned how to do my own laundry the law was laid down. The do not enter sign went up on my bedroom door and never I repeat never touch my stuff…LOL

Would not have this problem if we stayed with the original Greek word for gymnasium-exercise naked- "1590s, “place of exercise,” from Latin gymnasium “school for gymnastics,” from Greek gymnasion "public place where athletic exercises…,literally or figuratively, literally “to train naked,” from gymnos “naked,”

I remember being so pleased when my mother announced that I was old enough (14) to iron my own school blouses. After the second one I was no longer pleased. Still not.

Sometimes, “Do It Yourself” isn’t a challenge. It’s an order.

Seems the punchline fell flat today. The first panel has Elly asking the question, so why is Elizabeth talking to herself in the fourth panel about stupid questions?

gym clothes or germ clothes ?

I tried to allow my kids to do their own laundry. My two boys did an okay job, and if they ended up with pink socks they learned not to mix colors with whites again. But my daughter was another story. I showed her how to use my almost new washer and dryer multiple times, but the second time she used the washer, she over-filled it and it broke. After it was fixed, I banished her from my laundry room. As long as she put her dirty laundry in the bathroom hamper, I washed it with mine and my husband’s. It was just easier that way.

I started to do laundry when I was 9 or 10 yrs old. Parents taught my brothers and I how to be independent.

One gets many lectures from Ellie.

Liz. They are YOUR clothes. Your hands work. Your feet work. Your eyes work with glasses. How many times have you seen your mum do laundry? You can ASK what to do if not sure instead of being so put out about having to take care of your young teenager self.

I began teaching my son to cook when he was 11 or 12. I wrote the instructions on how to do laundry and taped them to the dryer door (stacked washer-dryer) when he started playing basketball in junior high school. He was responsible for 1 evening meal per week, except during basketball season (I was working full time as a teacher and had 2 part-time jobs in the evenings), and when he went to college, he was able to show his frat brothers how to do their laundry (he showed me the cost analysis and it was less expensive to join a fraternity than live in a dorm). He is also an excellent cook.

After watching a young GI wash his laundry at a Laundromat in Germany I determined that my child then 21 months old would know how to do laundry. He poured 1 PX size box of Tide into each washer and one tiny PX bottle of bleach into the white wash. Each had enough for three loads.

it’s not like she has to wash them on a rock in a river. just put them in the washer and let it do it’s thing.

I will never forget one of my students telling me his worst fear about going off to college was that he had never done his own laundry and knew that he was going to have to learn. He came to visit after his freshman year confidentially reporting he successfully learned!

I do not know if I would even want those filthy things kin my washer.

Dang, these are some lazy-ass kids!

I was doing ALL the laundry, not just mine, at that age.

And you learned a great lesson all at the same time…..

Liz, it is such a skilled job to operate a washing machine. You’ll be able to put it on your resume later in life. Thank Mom for that!!!

You have got to learn laundry some day and any way Mom does not want to even touch your stinking gym clothes. You made the stink-you wash it off!

I was responsible for all my own laundry by eight. Only things I did not have to wash were towels and sheets, mom & dad would take care of those.

You do need stupid lecture dear to do the needful. Gotta learn little works at this age.

Yeppers Lynn Johnston sure knows kids.

I remember learning to iron my father’s handkerchiefs when I was about 8. I was proud to do it too! Eventually I graduated to ironing his Navy shirts and pants. Then that job was passed to my sister, cause I had other things to do as a teen :) I did do my own laundry starting at 12 or 13 as well. Had to wash those jeans in hot water after all, and Mama couldn’t be counted on to do that ;)

Then don’t be a stupid kid, you pig!

I hope Elly would expect the same of Michael. No reason a girl should be expected to wash her own clothes and a boy should not.

My high school gym clothes consisted of a t-shirt, shorts, socks, and tennis shoes, and occasionally a swim suit. We were required to take them home on weekly. In junior high they were these stupid polyester one-piece things that snapped at the shoulders, which were much too tempting to the boys, who would run by and flipped the snaps.

Guys didn’t do it to me, probably because they were afraid I’d beat them up. In junior high I was taller than all but one boy, and he was quite overweight. He knew I could catch him easily.

I never had to do the laundry when I was Liz’s age, but I did help mom with the ironing. She absolutely hated to iron the flats like pillowcases or handkerchiefs. Fortunately permanent press arrived before I left home.

Because I didn’t really know how to operate the machines the first time I went to a laundromat, I was determined to be sure that my children would. I succeeded in that to the point where when our son was about Liz’s age, he was doing all the laundry because I was working full-time. He got to keep any money that fell out of pockets in the washer or dryer, as well as being paid for the chore.

I see a lot of comments here calling a young teenage girl some nasty names. Most UNCALLED for!

Way past time for this.

There Elly goes again with the sanctimonious ex-hippie look in the final panel.

I don’t suppose that you want to hear that I love doing the laundry. And I find ironing very relaxing. As a teen I hired myself out to the neighborhood ladies to do their ironing. Paid better than babysitting. Gave me money to buy more clothes…which eventually would need washing and ironing!

NEVER bait Elly like that! Don’t you know how much the witch loves to hear her own voice!?

If they have single-payer health care, single-payer education (i.e. public schools), single-payer day care, single-payer pensions (i.e. social security), single-payer shelter (i.e. public housing), single-payer groceries (i.e. food stamps) and single-payer credit (i.e. central banking) why not single-payer laundry??

Girl has a lot to learn