(Strip Number 7137, Original Publication Date, 3 July 1983)
Panel 1: We find ourselves watching Elly and Lizzie as they wait in line to get a balloon from a clown. Since the balloon is marked 'Super Sales Day', I'm guessing we're at the mall.
Panel 2: Lizzie is happy because, as she tells Mommy, she's got a red one.
Panel 3: Elly astonishes and angers Lizzie by telling her that they'd better tie the balloon to her wrist so that it doesn't fly away.
Panel 4: Lizzie doesn't want to do that. She wants to hold the balloon.
Panel 5: Elly tells her that she's going to lose it so she'd better let Mommy tie it. Lizzie yells NO!! and jerks it away from Mommy.
Panel 6: In the process, she (of course) lets go of the balloon. It's about here wherein Kool-Aid Nation would smirk about kids who don't listen.
Panel 7: The problem with that is that I'm not listening to them because I notice that Lizzie is yelling in baffled, saddened rage as the thing flies off into the ether.
Panel 8: Elly and Lizzie watch it float away.
Panel 9: Instead of doing the smart thing and getting another balloon, Elly slinks off in defeat with a howling Lizzie on her shoulder as she thought-bubbles about how sometimes, you just can't say "I told you so."
Summary: The part of me that identifies with Elly's need to make sure her child doesn't lose the balloon is talking things over with the part that suggests that Elly went the worst possible way about it and agreeing that Elly dropped the ball again because she tried to bargain with a kid. I mean, what's the problem? If she loses it, just get another one!! Childless though I might be, even I know to not get into an argument with a toddler. Too bad that KAN will be all about how Lizzie's pesky insistence on free will was the problem.