(Strip Number 725, Original Publication Date, 12 October 1984)
Panel 1: Elly tells Mike and Lizzie that she is sick of the two of them constantly fighting over nothing.
Panel 2: This is because it's gotten to the point that they cannot even look at each other without saying something mean.
Panel 3: Elly looks at Michael and tells him there is no reason the two of them cannot get along.
Panel 4: Michael sees Elizabeth making faces behind Elly and says that he has just thought of a reason.
Summary: Yes, Mike. Lizzie's being allowed to be as big a shit as you are is a reason. The bigger reason is the inept parent she's standing behind. Elly spent most of the strip despairing about a tension that her own stupidity, heedlessness and self-absorption helped create and that she did nothing useful to ameliorate.