(Strip Number 995, Original Publication Date, 20 December 1985)
Panel 1: We lead off with Elly telling Mike and Lizzie "LOOK! I said upstairs, in bed NOW!!!!!"
Panel 2: Mike tells her that it's unfair because he has a later bedtime than Lizzie and she's making them go to the same time now.
Panel 3: As Marian and Jim bear witness to their imbecile daughter making certain that the kids make the mental association "grandparents = doubling down on how rigidly they're policed", he asks her if he remembers when they were parents with small children. She does.
Panel 4: She astonishes him by saying she wouldn't go back to that for the world.
Summary: This is because Jim doesn't understand how conflicted Marian was any more than John understands that Elly is torn between the desire to be seen as a loving, firm, fair and kind parent and her need to emulate her mother. Perhaps if Marian were to have gotten off of her high horse sooner and told Elly that she hated being the heavy and was too close to the situation to realize that she was making a big mistake sitting on her, the worst excesses would have been avoided.
