(Strip Number 1338, Original Publication Date, 29 August 1988)
Panel 1: We fast forward past the month of August to the first day of school. As Elly gets Lizzie ready, we are reminded that she tends to yank Lizzie's hair and rake through her scalp with rather muscular aggression because only childless fungus person garbage snarker troll people believe that children actually feel pain. As Lizzie screams in the pain her idiot mother doesn't believe she feels, Learning Impaired Elly piously tells her to sit still.
Panel 2: She then sets up the punchline by pleading with her to let Mommy rake through her hair because she wants her to look nice for school.
Panel 3: Since the school experience was poisoned for her by that incompetent nitwit Miss Blais, Sullen Liz is sullen when she asks why she hasta look nice for school. This diverts Mike's attention from trying to emulate a hamster stuffing seeds in its cheek pouches.
Panel 4: When he tells her that it's because you hafta look like you wanna be there, Elly is, as always, gobsmacked.
Summary: I wonder if Elly ever managed to get it through her thick skull that most of why her kids hated the return of school is that they got yelled at for being lazy and selfish more often. Also, Elly's obsessive need to impress people tends to make her forget that her children can, you know, FEEL PAIN.