(Strip Number 1455, Original Publication Date, 3 June 1989)
Panel 1: Later that day, we find Elly on Connie's back stoop telling her that she hates being a disciplinarian. This is a half-truth because what she hates are the disappointing consequences of her antics. She'd love being a disciplinarian if she actually got the super-crazy no way results she hoped for but since her children have free will and memories, real life is nothing like when she was playing at being mommy and this makes her sad and mad and feel bad.
Panel 2: She tells Connie that Mike says that she was being unfair to him. She then engages in understatement by thinking that maybe she was (owing to not being in the same time zone as consistent behaviour, awareness of how her children perceive her or understanding the actual things at stake).
Panel 3: Given that we do know that her children still think of her as a volatile jerk who doesn't react well to surprises or conflict (because she is), Elly correctly anticipates a future in which they'll ascribe this incident to her being the insane, short-tempered and vindictive freak she is.
Panel 4: Connie panders to every punitive nincompoop who believes in the absurdity of adult children thanking their mothers for punishing them by telling her that some day, when they look back at all this ... they'll probably think she cared.
Summary: Connie's prediction is, of course, purest twaddle. It seems to me that the more likely eventuality will be Mike telling his AA group "I used to get falling down drunk when I was in junior high but all my mother cared about was that her precious little angel Liz dropped the F-bomb once." and Liz wondering if most of why Mom acted all mean and junk is that if she drank like a fish too.