(Original Publication Date, 27 September 1990)
Panel 1: It would appear that Liz has found something else to do: put all the dishes away. When she asks what she can do next, Elly says that she can line up the shoes in the hallway.
Panel 2: Having done that, she is told to brush Farley.
Panel 3: Mike makes the scene and points out that Liz is doing a lot of chores tonight. Elly says "I know."
Panel 4: She betrays the fact that she doesn't know her son at all when his super-predictable asking what's wrong with Liz astonishes the Hell out of her.
History teaches us that she would be equally gobsmacked had he asked what Liz's angle is because Elly doesn't choose to remember that aspect of her children's personalities. She lives in a sitcom world wherein kids are either monsters who wreck things or pious freaks ready to comply with Mommy's wishes.
Summary: There are two damned good reasons that Mike hates doing stuff for his folks that aren't "being bone-idle by nature". Number One is spending his formative years listening to a screaming idjit of a mother howl that having to pick things up is the worst thing in the world. Number Two is having the same yowling numbskull tell him that his efforts are WRONG and have to be done RIGHT because he is BAD and SELFISH and YEARNS TO DESTROY his poor, thin, enfeebled martyr mother.