Well, I'm sort of right in that candy is involved in today's reprint; so is martyrdom, the Bug-Eyed Glare of Existential Horror and the habit shopkeepers have of putting candy and chips where small hands can get to them and wave under the noses of Busy Mothers Who Have No Time To Themselves And No Help.
Panel 1: We find ourselves at the grocery store where Liz would later end up working for a while. As Elly pushes the cart down the aisle, she stares the Bug-Eyed Glare of Existential Horror because Mike is looking up at her with an imploring expression on his face and whining "Please, Ma!"
Panel 2: Her reaction to his whining "Come on, Ma!" is the Scrunched-up Face of Irritation.
Panel 3: She then just out and out tells Mike to stop nagging him 'cause she is NOT buying him any treats.
Panel 4: He again looks up at her and is told that the answer is no.
Panel 5: She yells "I said NO!" when he holds up a chocolate bar.
Panel 6: Her reaction to his waving a bad of potato chips in her face is "The answer is still NO!!"
Panel 7: When it dawns on her that Mike is willing to throw a tantrum to get his way, she pulls out a two dollar bill and says "All right; just one very small thing for each of you."
Panel 8: She goes back to being all bug-eyed when she thought-bubbles that it's sometimes a toss-up between being consistent and staying sane.
Summary: Too bad for us that she is actually being consistent; she folds so easily and isn't that sane to start with so she's primed to lose this battle over and over again. This is because she is stooopid, useless and self-destructive enough to not simply state at the beginning that they can have the Chiparoonies and Chocolate Bonkies if they behave.