(Strip Number 4079, Original Publication Date, 10 October 1981)
Panel 1: We start off with Tentacle-Fingered Elly yelling a muppet-mouthed, bulgy-eyed yell of existential horror as she screams "MICHAEL! THIS IS A LIVING ROOM!!"
Panel 2: We switch to what's got her horrified; Farley sitting on one end of the couch, Lizzie playing with her dollhouse on the other and Mike doing some drawing on the coffee table. Mike's explanation for why the living room is trashed is "I know. We're living in it." (He'd have been more accurate to say "Try supervising us sometime, idiot.")
Summary: Elly seems to think that children are designed to sit very quietly and stare off blankly into space when she's not looking at them because it would be convenient for her if they did. The notion that they can think, act and talk without her willing it is seen as a horribly cruel and unfair thing to do to their poor, put-upon mother; it's also seen as part of the vast male conspiracy to cancel her destiny and turn her into a feeble-minded, babbling idiot child who speaks baby-talk and can only care about baking cookies and mending socks instead of an adult meant for greatness. The problem, of course, is that Elly is fooling herself; her failure to supervise her children or to guide them in a constructive manner is what's taught them that this is acceptable behavior.