Of the gate and the glasses.

To continue on from last time, it's kind of obvious that while Elly might believe that she's this poor person who no one ever listens to, the truth is that her children have distinct trouble with getting her point. In four years' time, we're about to see a far more destructive example of her not quite saying what she believes she did. This is because we end up having to remember her reaction to her discovery that April learned how to jimmy open the latch to the back gate with a stick: tell her not to do anything until she asks someone. Since her children aren't especially bright that I've noticed, April clearly takes that to mean "ask anyone" instead of the "ask me" Elly wants it to mean.

This inability of Elly's to understand that, yes, her children aren't all that swift so she actually does have to tell them exactly what she wants them to do is probably why she set Liz up to fail. She might think that saying "Take care of your glasses" meant "please stow them carefully in your backpack" because she wants it to mean that but since Liz ain't an intellectual giant, she takes it to mean something silly. It's almost as silly as Elly's default belief that people 'know' what she means when she says things despite years of experience demonstrating that this is not the case.