Free that kid!

I'm not sure I get today's strip. Well, I get it, in the sense that I see that a fight morphs from being about taking out the garbage to being about something else entirely. And I guess this is a "do it every time" situation, because yeah, that's pretty much how fights go. Once the floodgates are open, anything goes. I guess what I don't understand is why this is even a strip. Are we supposed to think, "How wacky! They started talking about one thing and wound up talking about something else!"? Because...honestly, that's pretty much every conversation. I just feel bad for the kid. This is obviously something he's seen before. He looks like he wishes his parents would just get divorced already.

A couple other notes: Again with the mention of the husband's sister! It's such a recurring theme in this strip that it makes me wonder whether Mrs. Al has issues with Al's sister. And who keeps the garbage can like that in their dining room? Even assuming that the kitchen is on the other side of the cans, that's just a bit too much. Those cans look like they belong outside. And lastly, submitted by "You know who"? No, I don't know who.