Modern Family
I like this show. It's amusing, and I identify strongly with Phil and Cam. It also makes my husband reliably clutch his gut and guffaw once per episode, usually during a Luke one-liner, and that alone is worth watching the show, because it's funny to watch Dann watch it
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Essentially this is the same thing that happened to my mom. She was a paralegal while my dad got him MBA. Once they had two kids, she stopped working and stayed home, and never had to go back.
I agree that the show lacking a couple where both work is kind of a dissonance with the day to day reality that a lot of us live; my wife and I both work, and I don't see that stopping. Then again, when we talk about having more children, we do bring up the possibility that someone will have to stay home, or basically work to pay day-care, and the worry that leaving the workforce will make re-entering a challenge down the road is a not insignificant part of the discussion.
In the end, I think the show is opting to answer the question "who watches the kids" with "stay at home parent" in order to keep the cast a little more manageable. I also think Claire's foray into politics was an excellent nod to the fact that her kids are old enough for her to re-examine a choice she likely made a long time ago for all the right reasons that she kept up with out of habit and comfort.
Also, I think the focus on Hailey going to college has more to do with her deciding what path her life should take than making her follow the footsteps of her mom or dad.
At the end of the day, while I know more people in the situation that you and I are in, I do know people whose lives fit the characters of the show, and I don't know if it would work the same way if they tried to make it any more universal than they have already managed.
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That makes loads of sense.
I understand your mom's situation--that happened a lot with our parents' generation. It happens significantly less with ours, however. I just find it odd that it's never even been addressed with Claire. What did she used to do before the kids? She literally has no identity outside of "Mom" and "hyper-competetive Halloween decorator."
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In an episode I had completely forgotten until my wife, to whom I am lucky to be married to, pointed out that in a previous season, Claire re-connects with a woman she used to work with. Said former coworker was in charge of something involving international hotels, and had dalliences with attractive men on several continents.
As I recall (mostly due to being clued in - did I say I married well above my own feeble stature? Well, I did) the episode focused on the fact that the other woman was not married, didn't have a family, and did not seem fully happy with her choices. For that matter, neither did Claire, but in the end she kind of owned the choice to not become a career driven monster-mom...because that's what would have happened.
Moving beyond that, I believe that presenting families with one income, they're kind of showing us an idealized life. The fact that this was far more possible when people our age were kids than it is now just re-affirms the rose tinted hue this kind of show is going for.
Cam needs more gigs as a clown. Just saying.
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Okay, that stands corrected!
And yeah, their single-income earners all do QUITE well based on their houses. I appreciate at least that Cam and Mitch either rent or own a condo, but it's not exactly squalor for all that it's not free-standing.
MORE CLOWN GIGS FOR CAM!
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