# Modern Family 02/15/2012 "Aunt Mommy" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052 "2012-02-16T19:15:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/41 "2012-02-18T15:25:20Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > He has amazing comic timing for a kid- better than many adult actors on sitcoms. I like his scenes with his 85 year old homeboy next door. Luke’s best moment was his declaration that he wasn’t very liquid at the time. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/42 "2012-02-18T15:38:24Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I suspect he might be semi-retired. He spends a lot of time hanging around the house. There is an episode where Gloria asked Jay if he was going to work and he said, “I’m the boss, since I married you, people are surprised I come in at all.” ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/43 "2012-02-18T17:26:23Z")
> [@SykoSkotty](#): > > Hungover Claire was hysterical. Just the site of her after Phil runs into the room, after he says “sweeeet potato fries…” > > I was rolling. Major lawls. Oh yeah - she looked like, what, Trailer Trash Claire? > [@Sampiro](#): > > \ > And that Cam+Gloria=Manny. Yup. It seems to be turning into a running joke on the show why Manny looks the way he does (with his two drop-dead gorgeous parents). > [@pricciar](#): > > \ > I think they should do a few webisodes featuring Luke doing some Video Blogs of his various opinions. Guaranteed funny stuff.\ I’d watch it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/44 "2012-02-18T20:33:20Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > Sampiro - not to derail anything - but I’ve asked friends and they all agree EVERYONE on this show seems wealthy to us. course we all make 30,000 or less a year so I guess I’m not a target audience or something. Those houses, the furnishings. just wow. things normal people I know can only dream of. the people on “The Middle” seem to live in slightly more real world, for a sitcom. End hijack. [Resume hijack]While it really doesn’t bother me on this or several other TV shows, in fairness I have to admit the wealth of the characters make many seminal '80s and '90s films absolutely unwatchable to me (_Risky Business_, _Ferris Bueller_, _Home Alone_, _Uncle Buck_, etc., even movies with kids who have realistic problems such as _Breakfast Club_ or _Dead Poets Society_). Knowing fully well that money alone doesn’t bring or guarantee happiness, the knowledge of how many problems it would most definitely have _solved_ in my own life and those of most of the people I loved, especially at the time when these films were big news, make them unenjoyable; when you’re trying to work your way _ **up** _ to emptiness and teen-rebellion and existential angst it just makes you seethe and want to scream at the rich characters “Well at least you don’t have to worry about the lights being turned off or whether the repo order has already gone out…”.[/Resume hijack] ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/45 "2012-02-20T00:40:54Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Not being snarky, but if you can’t get into a series where the person has a nicer house (or is better looking or has a greater job or more sex or whatever) than you have, that pretty much leaves _Sanford & Son_, _Good Times_, _Roseanne_ and _Shameless_. Most TV shows have time/wealth pornography, especially sitcoms. > Plus TV families _have_ to have large houses for technical reasons. It’s a very boring show in which the characters sit around talking and don’t move very much, there needs to be constant motion, which means that unlike the arrangement in probably 95% of U.S. houses where the sofa is going to be against one wall, usually with the TV against another, the sofa is in the middle of the room so that characters can walk behind it or around it for the shot. The same is true in most stage plays that are set in a house; you’ll rarely see a set that has furniture arranged in a style most people would arrange furniture in, and it’s for the same reason of there having to be action around it, and also most stage plays regardless of how wealthy the characters are or aren’t will depict a huge room for this reason. Small houses, even if more realistic, would be too claustrophobic by far to film in. Different strokes I guess. It just seems that the spending goes beyond the usual suspension of disbelief of real estate. It’s the extravagance of their lifestyle that kind of bugs me. Things are done with money that seem beyond just the excess especially on a single income. Though I guess the things that I really take issue with can easily be handwaved to say that it’s Jay’s deep pockets that are funding it, but it’s still extravagant. The vacations (hawaii and dude ranch), the snow machine, so many tee-times, going shopping just whenever and always coming back with multiple, multiple bags, etc. also, to whoever that thought that haley’s bf was too dumb to be in private school. in affluent suburbs of NYC/DC/LA private schools are pretty normal and in some cases the standard. Often it’s unrecognizable from a typical high school and people send their kids there because the local public HS’s are split between super-difficult magnet programs for the super-smart and really crappy warehouses for the rest. It’s perfectly reasonable for a guy like haley’s bf to go to a private HS because he couldn’t get into a magnet program and his parents didn’t want him to get shipped off to a public HS. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/46 "2012-02-20T01:56:48Z")
Is there an episode where they specifically say the kids are at a private school? It was my impression that Haley, Alex\*, Luke, and Manny all attended public schools. I remember Cam and Mitchell were trying to get Lily into some ritzy private preschool before being outdone by “disabled interracial lesbians with an African kicker”, but not any reference to the others being in private schools. \*Wait a minute, that combination of names [suddenly seems significant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Haley). Coincidence, or joke that I totally missed until now? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/47 "2012-02-20T03:13:52Z")
It’s been mentioned in previous threads about the show but beyond the fact that Modern Family is about a family and Alex Haley wrote Roots which is about the semi-fictional journey of the author’s family, what connection is there? I chalk it up to coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/48 "2012-02-20T03:20:27Z")
It’s been mentioned in these boards before, but I don’t know that anyone has determined for sure whether it’s intentional. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/49 "2012-02-20T05:11:26Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > Different strokes I guess. It just seems that the spending goes beyond the usual suspension of disbelief of real estate. It’s the extravagance of their lifestyle that kind of bugs me. Things are done with money that seem beyond just the excess especially on a single income. > > Though I guess the things that I really take issue with can easily be handwaved to say that it’s Jay’s deep pockets that are funding it, but it’s still extravagant. The vacations (hawaii and dude ranch), the snow machine, so many tee-times, going shopping just whenever and always coming back with multiple, multiple bags, etc. I think you are forgetting that there is a large population of us viewers in the “flyover” states who don’t apply the expense of the coasts to our thought process. I’m firmly in the middle of middle class and live in a house very comparable to the one that Phil and Claire live in… as does my neighbor who is a Realtor. Also, the fact that Jay is well to do makes the vacations a simple thing… my parents are very successful and they took the whole family to Costa Rica for ten days (cost me the price of a few tee shirts and some beer at the bar). This is fairly common for people I know. Tee Times… the golf course near me is $20 on weekdays and $25 on weekends. The people I know who play golf as part of their business relationship, and probably play at nicer courses just consider it a business expense… no big deal for a middle class person to do. I have to say that living above their means never even entered my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/50 "2012-02-20T05:20:49Z")
But are you single or dual-income? My parents are dual income and Phil and Claire’s house is at the upper end of what they would consider purchasing. It’s the fact that the only money coming in is from Phil’s house-selling that makes us look slightly askance at it. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/51 "2012-02-20T05:26:43Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > I think you are forgetting that there is a large population of us viewers in the “flyover” states who don’t apply the expense of the coasts to our thought process. I’m firmly in the middle of middle class and live in a house very comparable to the one that Phil and Claire live in… as does my neighbor who is a Realtor. Also, the fact that Jay is well to do makes the vacations a simple thing… my parents are very successful and they took the whole family to Costa Rica for ten days (cost me the price of a few tee shirts and some beer at the bar). This is fairly common for people I know. Tee Times… the golf course near me is $20 on weekdays and $25 on weekends. The people I know who play golf as part of their business relationship, and probably play at nicer courses just consider it a business expense… no big deal for a middle class person to do. > > I have to say that living above their means never even entered my mind. That’s pretty much what I was thinking. Golfing, vacations and shopping aren’t really things that only millionaires do. And even if they are…so what. I think we’re supposed to working under the assumption that Jay’s a millionaire. If you’re worried about it being single or dual income…I have a single friend, owns a factory (just like Jay!) that I know is a millionaire. I also have very good friend who’s grandfather owns a horsetrack, I believe he’s worth something closer to 50 million…last I was told her grandmother doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/52 "2012-02-20T05:37:30Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > But are you single or dual-income? Dual… but by choice. We could (and have) lived a similar lifestyle on my income alone. We have three kids who play travel sports which costs way more than a vacation to Hawaii every year or multiple tee-times would. The Realtor next door is a single income family. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/53 "2012-02-20T05:43:25Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > But are you single or dual-income? My parents are dual income and Phil and Claire’s house is at the upper end of what they would consider purchasing. It’s the fact that the only money coming in is from Phil’s house-selling that makes us look slightly askance at it. But just because your parents can’t afford a big house together doesn’t mean no one person can afford it on their own. It seems odd to me that it’s odd to you. I don’t know how else to phrase this so forgive me if this comes off as rude, but it seems like your saying that no one is allowed to make more money then your parents. I imagine when you drive around town you see bigger houses then theirs. Can you really not imagine a divorced father living in one of them with some kids or a married family with a working husband/housewife scenario? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/54 "2012-02-20T05:50:09Z")
I didn’t say couldn’t purchase (and my parents are more strictly a 1 1/2 income household anyway.) but yes, in my hometown, people who own houses on that scale are upper middle class and the realtor families I knew growing up living in those houses, or even ones on a slightly smaller scale weren’t single income. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/55 "2012-02-20T05:58:58Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I didn’t say couldn’t purchase (and my parents are more strictly a 1 1/2 income household anyway.) but yes, in my hometown, people who own houses on that scale are upper middle class and the realtor families I knew growing up living in those houses, or even ones on a slightly smaller scale weren’t single income. Now imagine being a real estate agent in a city where houses like Jay’s/Clair’s are common. When you’re selling a $700,000 house 5 times a month instead of five times a year (plus the other houses) and suddenly you can afford to live in a big house. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/56 "2012-02-20T06:08:01Z")
So we’re back to ignoring the difference in cost of living between the coasts and the midwest, then? ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/57 "2012-02-20T06:39:01Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > So we’re back to ignoring the difference in cost of living between the coasts and the midwest, then? No, not at all… if I can do simple math for the sake of ease… lets say it is 10x more expensive on the coast… than think about if he sold 5 houses at $70k each month. With a 3% commission. $350,000/month at 3% is $126k per year, which is a very comfortable household income in the Midwest. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/58 "2012-02-20T07:11:20Z")
Cameron and Mitchell have a much lesser lifestyle. I think they rent the ground floor of what was probably once a single house but is now a duplex and I know plenty of people of middle class income who’ve lived in places as nice or nicer. It’s been mentioned also that prior to adopting Lily Cam worked as a high school music teacher, which wouldn’t pay as much as Mitchell but would have added significantly to their income and ability to pile up some savings. Phil is supposed to be a good realtor. I just assumed that he was intelligent enough (perhaps with Jay’s coaching) to bank a good bit during the boom years to see him through the bad, and even in the bad years you still sell some houses. Plus Jay and presumably his ex-wife (who since Jay is self made would have gotten a bundle in the divorce) provide safety nets and probably gifted Claire and Phil with a down payment if not the house. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/59 "2012-02-20T08:11:43Z")
Plus, a realtor could probably get his hands on nicer house for a lower price (with no realtor fee, natch). ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052/60 "2012-02-20T15:27:07Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > That’s pretty much what I was thinking. Golfing, vacations and shopping aren’t really things that only millionaires do. And even if they are…so what. I didn’t mean that I don’t like the show because of perceived extravagance. I adore this show. I was just merely saying that to me it appears that the characters on this show live further beyond their means a bit more than other sitcoms. As a random example let’s say… sure Tim the Tool-man Taylor’s house in Home Improvement was spacious, and he had disposable income for hospital bills and hotrods but it never seemed like the Taylors were living beyond their means for a host of a small budget local tool show. The Dunphy’s do. to me, at least. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-02-15-2012-aunt-mommy/613052.md?page=4)