Question of the week #6

[treonb]

The two central elements of the show are the relationship between Philip and Elizabeth and their work. They are also parents, however. 

So here's this week's question: How do you feel about the way the show treats these elements of their lives? Which elements of it work for you, and which don't?  You can expect spoilers for the entire first season in the comments.

(There's no expiration date on these questions, so if you're reading this post months later and feel like jumping in, please do.)

Comments

Americans' children

[nora_carrington]

I just gulped down the first 6 episodes yesterday, so am coming to this discussion late. I think "benign neglect" overstates the difference between how the Jennings' were being raised and their peers. It was extremely common for even middle class kids to spend a great deal of time alone, or at least not with their parents. Children as the endlessly fascinating project that must occupy every spare minute is a much more recent development (I think it's an abomination, but that's maybe just me). It's a little odd that Elizabeth works outside the home; this was still fairly uncommon for middle class women who were not professionals and whose children weren't yet teens in 1980 (lots and lots of women went back to work to put the kids through college; an Ivy education was exactly the same price as the average white collar female wage: $5000/yr). I don't think most American parents of that era would have left the children alone asleep, but plenty of parents were out multiple nights a week bowling, attending PTA, church, or municipal government meetings and/or having cocktail/dinner parties with other adults children were not invited to attend. The children of the hosts would have been fed early, separately, and sent off to entertain themselves.

Re: Americans' children

[treonb]

Hey, welcome aboard :-D

The comm was started post S1, but we had a group rewatch to discuss all the first season episodes. You can find all the episode discussion posts here. Feel free to jump in :-) Just note that since this was a rewatch, discussions might include spoilers for the entire season.

Re: Americans' children

[jae]

Hi, Nora! Welcome to the comm. As you watch, feel free to page back on the episode discussion posts and respond on the episodes in question if you'd like. :)

Your interpretation of this did occur to me: that's what I meant when I wrote "Maybe the show was just being early-80s-accurate in the fact that they found a way to get home by themselves and weren't completely freaked out by that." I mean, I was around myself and living in the U.S. at the time (Paige and I are contemporaries), so I'm aware of how different things were back then for kids! But in "Trust Me" there was more going on than just that--their mother had been due to arrive to pick them up and they simply didn't show up. At Paige's age, I wouldn't have thought a thing of being left alone at night, but if my mother had just not showed up to pick me up and left me to get home by myself, I would have been both worried and angry.

Also...I don't want to spoil for later episodes, but suffice it to say that this does come up eventually. :)

-J