Ann's ex husband Ed arrives to tell her that he wants to cease his $300 monthly child support payments for Julie and Barbara and Ann spins into a tizzy flying off the handle in heated anger while both daughters show a lot more understanding to the situation.
What's strange is that it's been shown the previous season that Julie is 18 now and an adult and no longer a dependent in the eyes of the law. She's working in a dress shop and making her own money and selling her dress designs. She even moved out for a bit in the previous season.
So why is Ann so determined to keep those child support payments from Ed when Julie is past the age of dependence? If she were in college that would be different because she would technically still be a dependent, but she chose to forgo college in favor of working on her designing career.
Ann could have shown a lot more understanding to the situation and compromised with Ed that Julie no longer needs the financial support and allowed him to cut the payments to $150/month for 17 year old Barbara. But no...she still wants it ALL even though Julie is a legal adult now. Weird.
For a show that wanted to show it's lead character as this liberated, independent, divorced woman, she's depicted here as extremely dependent on her ex husband for money and even shown as being unreasonable and illogical with her anger. I like Bonnie Franklin, but I didn't like Ann Romano in this 2 part episode. It made me wonder if she was actually using some of that child support money for herself.
When Ed leaves and the girls go out on a date, what does Ann do to vent her anger? She heads to a department store to buy a $200 dress to make her feel better! Oh she claims to the girls that she'll return it in a few days....but will she?
She chastises her ex husband for being extravagant with his finances, but she goes and expresses the same behavior herself when no one is looking! And I have to wonder if she ever did return that dress or used Ed's child support to finance it.
It's a strange episode because it's never once brought up about Julie being over 18 when it was a big factor last season when she wanted to move out and also when she said she didn't want to go to college. It was stressed up and down how she was an adult now so why wasn't that fact brought up in this episode by anyone? Just a strange episode all around.
What's strange is that it's been shown the previous season that Julie is 18 now and an adult and no longer a dependent in the eyes of the law. She's working in a dress shop and making her own money and selling her dress designs. She even moved out for a bit in the previous season.
So why is Ann so determined to keep those child support payments from Ed when Julie is past the age of dependence? If she were in college that would be different because she would technically still be a dependent, but she chose to forgo college in favor of working on her designing career.
Ann could have shown a lot more understanding to the situation and compromised with Ed that Julie no longer needs the financial support and allowed him to cut the payments to $150/month for 17 year old Barbara. But no...she still wants it ALL even though Julie is a legal adult now. Weird.
For a show that wanted to show it's lead character as this liberated, independent, divorced woman, she's depicted here as extremely dependent on her ex husband for money and even shown as being unreasonable and illogical with her anger. I like Bonnie Franklin, but I didn't like Ann Romano in this 2 part episode. It made me wonder if she was actually using some of that child support money for herself.
When Ed leaves and the girls go out on a date, what does Ann do to vent her anger? She heads to a department store to buy a $200 dress to make her feel better! Oh she claims to the girls that she'll return it in a few days....but will she?
She chastises her ex husband for being extravagant with his finances, but she goes and expresses the same behavior herself when no one is looking! And I have to wonder if she ever did return that dress or used Ed's child support to finance it.
It's a strange episode because it's never once brought up about Julie being over 18 when it was a big factor last season when she wanted to move out and also when she said she didn't want to go to college. It was stressed up and down how she was an adult now so why wasn't that fact brought up in this episode by anyone? Just a strange episode all around.