Is The Mindy Project Overlooking An Obvious Answer To The Question Of Leo's Care?

Given that the last episode of The Mindy Project ended with Danny misinterpreting Mindy's having stormed out of the office in a huff as her previously unexpressed wish to look after Leo full-time at home, anyone could have expected that this week's episode -- "Stay At Home MILF" -- would revolve around the matter of...how uninterested Mindy is in looking after Leo full-time at home. I mean, she seems to have no problem with him, specifically; it's the other stuff that she, as the co-head of a now single-income household who spends most of her time in the apartment, is going to have to do in order to keep expenses in check -- stuff like cleaning and cooking, which is how she and Danny end up having tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner five nights running (which...I personally don't see the problem, but I gather we're supposed to think it is one). When Danny comes home on that fifth night and isn't immediately prepared to take over hands-on child duty -- something I feel is the absolute least the working-outside-the-home parent should do upon his or her return -- it kicks off a very sitcommish argument, the upshot of which is that Danny will spend a day at home alone with Leo. I am not a crackpot: I just think Danny should spend every day at home alone with Leo.

Of course, this is assuming that either of Leo's parents should become Leo's full-time at-home caregiver, which: should we? These are two apparently successful, presumably well-compensated physicians. Hiring a nanny is probably something they could afford -- and, one would have thought, something they would have discussed at some point during Mindy's pregnancy as a necessary expense whenever Mindy did return to Schulman & Associates and to her fertility practice (and yes, I know, the less said about the latter, the better, since the show doesn't seem to have any idea of how that business would actually work, but since they keep mentioning it I'm guessing it's not going away).

But let's say Mindy and Danny were to have a calm conversation about Leo's care that wasn't coloured by some kind of spite campaign on her side and weirdly antique ideas about sex roles on his. "It would be a different show?" Good one, but just go with me. If they both were to be completely honest about their motivations and still managed to agree on the premise that one of Leo's parents should care for him full-time, three more seconds of consideration would bring them to the realization that Mindy's not the one who should be doing it.

For one thing, having Mindy stay home with Leo has been Danny's idea and Danny's alone all along. It clearly never occurred to Mindy in the last episode that she'd ever quit her jobs for motherhood until Danny mentioned it in passing and then kept on bringing it up; the only reason she ended up at home as that episode ended was that she'd gotten pissed off at Jody, and then she let Danny think she'd affirmatively made the decision to quit for real because it was obviously so important to him that she couldn't stand to tell him the truth yet. If it's such a big deal to Danny, as the child of an overworked single mother, that Leo have one of his parents at home all the time because Danny never did, then maybe Danny should volunteer to fulfill what he believes is his child's unspoken wish.

For another: Mindy has two jobs outside the home already. Therefore, her earning potential is greater. Therefore, if only one of them is going to be bringing in an income, it should be the one who, if she really gets cracking, is going to earn two incomes. That's just math.

And for a third, of Leo's two parents, Danny's obviously the more maternal. Most of the time Mindy is more demanding than a baby, and Danny expertly ministers to all her needs. Well before he was ever a parent, his hobbies included building elaborate gingerbread houses. He wears a mom's eyeglasses. On his test day with Leo, he'd baked not just one apple pie but an apple pie and a backup BEFORE NOON. Sure, both those pies end up getting ruined in the chaos of infant care and housekeeping, but that's two more pies than I've ever baked in my life, and you know he made the crust from scratch.

Danny's day at home with Leo ends as these point-making challenges always do on sitcoms -- with the realization that he'd vastly underestimated how hard it is to make a home and take care of a baby -- which is why his (offscreen) mother raced over to relieve him and clean the apartment when he cracked and called her crying in frustration. But just because he wasn't 100% on top of everything his first day out doesn't mean he isn't still the better choice, among Leo's parents, to look after him. Would Mindy ever try to bake one pie? No: as we saw, even basic dinner prep was the one prescription from Modern Mominista she didn't follow. Would Mindy ever get the idea to try to teach Leo Italian? Of course not: Mindy's not crafty enough to make flash cards! Artistic expression is Danny's department.

Obviously, the real answer to the question of Leo's childcare is a nanny, and we are almost certainly hurtling toward an episode where Mindy and Danny audition a half-dozen comically unsuitable candidates before settling on the unlikeliest one who actually ends up being the perfect fit. (I would say that they'd end with Morgan in a Murphy Brown-ish Eldin-type situation if it had not already been established that Morgan is extremely jealous of Leo and therefore probably not interested in the job.) But until then, if one of Leo's parents needs to give up work outside the home to take care of him, it shouldn't be the one who recently locked him in the apartment, and who has a gun. I am not a crackpot.