When it comes to traditional family roles, we tend to think of dad being the bread winner and mom maintaining the home.  In the West, Christianity is usually blamed for what are usually considered to be regressive stereotypes.  Things are changing, but there are still corners where if a woman chooses to not have a career, she is viewed as contributing to backwards societal norms.  Then again, there are other places where the opposite is true.  This is a topic I have covered in other reviews, though for Mr. Mom (1983) it bears repeating that this is not necessarily what Catholicism has taught from the beginning.  Whether you refer to it as a vocation or a calling, women in the Church have not always been told that their sole lot in life was a domestic one.  No matter who is filling what role, when Hollywood addresses this topic, it is meant to be comedic.  Based on what I am about to write, you can decide whether it accomplishes its goals.

Before Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) becomes Mr. Mom, his only goal is to get up in the morning next to his wife, Caroline Butler (Teri Garr), and continue to provide for his family with his job as an engineer for the Ford Motor Company.  This means that Caroline fulfills that traditional role discussed in the previous paragraph.  Things are going well until he gets to work and is let go due to cutbacks caused by the poor economy.  Believe it or not, this was a thing in the early 1980s.  Upon returning home, his family is there waiting for him, having already heard the news.  After having dinner, she suggests that maybe she could look for employment as well.  Remember those stereotypes I mentioned a moment ago?  Well, Jack’s masculine pride is offended by the idea of Caroline getting work, and he makes a bet with her that she will find a job before him.  He is gracious in defeat, saying that she has to take the money despite her refusal.  From here, she is off to her new position at an ad agency, and he is filling all her regular duties.  Since this is a comedy, you can imagine how this goes for Jack.  Caroline, too, has a rough go on her first day.  Though her boss, Ron Richardson (Martin Mull), insists on being on a first name basis, none of her other co-workers take her seriously.  Of course, this is only the beginning of their problems.  That first name basis is an indication of Ron being attracted to Caroline, though she does well in fending off his advances.  At the same time, as Jack is adjusting to being a stay-at-home dad, he meets another of the area moms while trying to navigate the grocery store: Joan (Ann Jillian).  She is a divorcee, and she sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly, tries to come on to Jack.  He, too, is mostly oblivious to her predations, but she is persistent.  At the same time, he continues to spiral, growing a depression beard, as the responsibilities continue to be difficult for him.  He even starts enjoying daytime soap operas.  These shows form the theme of a nightmare he has wherein Joan tries to seduce Jack and Caroline walks in while this is happening.  The wife pulls a gun on her husband, shooting him.  When Jack awakens, he realizes that he needs to be better around the house.  He shaves his beard, learns to properly operate the appliances, and even cooks meals for Caroline as he awaits her coming home from the office.  As is the advertising stereotype, she keeps late hours, which means she is often not there to taste the fruit of his efforts.  All the same, he tries to maintain a positive attitude until they get to Halloween.  Days before, Caroline had landed a major account with a tuna fish company, one that none of the other executives had been able to get.  As a result, she is asked to fly to Los Angeles to shoot the commercial.  She is departing as Jack and the kids are about to go trick-or-treating, with everyone already in their costumes.  In front of the rest of the neighborhood, Caroline has to inform her frustrated husband that she must leave because of how important this business is to her company.  That “rest of the neighborhood” includes Joan.  While Caroline is away, Jack gets a call from his former boss at Ford, Jinx Latham (Jeffrey Tambor), saying that there is a chance that Jack could be re-hired.  This requires an interview, though during it Jinx tries to blame the poor performance of his department since Jack left on Jack.  The fact that Jack sticks up for himself impresses Jinx’s superiors, if not the behavior of his children who were forced to come with him to the office.  Jack then treats himself to a night on the town with the other moms in the area.  Once the night is over, his babysitter hears the conversation Jack tries to have with his wife in California.  It does not go as hoped, though, because it is Ron who picks up on the other side, and hang-ups when Jack identifies himself.  Meanwhile, Caroline punches Ron in the nose for being in her room uninvited, and then quits.  As for Jack, once Joan hears of the incident with Caroline, the divorcee is at Jack’s house the next day.  Joan is on the bed while Jack is showering, and Caroline finds her potential rival there after flying back from Los Angeles.  Caroline kicks Joan out, and Jack comes out to unexpectedly find his wife.  Things seem to be boiling over, with Ron showing up amid the growing chaos.  So, too, does Jinx, begging Jack to take back his position.  This helps resolve the situation, as does Caroline informing her husband that she had quit.

In other words, Mr. Mom ends with him be replaced by regular mom.  This means that dad can only be mom for so long before the so-called natural order is restored.  Before this happens, though, what we are seeing in the film is the increasingly real figure of the stay-at-home-dad.  The title is put in there for comedic purposes.  In the 1980s, even if it was not the 1950s, the concept of the man fulfilling the duties of the woman was supposedly comedic.  The Church has a different take on the matter.  When it comes to the family, what is important is the raising of the next generation, meaning children.  Specifically, the Catechism does not say that it must be the woman staying at home and the man going into the work force in order to accomplish this goal.  The way the family is viewed is as a domestic church.  There is still the local parish community to which everyone is called to be a part, but the job of evangelization begins at home.  Sadly, the last thing on Jack’s mind is teaching his children to follow Jesus.  In pursuing the Faith, neither the husband or the wife take primacy.  Where the Church diverges from the rest of the culture is in noting differences between the roles.  There are aspects of bringing up children that a father can do that escapes a mother, and vice versa.  That is not to suggest that single parent homes are un-Christian, though they have extra challenges that, with God’s help, can be overcome.  While the movie tends to make its jokes around the notion of Jack becoming like Caroline in his habits, he still has contributions unique to his sex.  In a Christian context, this means instilling in his children lessons using the gifts that only God could have given to him.

Because Jack is able to use those gifts in Mr. Mom, the film as a whole deserves some credit.  It is quaint by modern standards, and I am sure there are those who would wish that Caroline continues to pursue her career.  At the same time, she makes the choice that is right for her and no one can argue with that thinking.