#he accidentally caught them after recieving a promotion earlier his worktime

[elden-hicks]

yes, this!

i also headcanon that the oldies, the burbs and the pleasants used to have their own gather up group of the typical conservative middle-class families who were extremely judgmental (that's why the newbies weren't part of their club (too broke) or the goths (too zany for their tastes)). like, the more i look through the mary-sue/daniel and jennifer/john couple arrangements the more i think they were rather encouraged to tie the knot with each other. yeah, that wasn't an arranged marriage situation like in the capp family but i still think there was a pressure from their parents to do so and continue the generational cycle.

they haven't really explored their options beyond their spouses that was particularly crucial for daniel, since, he's like, a romance sim. i think, he's bisexual but he's never got the chance to explore this side of him, opting only for women.

jennifer being a tomboy, was charming as a kid and probably jeff, being traditionally masculine (he's an army man after all), liked his daughter's "quirks", cause he could relate to her better. but still, she, eventually, had to "grow up" and become a real Woman. which also meant she had to abandon her dream of becoming a sport superstar since it's not feminine for a woman to aspire something like this.

mary-sue was probably conditioned by coral to ignore her husband's affairs and be the housewife, while her husband is making a success in a career field. that explains why mary-sue is at the bottom of the business career, she has just recently started working, after the twins were old enough to take care of themselves. and daniel's affair with kaylynn was a straw which broke camel's back.

john is the least royally fucked out of four of them, since he's actually grown to like this suburban life and being a sahd (after all, the burbs were a bit less conservative compared to the pleasants and the oldies)… but he's just so… freaking oblivious it's almost comical to the extend.

anyways... the burbs are like... soo tragic in a heterosexual suburban way. like i don't think john's a bad husband at all i think he's even down to be malewife of all time and all that i think it's more like. he's completely ignorant to the fact that jen genuinely doesn't like being a nuclear family fashion mom and a lot of it is her own internalized problems because she wanted to grow up and be a sports star... but her own family pushed her against that and john's content to not pry or push her into following her actual dream. like. he's genuinely invested in living in the suburbs with the garden and all that stuff and just assumes that because jen isn't outrageously openly upset with it, she's happy with it. because he's kinda dumb in that straight guy way yk. i think their issues run a lot deeper than any kind of simple dislike like they simply couldn't make it work and both be happy even if they were honest.

but jen is Not happy and she's probably pissed that she's not happy because she's supposed to be happy. got husband and a happy kid and a house in the suburbs she is not supposed to be soooo sad. and her brother Does have what she wanted but takes it for granted it's sooooo sick