Ever since Mindy and Danny welcomed their bundle of joy to their world, The Mindy Project has been serving up a whole lot of life lessons to fans. Rightly so. This is a new time in Mindy's life, and a great opportunity for the show to do a service for working mothers and women in general. On "Stay At Home MILF," Mindy fought against gender roles, swapping roles with Danny — making him the stay-at-home DILF, if you will — only to learn that she wanted to return to work and not continue to be a stay-at-home mother.
Mindy struggled with the idea of being a stay-at-home mom in the previous episode of The Mindy Project, after she faced misogyny from the work place (and Danny, her fiancé). She yearned to go back to work, but it was obvious she was being pressured to stay with Leo, her son. I knew that the issue would be raised eventually, but I'm happy to see that the writers of The Mindy Project wasted no time getting our protagonist back to where she wants to be in life.
Mindy flourishes at work. She says that being a doctor is the only thing she is good at — which I disagree with — but it is clear that her heart is at work as an OB/GYN and at her new fertility practice.
The discovery process of what Mindy actually wanted to do wasn't seamless. After a week of staying at home and living the "Modern Mominista" life — and making one too many grilled cheese and tomato soup dinners — Danny and Mindy swapped roles. Danny, similar to many clueless fathers, said that Mindy's "job" was "fun," compared to his laboring job as an OB/GYN. To prove that being a stay-at-home mom was hard work, she challenged him to staying at home, while she took over for him at the office. As it turns out, Danny couldn't stand the heat, so he got out of the kitchen. Literally.
It is important that Mindy decided to return to work on her own terms. It felt unfair when Danny said how he loves that she wants to stay at home, when she didn't. But, knowing that this was a decision she made herself, it feels empowering and liberating for Mindy an episode before, who was told what to do.
Images: screengrabs/Hulu (2)
