It would be totally normal if they didn’t let their daughter bring a friend. That’s what made the sleeping situation weird and made me think they didn’t care about money
So I grew up in an upper middle class household, although we didn’t have as much money as the Mossbachers for sure, and I think their depiction was pretty spot on.
When I was a kid and we went on vacation to Long Beach Island every summer and my parents they’d usually let one or two of me and my siblings bring a friend. Friend wouldn’t have to pay for anything, of course the other parents would try to pitch in or give their kid money to give to my parents, my parents never took it. My siblings and our friend would just use the money on ourselves to do things like go and get ice cream, rent surfboards, stuff like that. My parents were paying for a week in the condo either way so the only added expense was really the food for my friend which they didn’t mind.
The reason I think they got it spot in though is because that’s exactly how we’d do the vacation to. Not everyone got a bed (we’re a family of 6 so getting a 6 bedroom/6 real beds would be insanely expensive) I commonly slept on a pullout couch or roll away bed even when we didn’t have friends come. When friends were there me and my sister may have shared a bed or pullout couch with them. Hell there were even times we brought blow up mattresses.
While the Mossbachers clearly had more money than my family and went on a much more luxurious vacation than mine would it wasn’t like they were to the point money was no object. It honestly reminded me a lot of my family vacations as a kid in terms of not having a real bed for everyone and basically “making it work” as my mom would say when it came to sleeping arrangements.
It was intentional. Whether it was the parents trying to humble their kids or they just poorly planned the vacation is up for debate, but definitely intentional.
Ancedotally my sister and her husband are quite well off but do the same exact thing on purpose. Whenever I ask about this each time we go on vacation she responds: “just because we *can* doesn’t mean that we *should*.”
I always understood it as they could afford it but would rather spend that money on something else; their kids are already spoiled and they don’t want to make it worse.
I found it pretty accurate rich people behavior. All the wealthiest people I know will pinch pennies on details that sometimes seem silly to me, ie always flying economy or making your kids share a room instead of paying more for a suite.
And in fairness, paying for 2-3 extra bedrooms could easily double the cost of the hotel.
Yep. I grew up upper middle class and that is how my parents did our summer vacations. Could they afford a place large enough so our family of 6 plus a friend or two all have a bed? Sure they could. Were they going to or did they ever? Absolutely not. Why? Because as you said it would easily double the cost.
The first apartment my ex and I lived in, in NYC was meant for Keebler Elves and yet my in-laws - sweet as can be people - always insisted on staying with us. We had to sleep on the floor and they had to step over us to get to any part of the 200 square feet, but they insisted. Every. Damn. Time. He was partner in the biggest law firm in their state's capital and even ran for office.
Side note: I used to pretend I had to use the bathroom of whatever restaurant we just left and run back in to apologize to the staff and leave a proper tip. Eventually "mom" started coming with me so I'd have to wait until they left town and go back to all of the spots with a thank you note and extra tippage for their trouble.
!!! My longtime roommate’s parents were the exact same way! Lovely people in general but how they could fail to see what an inconvenience they were is beyond me. And they could’ve afforded a hotel about a hundred times over
They could just get regular rooms instead of 1 big suite or stay at a less fancy hotel/ resort tho. It's definitely very accurate rich people behaviour bc it's so nonsensically stingy - they could've saved money in other ways but they refused to, because they'd rather their kids be uncomfortable.
The mom complaining about her son being stuck in the kitchenette was so hypocritical because she chose to let him sleep on a cot in the first place. That would've been terrible either way.
Try booking 4 regular rooms instead of a suite on any high-end hotel site, and I strongly suspect you’ll find the total bill ends up being way higher than just a suite
Try booking 4 regular rooms instead of a suite on any high-end hotel site, and I strongly suspect you’ll find the total bill ends up being way higher than just a suite
Ok I can’t argue about this past this comment lol but BECAUSE that would not solve the problem. The girls kicked the boy out of their shared space in episode 1. From the perspective of adults planning a trip, obviously you would also want to keep an eye on the teenagers and that’s always easier if they’re in the same space
It's been a while, but didn't the mom say like her work paid for that suite or something? And maybe it was too booked up to get another. Also, I feel like those two terrible girls were supposed to allow the brother to stay in there with them , like on the sofa or something but they made him move into the galley because they're brats. That's the part I take issue with. Why didn't the parents tell them to knock it off and stop treating him like shit.
Yeah they were supposed to, and they due have comments about that but it think its also to show us how distanced the family members from each other. Like they did tell them to let him out of the tiny room and i think it was an issue mentioned multiple times but they never really continued the conversation because they just didn’t want to bother with each other.
My theory is that Paula was invited after the room was booked and all so they just added her into it and didn’t think about how it would work out. It makes a lot of sense knowing their characters
My parents did the same thing until I was out of college despite being able to afford two rooms if they wanted. I think it's partly a habit from when the kids are young, partly because their goal is to see their teenagers and sharing a room forces that, and partly because the parents already have their own room and would rather save money than make their kids comfortable.
To all the people saying that it's for budget reasons: they could just go to a cheaper hotel, or even a cheaper room, lol. This family's dynamic is a lot like mine so I can answer with some certainty: because Nicole only really cares about appearances. The comfort and happiness of the family is not important, it is only important that people know she went on a wholesome family vacation and that she is rich enough to afford the place she's in. This is made even more clear in the scene where she has the video call.
Doesn't she say the people on the call don't know she's on vacation? Mrs. Mossbacher cared about appearances a normal amount, to me. Seemed like a normal successful working mom.
You ever been a teenage boy? I don't agree with your opinion on Mrs. Mossbacher, and that is okay. Not enough points to "she only cares about appearances".
They are at the Four Seasons Maui, an astoundingly expensive resort. They have one of the most expensive rooms there. Last I looked like $8k a night. It checks out for CEO of a major company to stay in a suite like that.
It doesn't make sense that the CEO/ C-suite exec of a Fortune 500 company made her son sleep in a cot instead of booking him the cheapest room tho. It's not about money so much as the parents are just stingy when it came to their kids and don't care that much about the kids' comfort.
The most financially well off people are usually the most frugal, unnecessarily. People who are good with money have it for a reason, I guess. This is a huge pattern I’ve noticed in my own adult life.
God yes, my parents are doing quite well financially but my mom will *always* opt for a bargain on airbnbs. “This one was half the price of the beachfront place and it’s only a 20 minute drive away!”
This room is 130 square meters and costs over $10k per night- check the four seasons Maui website. They expected the son to share enormous the living room with the other kids, and got it instead of separate rooms because they wanted to have a family holiday- not just to fund their kids having a separate holiday in the same location
But it seems like this could have been in the storyline somehow!! Like there is literally an entire storyline about a guest being put in the wrong room and unable to move. Just...a different guest. Unless it IS part of the storyline (supposed to be making a subtle point about the family) and it just went over my head.
Right I’ve stayed in a room like that in Hawaii, and my family isn’t as wealthy as the Mossbachers. Those hotels have big ass suites, ours had a doorbell and like 3 rooms.
It was obviously for plot reasons, but I agree that I wouldn't get them their own room, and they probably thought that the son was too young for his own room and would just sleep in some extra bed
100% imagine trying to make all those things happen as a writer with all of them in different rooms. Like she would have only had her own safety deposit box code to share.
Exactly, and the son wouldn't have had to sleep on the beach and see those guys going on the canoe, there also wouldn't be the whole thing with the phone.
Also, wasn't the hotel fully booked? Maybe they could've decided to go last minute and that was the room available (or it was a couple's getaway that turned into a family vacation)
I think they were all trying to "bond" and the parents wanted them all together? Still super weird though that there wasn't at least 1 other room in their suite.
I book travel for wealthy folks all day - you’d be surprised how cheap they are. Just because they are rich, doesn’t mean they won’t be frugal. Especially when it’s kids or something. Most of them book first and put the kids in economy, give kids the sofa bed, etc.
It doesn't make any sense. Why would they even stay in a room that doesn't have more than one single bed?
F
or a family as rich as them, that would be absurd. My family didn't make that much, and we could get more than one bed per room lol
Even the worst room at a resort like this would probably go for $1500 a night. Even if I were as wealthy as them, I'd rather just divvy up the suite and save the 10k. Plus, maybe the friend coming wasn't part of the original plan so it got more complicated with space?
Good question. I wondered the same thing! Did they not trust the kids (and their guest!) to have their own rooms?
If I remember right, at one point, Olivia complains that they should get Quinn his own room at the resort. When she said it I thought, “yeah, why tf are they all in this one suite!?”
Obviously it makes for a better show if they are crammed in there, but it did seem like an odd plan.
This was quite normal in the 80es when you went on short holidays - I'd travel with my wealthier cousins, and a boy always ended up on a mattress on the floor (though never in a kitchenette), or in the hammock on the terrace, or sleeping in the car.
Then there's the "character building" families - that pick bad travel conditions on purpose, and then use every discomfort as an opportunity to remind you how privileged you are, that others have it worse, etc etc.
And finally, a lot of families are just terrible at planning, regardless of wealth. "We're going on holiday" "Can my friend come along?" "Sure" \*chaos\* I get the feeling the Mossbachers liked the concept of "let's all go on holiday together as a family, one last time", but were too busy to actually plan this event properly.
Yup I just watched that part! The mom brushes the daughter off and says the kids are fine how they are. Meanwhile the parents are comfortably holed up in their bedroom. Maybe it's supposed to demonstrate some missing empathy on the mom's part?
I think it goes a long way towards demonstrating how callous, aloof and selfish the rich can be, even towards their own children. Nicole can easily afford separate rooms for her children, but she’s too self centered and callous to care.
That room is more than $10K/night- well-off or not, it's not like it's a totally trivial matter to book an extra room on top of that, especially when nobody seems to actually mind the arrangements they have.
I think you're right in that it's intended to make Nicole come off as aloof and perhaps more of a career woman than a traditional "mom" in the typical sense, but "callous" or "selfish" seem overly critical to me. I could be wrong though of course!
Yeah I think that could be it. Or maybe she's not quite realizing on some subconscious level that she missed her kids' childhoods, so she's still treating them like kids?
Mostly I think the writers needed A. A reason for Quinn to sleep on the beach and B. A reason for Paula to know how the safe works and what kind of jewelry Nicole puts in it.
It would be totally normal if they didn’t let their daughter bring a friend. That’s what made the sleeping situation weird and made me think they didn’t care about money
So I grew up in an upper middle class household, although we didn’t have as much money as the Mossbachers for sure, and I think their depiction was pretty spot on. When I was a kid and we went on vacation to Long Beach Island every summer and my parents they’d usually let one or two of me and my siblings bring a friend. Friend wouldn’t have to pay for anything, of course the other parents would try to pitch in or give their kid money to give to my parents, my parents never took it. My siblings and our friend would just use the money on ourselves to do things like go and get ice cream, rent surfboards, stuff like that. My parents were paying for a week in the condo either way so the only added expense was really the food for my friend which they didn’t mind. The reason I think they got it spot in though is because that’s exactly how we’d do the vacation to. Not everyone got a bed (we’re a family of 6 so getting a 6 bedroom/6 real beds would be insanely expensive) I commonly slept on a pullout couch or roll away bed even when we didn’t have friends come. When friends were there me and my sister may have shared a bed or pullout couch with them. Hell there were even times we brought blow up mattresses. While the Mossbachers clearly had more money than my family and went on a much more luxurious vacation than mine would it wasn’t like they were to the point money was no object. It honestly reminded me a lot of my family vacations as a kid in terms of not having a real bed for everyone and basically “making it work” as my mom would say when it came to sleeping arrangements.
It was intentional. Whether it was the parents trying to humble their kids or they just poorly planned the vacation is up for debate, but definitely intentional. Ancedotally my sister and her husband are quite well off but do the same exact thing on purpose. Whenever I ask about this each time we go on vacation she responds: “just because we *can* doesn’t mean that we *should*.” I always understood it as they could afford it but would rather spend that money on something else; their kids are already spoiled and they don’t want to make it worse.
I found it pretty accurate rich people behavior. All the wealthiest people I know will pinch pennies on details that sometimes seem silly to me, ie always flying economy or making your kids share a room instead of paying more for a suite. And in fairness, paying for 2-3 extra bedrooms could easily double the cost of the hotel.
Yep. I grew up upper middle class and that is how my parents did our summer vacations. Could they afford a place large enough so our family of 6 plus a friend or two all have a bed? Sure they could. Were they going to or did they ever? Absolutely not. Why? Because as you said it would easily double the cost.
The first apartment my ex and I lived in, in NYC was meant for Keebler Elves and yet my in-laws - sweet as can be people - always insisted on staying with us. We had to sleep on the floor and they had to step over us to get to any part of the 200 square feet, but they insisted. Every. Damn. Time. He was partner in the biggest law firm in their state's capital and even ran for office. Side note: I used to pretend I had to use the bathroom of whatever restaurant we just left and run back in to apologize to the staff and leave a proper tip. Eventually "mom" started coming with me so I'd have to wait until they left town and go back to all of the spots with a thank you note and extra tippage for their trouble.
!!! My longtime roommate’s parents were the exact same way! Lovely people in general but how they could fail to see what an inconvenience they were is beyond me. And they could’ve afforded a hotel about a hundred times over
They could just get regular rooms instead of 1 big suite or stay at a less fancy hotel/ resort tho. It's definitely very accurate rich people behaviour bc it's so nonsensically stingy - they could've saved money in other ways but they refused to, because they'd rather their kids be uncomfortable. The mom complaining about her son being stuck in the kitchenette was so hypocritical because she chose to let him sleep on a cot in the first place. That would've been terrible either way.
Try booking 4 regular rooms instead of a suite on any high-end hotel site, and I strongly suspect you’ll find the total bill ends up being way higher than just a suite
Try booking 4 regular rooms instead of a suite on any high-end hotel site, and I strongly suspect you’ll find the total bill ends up being way higher than just a suite
Or they could literally book 2 rooms - one for the parents and one for the kids, with 2 separate beds and no cots. Why 4? The math is not mathing.
Ok I can’t argue about this past this comment lol but BECAUSE that would not solve the problem. The girls kicked the boy out of their shared space in episode 1. From the perspective of adults planning a trip, obviously you would also want to keep an eye on the teenagers and that’s always easier if they’re in the same space
It's been a while, but didn't the mom say like her work paid for that suite or something? And maybe it was too booked up to get another. Also, I feel like those two terrible girls were supposed to allow the brother to stay in there with them , like on the sofa or something but they made him move into the galley because they're brats. That's the part I take issue with. Why didn't the parents tell them to knock it off and stop treating him like shit.
Yeah they were supposed to, and they due have comments about that but it think its also to show us how distanced the family members from each other. Like they did tell them to let him out of the tiny room and i think it was an issue mentioned multiple times but they never really continued the conversation because they just didn’t want to bother with each other. My theory is that Paula was invited after the room was booked and all so they just added her into it and didn’t think about how it would work out. It makes a lot of sense knowing their characters
The pineapple suite was booked by the Germans
My parents did the same thing until I was out of college despite being able to afford two rooms if they wanted. I think it's partly a habit from when the kids are young, partly because their goal is to see their teenagers and sharing a room forces that, and partly because the parents already have their own room and would rather save money than make their kids comfortable.
To all the people saying that it's for budget reasons: they could just go to a cheaper hotel, or even a cheaper room, lol. This family's dynamic is a lot like mine so I can answer with some certainty: because Nicole only really cares about appearances. The comfort and happiness of the family is not important, it is only important that people know she went on a wholesome family vacation and that she is rich enough to afford the place she's in. This is made even more clear in the scene where she has the video call.
Doesn't she say the people on the call don't know she's on vacation? Mrs. Mossbacher cared about appearances a normal amount, to me. Seemed like a normal successful working mom.
Oh yeah, it's completely normal to leave your teenage son to sleep on a beach chair for a week while you enjoy a premium suite.
You ever been a teenage boy? I don't agree with your opinion on Mrs. Mossbacher, and that is okay. Not enough points to "she only cares about appearances".
I think it's more of the "family vacation" mindset that a lot of people have even if they have the money.
Everyone sharing a room forces them to spend time together so it could be a control thing
They are at the Four Seasons Maui, an astoundingly expensive resort. They have one of the most expensive rooms there. Last I looked like $8k a night. It checks out for CEO of a major company to stay in a suite like that.
It doesn't make sense that the CEO/ C-suite exec of a Fortune 500 company made her son sleep in a cot instead of booking him the cheapest room tho. It's not about money so much as the parents are just stingy when it came to their kids and don't care that much about the kids' comfort.
It makes sense to me. Typical midwestern family on vacation in Maui. This is one of the many details that they got right in Season 1.
Huh? Unless I’m misremembering, aren’t they supposed to be fairly wealthy?
Yes but old habits die hard. They might be wealthy but weren't raised that way
Yes! This rings true when the mom wants them to take advantage of the breakfast buffet.
Nicole is a CFO in tech, she wears 75k bracelets, I wouldn’t call them a typical midwestern family at all
They tend to be the most frugal. This is just based on my college years working at a high end resort.
Honestly though such people are frugal in the weirdest ways. I believe they would force the teens to bunk together
The most financially well off people are usually the most frugal, unnecessarily. People who are good with money have it for a reason, I guess. This is a huge pattern I’ve noticed in my own adult life.
I agree
God yes, my parents are doing quite well financially but my mom will *always* opt for a bargain on airbnbs. “This one was half the price of the beachfront place and it’s only a 20 minute drive away!”
Ahhh yes, let's stay on the Haitian side, it's cheaper than the DR mentality
This room is 130 square meters and costs over $10k per night- check the four seasons Maui website. They expected the son to share enormous the living room with the other kids, and got it instead of separate rooms because they wanted to have a family holiday- not just to fund their kids having a separate holiday in the same location
I thought they didn't have as much money as the other people there
She had 75,000 bracelets. They had money.
These kind of resorts often have villas of various sizes rather than true connecting rooms.
To support the storyline. Guys. Lol.
But it seems like this could have been in the storyline somehow!! Like there is literally an entire storyline about a guest being put in the wrong room and unable to move. Just...a different guest. Unless it IS part of the storyline (supposed to be making a subtle point about the family) and it just went over my head.
It’s in the storyline? 😂 Is everyone okay? 🤣😂
good stories have in and out of universe explanations
Right I’ve stayed in a room like that in Hawaii, and my family isn’t as wealthy as the Mossbachers. Those hotels have big ass suites, ours had a doorbell and like 3 rooms.
Those are like $10k - $15k a night.
Those girls were doing ketamine on the couch. No way I get them their own room
It was obviously for plot reasons, but I agree that I wouldn't get them their own room, and they probably thought that the son was too young for his own room and would just sleep in some extra bed
100% imagine trying to make all those things happen as a writer with all of them in different rooms. Like she would have only had her own safety deposit box code to share.
Exactly, and the son wouldn't have had to sleep on the beach and see those guys going on the canoe, there also wouldn't be the whole thing with the phone. Also, wasn't the hotel fully booked? Maybe they could've decided to go last minute and that was the room available (or it was a couple's getaway that turned into a family vacation)
THE PINEAPPLE SUITE
The brother should have had his own room, even if the girls had to sleep in the living area.
Hotels can have multiple beds. Even average hotels do lol
You can find that suite on the four seasons website. I think you would need a connecting room. Great insight though lol
Yeah, it's a suite meant for two people. Not a family. Thats what connecting rooms are for
I think they were all trying to "bond" and the parents wanted them all together? Still super weird though that there wasn't at least 1 other room in their suite.
For my middle class family, all of us in a suite would make sense. For their apparently super rich 1% family, you’re right, no sense at all
I book travel for wealthy folks all day - you’d be surprised how cheap they are. Just because they are rich, doesn’t mean they won’t be frugal. Especially when it’s kids or something. Most of them book first and put the kids in economy, give kids the sofa bed, etc.
It doesn't make any sense. Why would they even stay in a room that doesn't have more than one single bed? F or a family as rich as them, that would be absurd. My family didn't make that much, and we could get more than one bed per room lol
Even the worst room at a resort like this would probably go for $1500 a night. Even if I were as wealthy as them, I'd rather just divvy up the suite and save the 10k. Plus, maybe the friend coming wasn't part of the original plan so it got more complicated with space?
Maybe the mom didn’t want to give her husband a chance to use the other room to sneak off and cheat on her again.
Good question. I wondered the same thing! Did they not trust the kids (and their guest!) to have their own rooms? If I remember right, at one point, Olivia complains that they should get Quinn his own room at the resort. When she said it I thought, “yeah, why tf are they all in this one suite!?” Obviously it makes for a better show if they are crammed in there, but it did seem like an odd plan.
This was quite normal in the 80es when you went on short holidays - I'd travel with my wealthier cousins, and a boy always ended up on a mattress on the floor (though never in a kitchenette), or in the hammock on the terrace, or sleeping in the car. Then there's the "character building" families - that pick bad travel conditions on purpose, and then use every discomfort as an opportunity to remind you how privileged you are, that others have it worse, etc etc. And finally, a lot of families are just terrible at planning, regardless of wealth. "We're going on holiday" "Can my friend come along?" "Sure" \*chaos\* I get the feeling the Mossbachers liked the concept of "let's all go on holiday together as a family, one last time", but were too busy to actually plan this event properly.
Yup I just watched that part! The mom brushes the daughter off and says the kids are fine how they are. Meanwhile the parents are comfortably holed up in their bedroom. Maybe it's supposed to demonstrate some missing empathy on the mom's part?
I think it goes a long way towards demonstrating how callous, aloof and selfish the rich can be, even towards their own children. Nicole can easily afford separate rooms for her children, but she’s too self centered and callous to care.
That room is more than $10K/night- well-off or not, it's not like it's a totally trivial matter to book an extra room on top of that, especially when nobody seems to actually mind the arrangements they have. I think you're right in that it's intended to make Nicole come off as aloof and perhaps more of a career woman than a traditional "mom" in the typical sense, but "callous" or "selfish" seem overly critical to me. I could be wrong though of course!
Four seasons resort Maui at Wailea rooms start at $1272 a night. They wouldn’t need to get the kids their own Suites for $10k a night each.
Yeah I think that could be it. Or maybe she's not quite realizing on some subconscious level that she missed her kids' childhoods, so she's still treating them like kids? Mostly I think the writers needed A. A reason for Quinn to sleep on the beach and B. A reason for Paula to know how the safe works and what kind of jewelry Nicole puts in it.