Frankie elää ruuhkavuosiaan miehensä Miken ja heidän kolmen lapsensa kanssa Orsonin pikkukaupungissa Indianassa, keskellä Amerikan Keskilänttä. Teini-ikäinen poika Axl kunnostautuu velttoilijana, kömpelö tytär Sue pyrkii innokkaasti eri harrastuskerhoihin ja kuopus Brick on pikkuinen neropatti, jonka paras ystävä on hänen koulureppunsa. Frankie sinnittelee automyyjänä laman vaikeuttaessa kauppoja, mutta lopulta löytyy potentiaalinen asiakas, kun toinen stressaantunut perheenäiti alkaa haikailla avoautoa.

Trying to save her job, Frankie organizes a publicity stunt by filling a car with jelly beans. Meanwhile, Sue fails to make the swim team and realizes that she needs glasses and Brick starts reading his mother's romance novels when he can't check books out of the library.

Frankie and Mike's romantic anniversary get-away is ruined by various family matters, including Brick being sick, Sue being lovesick, Axl just getting his learner's permit, and two psychotic aunt's and their dogs.

Sue sells sausage and cheese samples for the school. All her efforts go in vain as the school fails to see this. Frankie demands her daughter fights for her rights. Meanwhile, Brick discovers love with his current girlfriend a little stressful as she bosses him about.

Brick's teachers tell Frankie and Mike that he is "socially challenged". Mike believes that enrolling Brick on a basketball team is a good way to get him to interact with others, but the idea falls through. However, when Mike enters the neighborhood block-party lawnmower contest, he realizes that Brick has some special talents. Meanwhile, Frankie joins a booster club in the hopes of raising enough money for Axl's football team to buy new jerseys, but Axl refuses to give his old one up.

Axlin teinivelttoilu käy vanhempien hermoille, ja kun poika pamauttaa ulko-oven saranoiltaan, alkaa tahtojen taisto siitä, kuka oven korjaa. Frankie neuvoo tytärtään miten onnistua koulukuvissa, mutta Suella on vaikeuksia hillitä ilmeitään. Frankien pomo uhkaa, että elleivät autot ala käydä kaupaksi, joku myyjistä joutuu kadunvarteen mainostamaan koirapuvussa. Amerikkalainen komediasarja keskivertoperheestä ja äidistä, joka luovii työn ja arjen ristiaallokossa.

Brick saa naarmun perheen siivotessa, mutta selitys tapahtuneesta kuulostaa sen verran erikoiselta, että poliisi ja sosiaalityöntekijä kiinnostuvat perheen tekemisistä. Lapset suhtautuvat viranomaisten vierailuun kukin tavallaan. Autokauppias Ehlert haluaa käyttää vanhaa tv-mainostaan, mutta työntekijöiden mielestä mainos kaipaisi päivittämistä. Amerikkalainen komediasarja keskivertoperheestä ja äidistä, joka luovii työn ja arjen ristiaallokossa.

Frankie's plan to have an idyllic family Thanksgiving backfires when Mr. Ehlert demands his staff work over the holiday. Brick goes missing in a corn maze.

Frankie encounters two perfect siblings and vows to make her children stop fighting and become a loving family. Meanwhile, Aunt Edie makes a costly mistake at the quarry and Mike considers firing her.

Mike takes over the responsibility of organizing the Heck family Christmas while Frankie practices for a solo that she is singing at midnight mass. However, she gets jealous when Mike seems to be doing a better job than she ever did. Meanwhile, Frankie and Mike help Brick get over a problem so he can get into the Christmas spirit.

Teinien hormonit saavat Heckien talon sekaisin. Kun miehistymisen merkkejä osoittava Axl haluaa auton ja Sue kiukuttelee vaatevarastonsta takia, Frankie päättää kohdella lapsiaan tasapuolisesti. Kummasta aiheutuu enemmän päänvaivaa, kalliista farkuista vai saman hinnan maksavasta autosta? Amerikkalainen komediasarja keskivertoperheestä ja äidistä, joka luovii työn ja arjen ristiaallokossa.

Heckit joutuvat hankaluuksiin naapuruston pelkäämän Glossnerin perheen kanssa. Sue päättää puolustautua ja pian vanhempien on vastahakoisesti seurattava esimerkkiä. Axl opettaa Brickiä potkimaan palloa vastineeksi kirja-arvostelusta. Jaksossa vierailee Brooke Shields. Amerikkalainen komediasarja keskivertoperheestä ja äidistä, joka luovii työn ja arjen ristiaallokossa.

Mike loses his job when the plant shuts down for scientific research after he discovers a dinosaur bone in the quarry. However, Mike starts to get irregular feelings when he discovers how drastically things have change technologically over the years when considering the terms of searching for a job. Meanwhile, Frankie feels she must once again come to Brick's rescue when he decides to run for school historian.

Frankie kyllästyy käskyttämään jälkikasvuaan ja päättää antaa lapsille vastuun koulutehtävien sujumisesta. Onnistuuko äiti pitämään kielensä kurissa, kun sohvalla loikoillaan entiseen malliin? Mike saa yötyötä Bobbyn apukuskina pulla-auton yöjakelureitillä.

Heckit valmistautuvat lähestyvään ystävänpäivään kukin tahoillaan: Mike ja Frankie juhlivat naapureiden kanssa, Brick ja Axl tuskailevat koulutehtävän parissa ja Sue kokee ensimmäiset ystävänpäivätreffit poikaystävänsä kanssa. Kaikkien päivästä on lopulta romantiikka kaukana.

When Mike discovers that Brick is a spelling whiz and won the school spelling bee, he puts all his efforts into training him to win the regional bee, which could ultimately lead to competing in the Scripps Spelling Bee. But as the family gets set for their road trip to Chicago for the regional bee, Frankie and Mike are horrified when they realize they forgot one thing -- Sue's birthday.

Axl is heartbroken when his girlfriend (Alexa Vega) breaks up with him; Sue and Brick watch a scary movie.

Frankie fears for her job when a motivational consultant comes to get the sale team into shape. While Frankie is putting in many extra hours, Mike has to deal with the children and their issues, including making the house more fun for Axl and his friends, giving advice to Sue's ex-boyfriend and helping Brick with a school project.

Mike's dream comes to fruition when Frankie's boss, Mr. Ehlert, offers him two tickets to the Final Four. Unfortunately, Frankie's uncle dies and the funeral is set for the same day, leaving the two in a battle and Frankie making Mike chose what life event is more important to him. Meanwhile, Sue gets Brick out of going to a birthday party by impersonating Frankie over the phone, but the plan hits a bump when Frankie needs to call and tell them that Brick cannot attend because of the funeral.

After failing to pay the electric bill on time, the electric company shuts off the Heck's power. This leads Frankie and Mike to cut down on their unnecessary expenses, including their cable TV. The kids take up other activities to fill the void, but Frankie and Mike have a hard time figuring out what to do. Meanwhile, Brick and his other socially-challenged friends have to go outside for recess when the school library shuts down.

Frankie is worried that Axl's going to get his heart crushed again when his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Morgan (Alexa Vega, "Spy Kids," "Ruby & the Rockits"), re-enters his life and tries to mold him into the man she wants him to be. Meanwhile Brick learns what it means to be a mother hen when he has to watch over a baby chick for a school science project.

Mother's Day for Frankie is anything but serene when she finds herself doing more for Mike and the kids and less for herself. But she learns that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when she escapes the family for a few hours to go to her mom's (Marsha Mason, "The Goodbye Girl," "Chapter Two") and ends up acting like a child by making her mom wait on her hand-and-foot. Meanwhile, Sue feels guilty when she steals a motivational magnet from a store whose message actually enticed her to shoplift it.

Parent-Teacher conferences cause Frankie to worry about the kids. In them she's told Axl is gifted but not applying himself, that her teachers still do not know who Sue is, and Brick may have to repeat the second-grade due to failure to return over 30 library books. Guest star Betty White as the school librarian.