It's Mary's high school graduation and Jeff's driving lesson day. These are two major milestones in a teenagers life. Both are naturally fretting over their big events and going to their parents for help and consolation.
Dad however is distracted because of a sick patient in the hospital that he's worried about. This is understandable, but it should not negate the big days of the Stone children.
Donna gets so irritated that they're bothering Dad about their problems that she shuttles them into the bedroom to shame the hell out of them and lay major guilt trips effectively popping the balloons of their events. Nice Donna!
She tells them how Dad is so worried about his poor patient and how dare they bring their problems to them which is a terrible thing to do. These are two big days for them that only come once in a lifetime and they have every right to celebrate without having guilt trips laid onto them for being single minded about it. Donna basically pisses all over their plans and basically tells them that Dad's problems supersede their own. Afterwards the Stone kids are so deflated that they hang their heads in shame and slink out of the room in shame. Good going Donna!
And the worst part is that it all ends well with the patient so Dad was worrying for nothing, but the kids still had their big day rained on by Mom's guilt trip. What Donna should have done was keep quiet and allow her children to have their big days and worry about the patient alongside her husband. In other words, keep the adult problems to the adults.
It was not a problem to be dropped into the children's laps, especially on such a big day for each and shame on Donna for crapping all over their big days. When they look back on these events, they'll only remember how horrible and ashamed their Mom made them feel.
