Struggling actor Anthony moves back in with his parents, while trying to raise his 8-year-old son Tuga, and immediately realzies that his parents are what drove him to leave in the first place. His mother, Flo, is loving and supportive, while his father, Joe, nags him to get a real job. To make matters worse, Anthony is forced to sleep in the garage as his room has been rented out to a med student.
Anthony readies to go on his first date in ten years, and asks for his parents' guidance on how to tell Tuga, who doesn't know that his mother isn't coming back.
Anthony convinces Flo to get out more and have more of a social, independent life of her own, which has the effect of making the men, especially Joe, see how much they take her for granted when they have to do everything for themselves.
When Anthony's parents go too far and critique his parenting skills, he decides he can raise Tuga on his own, but without his family to help out, Anthony finds that perhaps he's become more of a friend to Tuga than a parent.
When Anthony wrecks Joe's car, Lydia decides to take the fall thinking Joe'll be easier on her, but she turns out to be mistaken. Meanwhile, Joe tries to comfort Anthony, not realizing Anthony's true role in the accident.
Anthony learns that Tuga, embarrassed by his father's struggling career as an actor, tells his class that Anthony is a firefighter instead. At the same time, Anthony gets an acting gig, but to his dismay it's as a robber.
Anthony tries to give Flo the perfect birthday gift, a reunion with her old bandmate, however when he learns the real reason she stopped performing, he must stop the surprise from becoming an unpleasant one.
When Joe criticizes Anthony's little-league coaching style, he tries to take over, and gets his chance when Anthony has to go on an audition. Upon his return, Anthony finds out the kids prefer Joe's win-at-all-cost style to his have-fun approach. Meanwhile, Lydia begins scaring the salon customers with her medical expertise.
Joe bets Anthony he can beat him in a race to land an acting job. Meanwhile, Lydia learns that her opportunity to speak at a medical school benefit is mostly due to her nationality.
Anthony is adamant against Joe buying Tuga a bike, which causes him to acknowledge that the true motivation stems from his own lack of bike-riding know-how. Meanwhile, Lydia becomes the tutor for a science whiz and soon figures out that he wants her to be more than just a tutor.
When the parents of Tuga's classmates want to do away with dodge ball in school, Anthony and Joe suggest the two opposing sides try playing the game, with the winning team given the chance to determine the game's eventual fate. Meanwhile, Lydia wonders whether medicine is the right career for her when the sight of blood keeps causing her to faint.
When Anthony and Joe visit a child psychiatrist to get insight into the issue of Tuga's make-believe friend, they learn that it may be the result of their own in-fighting. Meanwhile, Lydia tries to enhance her figure in order to make more headway in her dating life.
Anthony, Joe, and Flo make a movie for Tuga about his home life to show the kids in school he thinks will make fun of him for not having both mom and dad around.
When Anthony gets reacquainted with a formerly crime-addled childhood friend, Joe worries that he'll be a negative influence on both Anthony and Tuga's life.
Anthony and Joe decide to temporarily bury the hatchet and take Tuga camping so he can start to bond with other kids. Things go awry when Marcus throws a lingerie party for Flo and Lydia's friends, but discovers that, while he's got the camping gear, Anthony's group somehow got the lingerie.
To get Tuga to stick with his piano lessons, Anthony leads by example by restarting his clarinet lessons with Tuga's music teacher. When she coaxes Anthony into playing a recital, he is unaware that he's the only adult in the orchestra.