I still think everybody here is over reacting and criticizing a family that doesn't deserve it. The parents both have good jobs, they don't deserve scorn for it. The story wasn't about a poverty stricken family, or even a low or medium income family. They actually use the terms "comfortable" and "high end" to describe their life.
According to
wiki, they're part of the upper middle class, at the top 20%. They're wondering if Mom drops down to below $33k/year if they can continue to live like they're still in the upper middle class, or will they have to drop down their standard of living to that in the regular middle class. (1 in 5 families is NOT that uncommon to pass by)
People with no money shouldn't be the only people with the rights to worry about money. Those with money, who are smart with their money, have their rights to worry about how to spend it and how much to spend too.
It's not like they took a ridiculously rich family like the Kardashians or something, where they can throw away a few million dollars and not realize it was gone. This is an honest working family who still has to balance their checkbooks to pay their bills (and unlike the poor, they actually PAY their bills, and have their debts/credit cards paid off). Nobody wants to go down in standard of life (Nobody wants to go from poor to homeless. Likewise people don't want to go from upper class to lower class.)
I guess I feel bad for this family because I'm sure as hell not rich, but I'm far from being poor, and I worry about money too. When I had issues with my job where I got less hours for a while, I worried a lot about money. It's not like I was worried about putting food on the table, but I definitely had to think twice before making some of my purchases. (My old shopper feeling was "I only buy things a few times a year, if I like it, I'll just buy it." a $100-$150 splurge purchase really wouldn't make me blink. but now I have to think twice and wonder how much use I'll actually get out of it before I can buy it, even if it's only $50, and now I only splurge maybe once or twice a year.)