Summary

The short story “Better Homes and Gardens” by Catherine Moffat centres around a homeless family.

The narrator relates that his father never parks in front of the school and that he has to walk his younger sister, Grace, to the car. After he picks up the children, the father takes them to the beach, where they have fun, take a shower, and the narrator does his homework.

The family goes out to eat at fast-food restaurants, but they never go to the same place two nights in a row. They also sometimes barbecue in the park. After that, the children brush their teeth in the park’s toilet and finally go to sleep in the car in a different spot than the night before.

When they need to wash their clothes, the family goes to a laundromat where they watch a television show cal...