Being Two Isn't Easy

Husband and wife Goro and Chiyo, and their only offspring, an infant son named Taro, go through the ups and downs of family life living in a cramped modern apartment building in suburban Tokyo. Their story is told in Taro's second year of life. Many of their issues stem from both Goro and Chiyo being unsure of themselves as parents, and being different in their perspectives of parenting, Goro who believes in the traditional roles in which Chiyo is tasked with most of the child rearing responsibilities especially around the home. They also differ in the number of children they want, Goro who believes Taro is enough of a handful, while Chiyo really wants at least one more child in the general joy she feels in being a mother despite the problems. The unsurety that Goro and Chiyo feel about their parenting is confirmed by Taro, openly in his frequent crying fits when he is unhappy in what his parents or other adults around him have done wrong, and in secret as Taro provides an inner voice narrative of what he wants and believes as a baby which is often contrary to what Goro or Chiyo believe Taro wants or needs. Their situation gets more complicated as Goro's aged and thus stuck in her ways mother Ino gets directly involved in Goro, Chiyo and Taro's home life and thus Taro's upbringing.