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Debra barone angry at Raymond

Frances "Frankie" Heck (née Spence) (Born November 14, 1966) is the wife of Mike Heck and mother of Axl, Sue, and Brick Heck. She was formerly a car salesperson at Ehlert Motors, but now works as a dental hygienist. She serves as the central character of The Middle, providing voice-over narration for nearly every episode.

Throughout the series, Frankie is often seen as overly stressed, mainly as a result of her family combined with her less-than-desirable household conditions. Although her parenting style strongly juxtaposes that of Nancy Donahue's, Frankie is shown to be a caring and affectionate mother, despite her forgetfulness at times.

Personality[]

Frankie Heck portrays a stressed-out, annoying housewife struggling in a suburban town in Indiana with typical family matters such as bills, low finances, and an uncooperative family. As a mother, Frankie was seen as lazy and forgetful, partially due to having to juggle Axl's moodiness, Sue's awkwardness, and Brick's oddities. It was much more difficult for Frankie (and Mike) to be involved in Sue's and Brick's early lives as much as they were Axl's (due to the fact that they both needed to be working parents.) Although Frankie is mostly content with the way her family behaves, she does wish her children were more like the Donahues but generally is too lazy and busy to put in the time, effort, or care to motivate them. She generally wishes her children to get far in life and mostly get out of her house but is not above helicopter parenting or making a bad situation worse when she accidentally comes off as a bad parent in the public view.

In spite of her laziness, Frankie has natural and always-right maternal instincts which she treats with her family and as displayed during her job at Ehlert Motors whilst selling a car, in her daily life. However, she got let go from that job in The Second Act, and now works as a dentist's assistant.

Relationships[]

Frankieandmike

Mike[]

Mike is Frankie's husband, and the two of them frequently bicker because Frankie is stressed and Mike doesn't really care. They consider themselves laid back parents and Frankie sometimes blurts out that they're lazy parents. Mike and Frankie bicker about a lot of things involving their children. According to Mike, Frankie isn't young and shiny looking anymore. Frankie tries to get Mike involved in social things, as he is very anti-social like Brick. Frankie once invited a neighbor over to hang out with Mike and when Mike found out he got angry. He also didn't like the fact that she's telling the new neighbor that he is shy. He then found out Frankie was telling him personal stories about his brother and dad. Mike considered Frankie chatty in his pro and con chart "Marry Frankie." When Frankie finds the chart she freaks out because the chart had more negatives than positives and one of the positives didn't say what she was great at, leaving that sentence unfinished. Frankie made a similar one for Mike having an incomplete one which led into an argument. Mike did surprise her with a special anniversary gift even when they agreed not to get each other anything. Years ago on their honeymoon, Mike took Frankie camping which was terrible according to Frankie. During Valentines Day, Mike would go get a crappy gift for her from a drugstore.

Axl[]

Her oldest son, Axl Heck is lazy, which causes Frankie to stress about getting Axl into college. Axl isn't open with Frankie and doesn't want to interact much with his parents which hurts Frankie. Frankie likes it when Axl hugs her. Frankie was to walk Axl out onto the field during a homecoming game, but she couldn't due to Sue's first cross country meet being on the same day. Frankie then showed up on the field after Axl was knocked out by a player.

Frankieandaxl

When Frankie went back to community college to complete her dental assisting degree, she empathized with Axl on how mean teachers can be, and Axl helped her study for her class.

Sue[]

Sue is Frankie's only daughter and therefore has an emotional bond with Sue. Frankie supports Sue in trying out for everything even though she and Mike have little faith in her succeeding due to her past history.

Frankieandsue

In the Season 4 episode, "The Last Whiff of Summer pts 1/2" Mike started giving Axl all the attention, even though it was negative attention, Sue thought it meant he didn't love her as much. At the fair, Sue went to the lost and found for children hoping her family would notice she was missing and find her. After a while, the family came there to ask if they'd found Brick's paper, and left without Sue. At the end of the fair Mike, who finds it uncomfortable to say I love you, tells Sue he loves her and that he shouldn't have to say it. Sue felt much better after that.

Brick[]

Brick is Frankie's youngest child. Brick frequently whispers phrases he has said to himself. Brick also forces Frankie to have to complete the majority of his homework projects at the last minute. Brick later picked up a 'tic' in season 4 where he whoops to himself, saying whoop (or "whooping"). Brick's strangeness results in Frankie talking with his teachers each year, essentially saying he is weird. Frankie also attends his social group classes on occasion. In these situations, Frankie and Mike try to explain that Brick is not special or weird, but in the end, Frankie usually admits that he is special. Frankie and Mike pay very little attention to Brick because they have more important things to do, which makes him feel "invisible" and is a great factor in his social ineptitude.

Career[]

Frankie was a car saleswoman at Ehlert Motors. She befriended an eccentric male worker named Bob who has a crush on her. She later lost that job in season 4 because she was the last hired and Mr. Ehlert needed to cut back on employees. In the episode The Second Act, she vowed not to take just any job that comes her way so she goes to tech school to get a real career as a dental hygienist but the instructor was mean to especially her. Frankie passed college and became a dental hygienist/assistant. Her boss is friendly Dr. Ted Goodwin who was feeling lonely for a while. He began to hang out with Frankie. Frankie accepted this because he signs her pay checks, and he's 'a billion times nicer' than her last boss Mr. Elhert but he could still fire her, and she's not that great at her job.

Frankie has also worked odd jobs such as an actress for a "pioneer village", where she has worked at least twice after getting fired from Ehlert's and when Dr. Goodwin's had to close for 2 months due to a remodel. She later worked at home as a clerical worker for an airline, as she was led to believe Sue wanted to attend an expensive college, thus, she needed to make more money to afford it. She later quit this job after Sue said she was just saying 'for fun' that she wanted to go to expensive colleges.

Trivia[]

  • She has sold a few cars before.
  • She loves donut holes and chicken.
  • She is an eternal optimist.
  • In the episode Christmas, Frankie mention's she worked at a dental office before working at Ehlert Motors
  • She once had 4 jobs.
  • When the Heck family goes on an outing, she always forgets the blue snack bag when someone is hungry.
  • She likes The Oscars and anything to do with Oprah Winfrey.
  • She hates Mother's Day.
  • It is unknown how large Frankie's family is since the Heck family has mentioned numerous family members such as: cousins Roy, Jarred, and Alyssa, as well as Uncle Nate & Lou. This means Frankie and Mike could possibly have numerous unmentioned siblings.
  • She likes it when Axl hugs her.
  • She completes most of Brick's school projects due to his forgetfulness and unwillingness to care or follow through.
  • She likes her grilled cheese cut in triangles with potato chips in the middle.
  • She is short, 5'2".
  • She fancies Colin Firth - In The Test she mentions occasionally dreaming about him, she named her dog Colin Firth, and her computer password is 'Mrs. Frankie Firth'.
  • She can hold off creditors for months.
  • She can pull anything out of her purse without looking.
  • She can listen to four conversations at once.
  • She can get dressed in under 20 seconds.
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