9. "Manny Get Your Gun" - Season 2, Episode 8
... in which he expresses his love for family camp and his daughters Phil loves hanging out with his family and especially loves to do so at family camp, a several week long excursion during the summer that the Dunphy girls (including Claire) are not huge fans of. Phil enjoys showcasing his family and how well he believes they get along and love each other. On top of which, the Dunphy's left family camp victors of the Capture the Flag competition as members of the infamous "white team", prompting Phil to walk around spewing a racist victory cry (without his knowledge), further pushing his family away from the idea of returning to family camp. In this episode, after a spat with Claire about getting to a restaurant the quickest way, Phil and the girls get into his car while Claire and son, Luke, get into hers, attempting to race each other on different routes to finally put an end to the eternal "whose way is faster?" argument. During the ride, middle child, Alex, admits that she doesn't want to go back to family camp, which leaves Phil completely defeated. He loves family camp so much that he didn't realize how hated it was by the rest of his family. The girls' telling him that they think what he looks forward to every summer is stupid translates to Phil that they think hanging out with him in ridiculous, which prompts him to give a speech about knowing the day would come when "his daughters would outgrow him". Phil begins crying, which makes the girls cry, and a very emotional conclusion is formed; even though they love him indefinitely, the girls are not interested in the same family building techniques as Phil. I am always amazed at how free Phil is with his emotions. Having a father that didn't really share his emotions was a little, I don't know, drab. I think it's important for both parents to actively encourage their children to be emotional, no matter how ugly or poorly timed that emotion might be. It is okay to be emotional with your family. If it's not, then who will you ever be able to get emotional around?