Let me be specific. I thought that the behavior of Draper's "parents" was in direct opposition to the gender relationships between all the married men in the ad agency. When the hobo came to the house, the "wife" spoke first, the husband was in the background. The wife invited the hobo in and the wife gave him $$, that the husband took from the hobo but lied about it.
If it were Don Draper and his wife, he wouldn't have allowed her to give $$ to a stranger. He wouldn't have bothered with "let him work for it first" lie when his intent all along wasn't to give him $$. It seemed to me given the gender dynamics that the wife had the power and that the husband couldn't/wouldn't assert his authority. This is in pretty stark contrast to Don, Pete, etc. in the present.
They have a strange relationship and the "husband" didn't quite seem like he belonged.