Mother's Day is the one day we set aside each year to celebrate Mom to thank her for all she has done for us. We cater to her by giving her breakfast in bed, gifts of flowers and candy, and make sure to pick the perfect card that conveys just how much we love her.
As children, we looked up to our moms but we also wondered what it would be like to have another mom. Whether that was a mom we knew in our neighborhood or a television mom, it is something most kids are curious about.
Television moms seemed to have it all figured out. As kids, the adults from my generation may have wondered about famous tv moms like Clair Huxtable, Carol Brady, or Caroline Ingalls. They knew exactly how to manage everything from working outside the home while raising children, handling last minute catastrophes, having the perfect afterschool snack, or being the perfect ear for their teen's broken heart.
We idolized the 80s sitcoms that featured strong mothering and sought to create that in our own lives as we became mothers.
 Image by KoolShooters | Pexels |
Some of the most famous sitcom moms of my generation teach life lessons on parenting, motherhood, and how to simply keep it all together. With Mother's Day right around the corner, I wanted to have a little fun and share my list of the best prime time moms who taught us how to handle motherhood.
Get a weekly dose of local events, holiday ideas, and kid-friendly happenings sent straight to your inbox!
👉Subscribe to Macaroni KID New Iberia - Abbeville - Breaux Bridge — it's FREE!👈
1. Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show
Clair not only shows her children she loves them but they also know they don't stand much of a chance of getting anything past her. As a mother she deals out some fierce punishments but she always lets the her kids know she loves and supports them unconditionally. She is flawless and yet doesn't cover her weaknesses. She is a successful lawyer, a loving wife, and she manages to keep all parts of her life on point.
2. Endora from Bewitched
Endora is the mother that is so magnetic and impressive that she doesn't even bother with a last name! She shows us how to enjoy motherhood while becoming a grandmother. Endora's witchy piazza lights up a room whenever she enters it, quite literally.
Although she enjoys playing practical jokes on her daughter and son-in-law, they both knew they could count on her when they needed it most. She embraces life full force and makes sure her daughter, Samantha, does too. Samantha knows that her mother is only a call, a snap, or a twitch away when she needs her most.
3. Alice Hyatt from Alice
I may be showing my age here but Alice was my first example of what life was like for a single mom. If you know this show, I bet the theme song immediately started to play in your head when you read the title!
I was so used to seeing the old black-and-white reruns of stay-at-home moms like Lucy Ricardo or June Cleaver who got dressed to clean the house, play the role of the perfect housewife, and cater to their husband's every need without question. Alice shows the pure strength it takes to be a single mother. She moves herself and her son to a new city, gets a new job, and does everything it takes to make sure she gives him the best life possible.
4. Carol Brady from The Brady Brunch
Carol Brady is the mother everyone wants to come home to after school. She manages to be there each time one of her six children needs her. Even with so many kids in the home, she manages to have a personal relationship with each. The Brady Brunch was one of the first shows that gave us a look at blended families in the 70s and 80s.
Carol was the ultimate stepmom and refuses to let the word "step" be used among her new sons. Carol is the one they all go to with their problems. The children know she will be waiting for them in the kitchen with milk and cookies to have an enduring chat that will find the solution to their current problem.
5. Florida Evans from Good Times
Who didn't want a hug from Florida! She gives them so easily to family, friends, and neighbors as a simple gesture of love and support. As a kid, I always secretly dreamed of getting a hug from Florida for myself.
Growing up in the 70s, it was easy for me to identify with the struggles The Evans Family had to endure to simply survive. But Florida manages to feed her family every day, volunteer at her local church and food bank, keep her house put together in every way that counts, work part-time, and teach her children about faith and forgiveness.
She's a solid partner for her husband but loves to have a good time with her best friend, Wylonna. She also shows the strength it takes to face to raise a family in the ghetto, facing not only the hardship of poverty, but of also losing her husband in a car accident. She carries on as the matriarch of her family and continues to be the beacon of light that each of them need.
6. Marion Cunningham from Happy Days
Marion is the go-to mom for the all neighborhood kids. She wears the pants in the family even though she lets her husband, Mr. Cunningham, think he does. All of the kids in the neighborhood know they will get a hot, home-cooked meal and the perfect motherly advice from her ... if Richie invites them over for dinner.
She's so impressive that the neighborhood greaser, The Fonz, knows that Mrs. Cunningham is truly the only woman that really loves him just as he is. Marion runs her home like a top-notch business, showing love and compassion to all her meet her.
7. Debra Barone and 8. Marie Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond
Debra and Marie Barone give us an example of a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship that many may relate to. They have disagreements regularly yet deep down they both love each other. In all honesty, they enjoy learning from each other but neither will admit it. Both women show us such a poignant time of what happens in motherhood, demonstrating how to get through the ups and downs of motherhood and marriage.
Even after going through a time of not speaking to each other and bringing the whole family into the drama with them, each of these women teach us about forgiveness and how important it is to cherish our family relationships. In the end they show us how to forgive, move on, and continue being a loving family in the middle of all the mess.
9. Caroline Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie
Who doesn't love watching Caroline put Mrs. Olsen in her place? She is the ultimate mama bear and if you come for one of her cubs or her husband, you will have to deal with her. She handles farm chores with ease, shows us how to be a hard-working mom outside the home as a teacher, and encourages her children to be the bigger person when battling bullies on the playground. Her words of wisdom are spoken with gentle care, just as her corrections for misbehavior.
Caroline embraces her faith and passes that on to her children and grandchildren. No task was too hard for her and she rises to the occasion each time she is called upon to help her family as well as any neighbors when they need a helping hand.
10. Dorothy Zbornak, 11. Rose Nylund, 12. Sophia Petrillo, and 13. Blanche Deveraux from The Golden Girls
As a teenager in the 1980s, I didn't fully get what these ladies were all about. But as I moved into adulthood, becoming a mother and then a grandmother, I am here for it. The Golden Girls are epitome of entering the next stage of life surrounded by laughter, tears, and the joys of being surrounded by cherished friends.
Any mother who may be heading into middle age will enjoy the much-needed laughs after a long day. But through the laughter, The Golden Girls tackled difficult issues like dealing with the loss of parent, moving into menopause, and embracing our femininity and independence as older women. They work through having a strained relationships with adult children, grieving the death of a spouse, and what it's like to live your life in the next chapter of life as an empty nester together.
From Dorothy's deadpan, quick-witted comebacks, to Blanche's saucy southern sass, with Rose's simple innocence, and Sophia's take no-crap mentality, these ladies create a feminine powerhouse that shows us we can make it through the later stages of life even after enduring plenty of challenges and change. They teach moms how important it is to value our friendships with other women, and that supporting other moms is how we manage to embrace being mothers ourselves.
Looking for more fun this Mother's Day? Be sure to check out Mom’s Day Out: Fun Events, Activities, and More to Celebrate Mom this weekend!
 Image by pixelshot | Canva |
