Mother's Day is one day we set aside each year to celebrate Mom and 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 are sure to pick the perfect card that conveys just how much we love her.
As children, we love our moms, but we also wondered what the moms on television knew that our moms didn't. Many of us have grown up wondering what it would have been like to have Claire Huxtable as our mother. Television moms seemed to have it all figured out. They knew exactly how to manage everything from working outside the home to making sure they bring the best chocolate chip cookies to field day.
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Some of the most famous sitcom moms of my generation teach us life lessons on parenting, motherhood, and how to 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 my favorite sitcom moms sitcom moms and what they teach us about being a mother.
1. Clair Huxtable
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
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 and becoming a grandmother. Samantha knows that she is only a call, a snap, or a twitch away when she needs her most.
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 does too.
3. Alice Hyatt
Alice
I may be showing my age here but Alice is an example of what it was like for a single mom. But if you know this show I bet the theme song immediately started to play in your head when you read the title!
For me, Alice was the first show I can remember about what it takes to be a single mom. 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
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 children needs her. Even with six children in the home, she manages to have a personal relationship with each. She is 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
Good Times
Who didn't want a hug from Florida! She gives them so easily to those who need them and I always secretly dreamed of getting a hug from Florida for myself. As a child in the 1970s, it is easy for me to identify with the struggles this 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, and teaches her children about faith and forgiveness.
She also shows the strength it takes to face the hardship of losing her husband in a car accident and carry on as the matriarch of the family.
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6. Marion Cunningham
Happy Days
Marion is the go-to mom for the all neighborhood kids. She wears the pants in the family even though she lets Mr. Cunningham think he does.
The kids in the neighborhood know they will get a good, 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 Fonze, knows that Mrs. Cunningham is truly the only woman that really loves him just as he is.
7. Debra Barone
8. Marie Barone
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. They honestly enjoy learning from each other at these poignant times in both of their lives but they just won't admit it.
Even go through a time not speaking to each other, bringing the whole family into the drama with them, they 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.
9. Caroline Ingalls
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, you will have to deal with her.
She teaches us how to be a hard-working mom outside the home as a teacher and inside the home running as a farmer. She embraces her faith and passes that on to her daughters.
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 it.
10. Dorothy Zbornak,
11. Rose Nylund
12. Sophia Petrillo
13. Blanche Deveraux
The Golden Girls
As a pre-teen and teenager in the 1980s, I didn't fully get what these ladies were all about but now I do. The are the epitome of good girlfriends who love and cherish their friends.
As a mother who may be heading into middle age, these ladies can not only give you the much-needed laughs after a long day but they also tackle difficult issues to talk about like dealing with the loss of parent, moving into menopause, having a strained relationship with your adult children, and what it's like to live your life in the next chapter of life after the kids have grown up and moved out.
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 on our own in the later stages of life our life after enduring so many changes.
They teach us that friendships for mothers are priceless and that supporting other mothers is how we manage to embrace being mothers ourselves.
