5 Favorite Fictional Moms

I'm ba-ack! XD I can't wait to tell you all about my move-in day where I began living in a college residence for the first time, and a little about how my life here and my program have been going so far, but first, let's take a little time to appreciate some of our favorite moms! I already gave my mom her Mothers' Day gifts before I left, since I wasn't sure I would be able to come home for my first weekend since moving, but she'll definitely still be getting a call from me that day (probably a Skype call - we've thoroughly embraced technology since I've moved away) to let her know how much I love her and appreciate everything she's done for me - including helping me load up the car and move into residence, where I live all the way at the end of a VERY long hallway XD

Here are a few of my favorite moms in fiction. They might not be able to live up to the great example I've had my entire life, but they still come pretty damn close, and here are the top 5 I chose.

#1: Kate Hennessey from 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Tennage Daughter! If there was ever an example of a great power-house mom in television, it had to be Kate from 8 Simple Rules. Not only is she just an amazing character with a great knack for "handling" the kids when her husband and partner Paul is totally out of his depth, but after Paul's death in the show (written due to the death of John Ritter who played the father, husband and patriarch of the family) even with her obviously struggling through the transition into being a single parent of two teenage girls and one near-teenage boy, she rises to the challenge and proves that moms can be both cool and even a total badass while still being responsible and caring parents.

#2: Mrs. Carraway from Love, Stargirl! In the first book of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl series I came to admire Stargirl's mother, mainly because she allowed her daughter to pick and change her name over the years, and just proceeded to be totally okay with it. But I gained a whole new respect for her as I got to learn more about her through Stargirl's perspective in Love, Stargirl. It's her mother that came up with the entire home school curriculum that Stargirl follows during the non-summer months, including the Shadow Curriculum that is ripe with individuality and creativity. Stargirl's mother is creative, caring, and very enviable on all accounts.

#3: Cora, The Countess of Grantham from Downton Abbey! Let's be honest here (Spoilers from season 1) - Any mom that is willing to help you carry the dead body of your illegitimate lover to another room and then help keep the shameful secret to protect you and the entire family is a pretty great mom.

#4: Mrs. Bennet from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries! It's true that Mrs. Bennet only appears for about three seconds in the very last episode of the series, but with the costume theater re-enactments brought by mainly Lizzie but also other characters, we get a picture of just how much of a character Mrs. Bennet really is. Plus I do remember from reading The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet that Mrs. Bennet actually flexes her parental muscles and appears to be a bit of a bad ass at times when the chips are down. It was pretty entertaining XD

#5: Mrs. Lancaster from The Fault in Our Stars! I have personal reasons for adding Mrs. Lancaster to this list of favorite fictional moms. My own mother was in a position much like Hazel Grace's mother, when her son/my brother was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I've seen plenty of movies depicting one of the more rare types of stock character's known as "the cancer mom" - with the performance of Cameron Diez as the mother in My Sister's Keeper being another book-turned-film that comes to mind. In my brother's case, he started off in stage 4, but was never terminal; in Hazel's case, she and her parents both know she will die much too soon from her illness. The way that Mrs. Lancaster is able to be upbeat when she knows she needs to bring Hazel's spirits up and when she knows to be stern and not coddle her daughter reminded me of seeing my own mom in a similar situation, which is why I really admire the character, both in the film and in the book.