Two Television Moms I Identify With – And One I Try to Channel

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television mom identify Providence Moms BlogRemember a year or so ago when everyone was posting on social media about the three fictional characters who they related to the most? Thanks to Facebook’s memory feature, mine popped up on my news feed the other day. I started wondering if I could piece together my parenting personality from fictional mothers, and I think I can paint a pretty clear picture of my ‘mom-sonality’ with the following ladies.

Beverly Goldberg from The Goldbergs

Beverly Goldberg’s personality as a mom can be summed up in her kids nickname for her: Smother. This woman loves her teenage ‘babies’ something fierce. Maybe she loves them a little too much, but whatever. They’re the joy of her life and she’s not afraid to show it. She’s massively overinvolved in their lives, from crashing her daughter’s sleepover to substitute teaching at their school. Today’s helicopter moms are tame in comparison to this ’80s legend.

Beverly can recite her kids’ accomplishments at the drop off a hat, even when they’re not particularly impressive. She knows they’re not perfect, but to her they are. She’s got a myriad of nicknames for her kids, she loves how they smell, and askes for ‘huggies’ and ‘snuggies’ on the regular. She’s even got a ‘Cuddle Calendar’ to make sure she gets all that in, and her kids get a daily love note in their lunch boxes.

I know she sounds a bit crazy, but since my boys are seven months and three, I think this level of involvement in their life is actually appropriate, right? Who wouldn’t be crazy about two kiddos as cute and lovable as my guys?! Someone might need to kick me though if I’m still Beverly Goldberg Jr. when they’re teenagers.

Lorelei Gilmore from Gilmore Girls

Part of my identification with Lorelei comes from the fact that the show features her as both a mom and a person, which is sort of a rarity. Despite the fact that her daughter is far and away her number one priority, she still loves her friends, has professional interests, and keeps up a healthy diet of pop culture, sarcasm, and coffee (three things I love!) Being a mom is an amazing, life changing experience, to the point that it can seem to the outside world that it’s the only thing that defines you. As any mom will tell you, it’s not!

Lorelei also considers her daughter to be an amazing companion, but not quite a friend. They talk about everything, and throughout the series they share more movie nights, breakfasts at Luke’s, and phone calls than you could even count. But Lorelei still knows how to use the mom tone and pull out ‘the look’ when Rory strays too far away from who she is. This is sort of my parenting MO: let’s have a blast together until I have to lay down the law. Then I’m not afraid to get tough. Hopefully all the snuggles, reading, painting, and silliness help my little loves feel confident in mama’s love in the moments when she has to be more disciplinarian than playmate. I will say, though, that I’d like to think my kids’ food choices are marginally better than Rory’s diet of pizza, pop tarts, and pancakes (but just a tad).

Mom Tiger from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood

Mom Tiger is more someone I admire rather than emulate. This lady has the patience of a saint. Not only does she help Daniel handle all the preschooler problems that crop up in his life, she does so IN THE FORM OF A SONG. For legitimately every issue, she just opens her mouth and out pops a perfectly prepared jingle for that specific situation. In addition to that, her house is always perfectly clean and there are always healthy snacks for her kiddos (so when she’s doing all this song writing is beyond me). Then again, I’ve never seen Daniel chuck himself to the ground in the middle of the zoo (I’m sorry, there’s no song to cure that), and she wears the same outfit every day (which is definitely not something I’m interested in). So maybe I’ll stick to my Beverly/Lorelei hybrid and hope that just being me will be enough for my kids. What fictional moms do you identify with? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!