Favorite TV Moms of All Time

There have been many favorite and memorable moms on TV starting in the 1950s with June Cleaver of "Leave It To Beaver." June became well known for cooking dinner and cleaning the house in a dress, high heels and wearing a white pearl necklace. Fast forward 50 years to the moms of "Desperate Housewives" living on Wisteria Lane who are juggling careers, families, children and sometimes an extramarital affair or two. TV moms have evolved over time with our changing society from Harriet Nelson ("The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"), Carol Brady ("The Brady Bunch"), Elyse Keaton ("Family Ties"), Clair Huxtable ("The Cosby Show") and Maggie Seaver ("Growing Pains") to Peg Bundy ("Married With Children"), Rosanne Conner ("Roseanne"), Debra Barone ("Everybody Loves Raymond"), Reba Hart ("Reba") and Christine Campbell ("The New Adventures of the Old Christine").

The favorite TV moms in the 50s and 60s were stay at home moms that took care of the house and children while their husbands were at work. In the 70s, we started to see more television shows about working moms like Florida Evans ("Good Times"), Ann Romano ("One Day At A Time") and Shirley Partridge ("The Partridge Family). And, by the 80s, most tv moms were working mothers and the shows centered around the challenge of balancing work and home.

As a child of the 60s and 70s, my sister and I watched our mom transform from June Cleaver to Ann Romano right before my eyes. We watched her go from trying to decide what to make for dinner to deciding what to wear to work. Dinner conversations shifted from how my dad's day was at work to how her day went at the bank. As kids, we enjoyed the cop stories much more than hearing about her teller drawer not balancing. I have not had the pleasure of being a stay at home mom, so when I think about my favorite tv moms, I think about the working moms like me.

Clair Huxtable was a great role model. She seemed to be able to balance her career as a successful attorney with raising a family of five children in kindergarten through college. It helped that her husband was an obstetrician and had an office in the house. Maggie Seaver was another great role model who was able to successfully transition from a stay at home mom to a working mom and back to a stay at home mom again based on the needs of her family. Like Clair, Maggie's husband also worked from home.

I have also admired single moms like Reba Hart who was able to manage a career and family without the support of a husband that included her daughter, son-in-law and grandchild. Lorelai Gilmore is another great example of a single working mom who has raised a daughter by herself from a young age and experienced both the joy and heartbreak of sending her off to college.

Looking back at the famous tv moms over the past 50 years, it is easy to see the parallels between real life and the television comedies. June Cleaver and Harriet Nelson were believable moms in the 1950s, but today's moms, whether they are stay at home moms or working moms, would not be able to identify with them. And, the real life moms of the 50s would have nothing in common and would appalled at the lifestyles of the moms on "Desperate Housewives."