My 9 Favorite Fictional Moms {and one real one, too!}

#MomLife is new to me this year, so this will be my very first Mother’s Day!  The journey through motherhood has already (in just five and a half months!) surprised me with a joy that I could never capture in a sentence.  

To celebrate, I’d like to share my list of my FAVORITE Fictional Moms.  These moms span from childhood picture books to blockbuster hits, from traditional mother figures to nannys and caretakers.  Here are my favorite fictional moms and how they exemplify and celebrate the real moms in our lives.

 

Love these mammas as much as I do? 

Grab this free download!  These are easy print-and-write cards for your students to write to their moms.  Each card contains a famous quote from each of these incredible women!

1.  Miss Honey - Matilda

Jennifer Honey has a special place in my memory of childhood reading.  I remember loving Matilda and loving Miss Honey even more.  While Miss Honey is Matilda’s adopted mother, she reminds me of how much she inspired me to be a teacher and how important all of my elementary school teachers were.  They, too, fostered a love for reading in me that grew into a college degree in English and secondary education. Miss Honey is the ultimate teacher/mother figure that embodies the compassion and love for both children and reading that so many incredible teachers manage to do, just like her.

2.  Offred - The Handmaid’s Tale

In The Handmaid’s Tale, we only get to learn about Offred’s experience as a mother through her flashbacks.  At the beginning of the novel, her daughter is ripped from her arms and never seen again - a true horror story for any parent  Through her detailed memory, readers cling to tiny moments of their family before the government collapsed. Offred remembers smelling the back of her daughter’s hair - this is literally the first thing my mom and I do as soon as we get to hold a new baby:  take a big whiff of baby smell! I imagine Offred (well, whoever Offred used to be) would have been an amazingly kind, loving mother.

3.  Mrs. Doubtfire - Mrs. Doubtfire

Oh, Robin Williams.  We miss you so much. Mrs. Doubtfire - the cross-dressing dad who wants to be near his children during a difficult divorce nanny mother figure - has to be one of my favorite fictional moms.  Mrs. Doubtfire shows playful looks at the feminine side of mothering, but at its heart, the story is all about the inseverable tie between parent and child. The extremes that Mrs. Doubtfire would go to in order to be near his children and be in their lives are remarkable, and downright heartwarming.

4.  Leslie Knope - Parks and Recreation

Leslie doesn’t become a mom until the second to last season of the show, but when it finally happens, she “hits triple cherries” on her first try!  As the mother of triplets, Leslie manages to maintain a household (and never apologizes for its lack of order), works full time, and supports a husband running for congress.  She’s the ultimate working mom that struggles in so many real ways that I can relate to. She’s pure badass at work and shows us that it’s okay to ask for help with our kids when we need it.  

5.  Frankie Heck - The Middle

No show in the history of TV shows reminds me more of my OWN family than the Heck family.  Chillin in suburban Indiana, Frankie is an hysterical, unapologetic mom of three. She finds plates under her son’s bed, forgets about her other son’s birthdays, and is just about as real as it gets.  Her huge heart and sarcastic sense of humor are some of her most admirable qualities.

6.  Minerva Mirabal - In the Time of the Butterflies

During the late 50s, the Dominican Republic was suffering through the reign of a tyrannical dictator.  The Mirabal sisters, famously nicknamed “Las Mariposas”, were the leaders of a revolution against that horrible regime.  Minerva, a mother, fighter, and true ambassador for justice, shows us how to be the role model a mother should be for her children - and in Minerva’s case - for her entire country.   She's not a fictional mom, but her legacy is written in Julia Alvaerz's historical fiction account of their history called In the Time of the Butterflies.

7.  Marmee - Little Women

Sweet, docile Marmee is one of my favorite mother figures from my chidhood.  I read and watched Little Women at least twice a year and was enchanted by Marmee’s wise words, encouraging speech, and her biting discipline.  She especially showed us how moms have a gift for giving each of their children what each child truly needs -- I can still distinctly remember the scene where she hugs Jo after chopping her hair off comforting her and reminding her that it will grow back.  

8.  Claire - Lost

So...you’re on a plane, you’re eight months pregnant, and your psychic told you not to get on that plane.   Oh - and your plane is taking you from Australia to America so that you can have your baby and give him up for adoption in California.  Thennnnn your plane crashes on an island, you survive the end of pregnancy on said island, then deliver the baby in the middle of the jungle haunted by a crazy, murdering monster.  You go, Claire. You go.

9.  Rosa Huberman - The Book Thief

She’s a tough one, but Rosa Huberman might be my favorite mom on this list.  No only does she adopt Leisel out of the kindness of her heart, but she finds a way to stretch every dollar and every meal so that everyone is taken care of.  She provides refuge and protection at all costs for the ones she loves, and although she swears like a sailor, everyone in her family loves her for it.

...and one real one:  Michelle Obama - Mother-In-Chief

She’s not fictional, although sometimes I feel like her time in office felt like a too-short lived fairy tale.  Michelle Obama has been a champion for her own children as well as America’s children. I’ve never gotten to meet her, but if I did, man would I just give her a huge hug.  I don’t know how on earth I would ever be able to raise two daughters in that kind of a spotlight during their childhood in the White House, but she managed to do it. Michelle Obama was able to simultaneously be knee deep in dirt planting an herb garden AND dressing up in the most elegant evening gown to wrestle international politics with equal poise.  That’s #goals.

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An Open Letter to My 8-Week Old Son

January 25, 2018

My darling Hugo,

Today, I told you I was proud of you.  Twice.  Once, because you pooped (we were going on 48 hours with no stinky surprise, so I was so happy you made that happen), and a second time because you reached for a toy dangling above your head.  It was the first time you did that and I was overwhelmed with pride.  I’m telling you about these two pretty innocuous moments of pride today because I want you to know that I’ve been proud of you since the very beginning of your life.  I’m proud of you already and I know that these moments will only become more breathtaking and humbling as you grow up.

When your dad and I found out we that you were a boy, we were not immediately overjoyed.  Actually, we were pretty scared. You see, the year that you were born, it was pretty difficult to find a man in our world to admire.  Right now, boys and men on the news and in our media culture are not the kind of men we want you to grow up to be.  In just your first eight weeks of life, the President called Haiti, El Salvador and a group of African nations shitholes (his words, my darling, not mine), more powerful men have been fired from their jobs for previously committing sexual assault, and a USA gymnastics doctor was sentenced to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing over 100 women.  The box office continues to be filled with white, violent, and culturally narrow-minded films.  Finding out we were having a boy was difficult news to hear because that meant that we had a lot of work to do.

Hugo, there is some good news here.  Even though the media and entertainment world around you reinforces a story of masculinity that is aggressive and abusive, you are surrounded by the best men that I know.  Your dad.  He may look like he could fight anyone who made him mad, but your dad is the kindest bear I know.  His heart is enormous.  He is always thinking about his mom and dad and sister (your grandma, grandpa, and auntie).  He believes in giving everything he can to his family.  He works at his job tirelessly and never complains. He is the joy of my life and will be yours, too.  Then I look at your two grandfathers.  They live two completely different lives:  one spends his day working in a mechanic shop and the other in an office, but both men are strong in faith, believe in the value of hard work, and love their families above all else.  

We, your family, are ready.  We are ready to take on the challenge of raising a young man in this world.  We are what matters and we will be your examples, but you need to keep your eyes, ears, and heart open.  Truthfully, Hugo, the world needs you.  We need good, loving, open-minded young men to take over and we’re ready to help you get there.  We will read, travel, talk openly, and learn together.  I hope your squirmy, adorably toothless smile turns into the smile on the face of a young man that defines being "a man" by how much love is in his life.  I love you, little buddy, and there will be more letters to come.  I’m proud of you already.

Love,

Mom