Dearest Moms And Mothers Dearest

Some mothers are famous. Some are infamous. But all in all, how do they rate as moms?

We asked renowned psychologist, author, and columnist Dr. Joyce Brothers to appraise the parenting skills of some famous moms, real and imagined, keeping in mind that no outsider can fully evaluate the goings-on behind closed doors.

The Mom: Queen Elizabeth
Dr. Brothers' Evaluation:
"Queen Elizabeth has been very uptight with her children and is now learning for the first time how to bend and how to be more with the times. I think she learned a great deal from the difficulties she had with her daughter-in-law [Princess Diana]. And most moms-in-law are getting along much better with their daughters-in-law than ever before in history."

The Mom: Marge Simpson of The Simpsons
Dr. Brothers' Evaluation: (Note: Dr. Brothers once made a guest appearance on The Simpsons.)
"Marge Simpson is the heart and soul of her family. She has three little children, but she really has four because Homer is about as childlike as you can get. And so, in spite of their disagreements, in spite of the fact that Homer is a very difficult man to live with, she is, for everybody, so much the mom who fixes things and makes things work. You get a sense that, even though this is a cartoon family, this is a family that's real because of the love of the parents. That love comes across."

The Mom: Joan Crawford
Dr. Brothers' Evaluation:
"Joan Crawford was the quintessential mean mom, from what we understand. Now, it's really hard to make judgements when we have not had a reproachment at some point with the mother and we don't know whether what we have read about her was totally true or clouded by the resentments of the daughter. But we now know that it's totally possible for mothers to resent their children. We couldn't accept it at the time, because it was beyond the pale, but there are mothers who hurt their children; there are mothers who kill their children. So we are understanding a little bit more some of the pressures that a mother may feel when she is making a great deal of difficulty for her children."

The Mom: Carol Brady of The Brady Bunch
Dr. Brothers' Evaluation:
"Carol Brady attempted a very difficult thing and accomplished it. Hers was the quintessential blended family. And she really was a model for how to get your kids together when you are not the momin-real or the dad-in-real, and how to discipline them, how to make them happy, how to make a family out of two halves of a family. And now, with so much divorce, we need more of a pattern of how to make a blended family work."

The Mom: Kathie Lee Gifford
Dr. Brothers' Evaluation:
"Kathie Lee Gifford is a wonderful mom. She is doing the things kids need from moms. She is training their hearts and teaching them kindness to others. She cheers them on, doing more cheering than booing, and that's important. She lets the limits increase as they grow. And she is showing them the way to face up to disappointment and to embarrassment and to hold your head high by turning a very great embarrassment -- in her case, about the clothing that she manufactured -- and turning it to your favor by working to best the problem rather than saying, 'I had no part in this.' "

The Mom: George Costanza's Mom (Seinfeld)
Dr. Brothers' Evaluation:
"George Costanza's mom is a warm, loving, terrific mom. But at one point, she and her husband rejected George just as George felt that it was an obligation for him to call his family and to relate to his family. And so they picked up on it and were able to turn the tables on him and say, 'No George, we don't want you to come, and we really don't want you to call and we want to have our privacy.' And George learned a lesson. I don't think they really felt that way. I think it was just a way of showing George that, even he really needed that tie, even though he felt he'd outgrown it.

Mrs. Costanza yells a lot, but she yells for George's good. Also, arguing is a sign of family strength because it shows that they're not afraid to disagree. But one would hope that they would resolve their differences a little more easily."

Back To Mom's The Word

Mother's Little Treasure
Momma Trauma
Nag-Libs
Maternity Through Eternity
The Moms Behind The Men

Written by Rob Medich with graphic design by Sophie Chou.
Original illustration by V. Alexandrea Burcop.size=-1>