One Day at a Time

It’s Emmy preview time and the Hollywood Reporter published a piece The Rise of the TV’s ‘Anti-Moms’ about the types of moms on TV today.  Not surprisingly they run the gamut from hapless to neurotic to cruel to superhuman.  The crazy, funny truth about moms on TV today is that they are much better at reflecting real life because there are actually so many more moms writing and working on these shows.  No more picture perfect moms like Leave it to Beaver time.  No more Ma Ingalls.  But the moms of my childhood that I remember most were the moms working and struggling to make their families successful whether they were single moms or a part of a couple.  The moms I remember most and best are: Alice; Kate and Allie; Florida on Good Times;  Elise Keaton on Family Ties, Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show and Ann Romano on One Day at a Time. (I know there are so many more.  Who are your favorite TV moms?)

But no one would have ever have called those women anti-moms?  And seriously, what the hell is an anti-mom?  All these women love and take care of their kids in a variety of ways like what happens off TV.  Does putting a ridiculous and sexist term term out there help move the conversation forward in any proactive way?

According to the piece you are an anti-mom if you are a mom who struggles day to day and occasionally loses it with your kids, your husband (or lover), friends or co-workers.  Is there any woman in life who hasn’t done one or all of those things?  Why does being real make a woman an anti-mom?

Is an anti-mom a code word for bitch?  Or crazy?  Or self-absorbed?  Rachel Griffiths who plays mom Sarah Walker on Brothers and Sisters asks:

I’m like, ‘Really? Am I playing a bitch?’ ” she says. “God, if I’m playing a bitch, I guess we’re all a bunch of bitches because our lives are pretty loaded and it’s a struggle and there’s certainly often not the time and grace to plaster the smile back on our faces and straighten out the apron.

Why couldn’t the piece have been called something else?  And by the way have you seen the new anti-dads?  Doubt it.  I guarantee no one would ever come up with that headline for a story.

The Rise of TV’s Anti-Mom (Hollywood Reporter)

• Filed Under:  
• Entertainment, TV, Family

• Tags:
• TV
• Brother and Sister
• Kate and Allie
• Linda Lavin
• Rachel Griffiths

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