25 incredible TV moms we love to watch

Claire Dunphy – Modern Family

As far as TV tropes, Clarie Dunphy epitomizes the frazzled, over-worked, misunderstood mom. She (over) works for her children and husband, but is so type-A she won’t allow anyone to help her. Sound familiar, moms?

Even with TV’s most supportive and helpful husband, Claire still runs around like a beheaded chicken, frenetic and frantic. Her need for control is really just a manifestation of her love, and her pushiness is just a way for her to show affection. Her children often feel bossed-around and smothered, but they always know their mother loves them.

In later seasons, Claire goes back to work, and thankfully, she mellows out significantly. Although this seems counterintuitive, going back to work offered Claire an outlet for her energies when her children got older. She’s really good at her job, and she is finally finding the balance she needs in her life.

As an executive at her family’s business, she is a role model for her daughters when it comes to offering your best effort, no matter what she attempts. Her daughters are very, very different from her, but she’s really good at figuring out what they need. As any mother of a teenage daughter understands, she’s met with a lot of eye-rolling and mocking giggles, but she soldiers on. It helps that she’s usually right at the end of the day, and her smug self-satisfaction is all of us when our kids figure out we were right all along.

It also helps that she has the support of other loving, supportive parents. Her step-mother, who is a few years younger than she is, has a child the same age Claire’s youngest son, so they can commiserate over boy-mom problems and brainstorm solutions.

While I really hate the term “having it all,” Claire demonstrates the effort to balance it all with honesty and a can-do attitude.