As you know about a year and half ago, the star who played Mrs. Brady on the Brady Bunch, Florence Henderson had passed away.  She died about the same time as I started writing my blogs.  She was the top TV mothers of all time.  Everybody loved her!

When the Brady Bunch went off the air, the kids on the show still came to her for advice.

Other TV mothers that also ranks:  June Lockhart from Lassie, Shirley Jones from the Partridge Family, Karen Grassel from Little House on the Prairie. The list goes on.

Shirley Jones ranks high behind Florence Henderson.  She was a single mother raising a musical family.  The Partridge family was created with her in mind.  It was her that brought the producers to her step-son, David Cassidy.

Like Florence Henderson, Shirley Jones had good relationship with her TV kids.  Her TV kids and her own real sons were very close.  Of course, since David Cassidy was her step-son, that bond was even more.

I’m not writing about Florence Henderson or Shirley Jones or any other TV mothers.  I’m writing to state what you see on television is only make believe.

I have to admit I grew up on the Brady Bunch and the Partridge Family.  I would imagine my family to be like the Brady Bunch; as a coping mechanism to my childhood.

No problems is solved within a half hour.  It takes a long time.

You can love these TV mothers; but they are nothing like your own mothers.

The stars who portrayed them  had their shares of problems, just like real mothers.  Child stars on these television show had their shares of problems as well.

It wasn’t until the ’80’s when TV mothers started depicting real mothers or close to real mothers.  Roseanne really got attack because she depicts the true dysfunctional family.  Even Married with Children, was the first show on Fox network that depict a true dysfunctional family.  Both shows were criticized for it too.  Now days that’s the norm for family sitcoms.

Today is Mother’s Day.  Once again I want to honor our mothers.  Mothers doesn’t have it easy.  They all come comes in different forms.  There are working mothers, single mothers, mothers that try to do the right things with kids.

Sometimes mothers have to be both fathers and mothers.  They cook, clean, teach, and nurse their children.  They wipe the tears from their children’s eyes and clean their bruises.  They try to be their all to their kids.

My mother may be gone but her spirit lives on.

A mother loves their kids unconditionally; like God loves us.

There is no such thing as a perfect mother.  No one is perfect; except Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 31:10-28 tells you about the perfect mother or close to it.  I will paraphrase it for you.  A mother is of noble character; who is far worth more than rubies.  She gets up while it’s still dark; to provides food for her family.  She speaks with wisdom.  She watches over her affairs of her household.  Her children arise and call her blessed.

My mother was a strong independent woman. She was a Feminist that truly loved her family.  Us kids meant the world to her.  Just like her grandkids meant the world to her.  When us kids or her grandkids hurt, my mother also hurt.  She at times put her family above her own health.

I’m not going into my own family history of my dysfunctional family.  It’s not about me.  This is about mothers.  All I will say,  my family was nothing like the Brady Bunch that I imagine it to be.  We had our shares of problems, like any family.  Some more than others.

Maybe one of these times I may or may not share my story.

God bless the mothers out there.  Young, old, living, and dead.