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Mother's Day film festival - good mums
The second part of our Mother's Day film festival is all about celebrating some of the best movie mums to have graced the silver screen. From the kind and generous to the delightfully eccentric, these marvelous mothers went above and beyond for their children.
Sarah Connor from Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Although not what you'd call 'conventional parenting', Sarah Connor fought to the death, literally, to protect her one and only son from an evil cyborg sent back through time in the second Terminator film. It's just as well too, as he's supposedly the saviour of all humanity. Phew!
Tutti Bomowski from Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
Even big, tough action heroes occasionally need help from their mothers and Sly Stallone gets just that from his fictional mummy in the 1992 action comedy Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. She snoops around his police files, interferes in his love life and even buys him an illegal weapon, but ultimately Tutti Bomowski teaches her son some important life-lessons. Ah, bless.
Mrs. Gump from Forrest Gump
Lovable dimwit Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) would do anything for his 'momma' and that's because she'd do anything for him. Raising Forrest alone after being abandoned by her husband, Mrs. Gump, played superbly by Sally Field, goes to great lengths to ensure her son navigates a difficult childhood to live an extraordinary life.
Juno MacGuff from Juno
Being a good mother is about always doing what's right for your child and Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) does precisely that, realising that at just 16 years of age, she's probably not prepared for the challenges of motherhood. So, she agrees to give her baby up for adoption to a woman (played by Jennifer Garner) who is unable to conceive. There are more than a few ups and downs in this quirky comedy, but thankfully, everything turns out alright in the end.
Isabel Kelly from Stepmom
Technically, Isabel Kelly (Julia Roberts) isn't a mother, she's a stepmom-in-wating to her boyfriend's two children. And perhaps unsurprisingly after divorcing their actual mother, neither of the kids are particularly happy with dad and even less pleased with the presence of Isabel. Fortunately though, they gradually learn to accept her and when biological mum (played by Susan Surandon) is told she only has months to live, Isabel endears herself to the family with a string of heartwarming gestures.
Well, we hope you've enjoyed this rundown of some of our favourite movie mums. Don't forget to read the other half of our feature about the best Bad Mothers.
We've also created a fun movie mothers quiz, so why not take the test and see which fictional mum you turn out to be? Be warned though, you might be shocked by the results.
And if you're still on the lookout for special Mothers Day gifts, make sure you check out the excellent range on offer at DotComGiftShop.
Mother's Day film festival - bad mums
To celebrate Mother's Day, we thought it would be fun to celebrate some of the most famous and, well, infamous mothers from the silver screen. So in the first part of our film festival, we take a look at some of the worst fictional mums from some of our favourite movies.
Mary from Precious
There are pushy mothers, nagging Ma’s and Mumsies who are altogether quite cruel and manipulative, but this one takes the biscuit. And then hits you on the head with it before stuffing it up your nose.
Meet Mary, mother, in very loose terms, to Precious, the beleaguered star of this true story. When not found throwing large objects at children (including a TV) she can also be found dropping them, whilst babies, onto the ground. Other than eating her own kids, she’s crossed just about every line a mother can cross into downright evil. Nothing that has ever seen the light of day on the Jeremy Kyle show, or even Jerry Springer for that matter, can prepare you for Mary.
Mrs. Bates from Psycho
We don’t get to see Mrs Bates in person in this film, unless of course you count seeing the dried remains of her body complete with wig and frock in her favourite chair. Instead, we get to see the psychological aftermath of the mental cruelty her mothering inflicted on her son. This cruelty actually brings her back to life in a way, albeit via impersonations of her by her cross-dressing, murdering son whose own fear and terror of her keeps her alive in his mind just long enough to fuel his need to kill people. How sweet.
Margaret White from Carrie
A lot of parents don’t bother to tell their kids about the ‘birds and the bees’ as they find it too embarrassing. Carrie wishes her Mum, good old Margaret White, was one of these but sadly this is not so in this film. Margaret’s more direct. Direct in the sense that she tells her daughter she’s menstruating because she’s a sinner and has offended god. She then drags her in front of a Christian effigy and forces her to beg for forgiveness.
Oh, and she also throws hot tea in Carrie’s face, denounces her as a witch and tries to kill her. Happy Mother’s Day.
Joan Crawford from Mommy Dearest
The portrayal of Joan Crawford in this classic depicts the essential ‘Scary-Mother’ of cinema. Manipulative, jealous and downright cruel, Joan Crawford is chillingly well played by Faye Dunaway in this sadly ‘true story’ of Christina Crawford’s physical and mental abuse at the hands of her mother.
Mummy Crawford seemed at times to just not get the whole mothering lark. For example, rather than giving her child birthday presents, she takes all the child’s gifts and gives them to charity. Perhaps she’s really a philanthropist you may cry? But why then would she cut off all her kid’s hair before smacking it in the face and getting drunk as a skunk? Pseudo-philanthropist or not, that’s just not very nice.
Mama Fratelli from The Goonies
A gun running, sloppy cheeked mother to a bunch of criminal misfits, Mama Fratelli deformed her own son by dropping him (Sloth) as a baby. Now all grown up he lives in a cellar chained to a wall living off of rotten apples pushed over to him on a tray from the safe distance of a lengthy broom handle.
With other people’s kids her maternal antics are just as pronounced, including trying to cut a kid’s tongue out of his mouth, threatening to put another one’s fingers in a blender and chasing and shooting at a bunch of teenagers through a series of booby-trapped caves. With morals as low as her hanging jowls, Mama Fratelli won’t be getting taken out for a carvery this Mother’s Day by anyone, least of all Sloth.
We hope you've enjoyed this rundown of some of the most despicable mothers from film history. Make sure you check back to read our follow-up all about the best mums from movies-past.
Oh and don't forget, you can find a wide choice of unique Mothers day gifts at DotComGiftShop.
Extraordinary mothers
Being a mother is challenging enough in itself, so spare a thought this Mother's Day for the following super mums, who through history have had to cope with a variety of unusual circumstances.
The unknown mother
One poor mum, wife of Russian man, Feodor Vassilyev, remains on record despite the fact that nobody even knows her name. Between 1725 and 1765, she is reputed to have given birth to 69 children of whom 67 survived beyond infancy. Giving birth to 16 sets of twins, seven triplets and four quadruplets she holds the record for the most children born of a single mother, yet her identity remains a mystery.
The sextuplets mother
The first set of Sextuplets to survive infancy, was born to British born South African, Susan Wilson in 1974. A multiple birth in Liverpool in 1983 produced the first surviving all female sextuplets. The pregnancy was the rather spectacular result of Graham and Janet Walton’s thirteenth and final attempt at fertility treatment. Poor Graham must have felt rather out numbered!
The septuplets mother
The earliest recorded Septuplets were the product of the marriage of Thomas and Edith Bonham. Not much is known about the couple, other that they lived in the fifteenth century, were from Wiltshire, and were already the parents of twins when Edith gave birth to seven children one after the other.
The quintuplets mother
The story of the Dionne Quintuplets resulted in a Canadian TV-movie, such was it's notoriety. Million Dollar Babies, followed the fortunes of the five children of Canadian Elzine Dionne. Born into poverty in 1934, the children were made a ward of the King. They were kept until the age of nine in a specially constructed nursery complete with public viewing gallery. And boy were they viewed. A major tourist attraction, it is estimated that between 1936 and 1943, they were watched by as many as three million visitors.
The nonuplets mothers
But how many children can a woman have at once? In 1971 Australian Geraldine Brodrick gave birth to nonuplets. She had 5 boys and four girls - but sadly none survived past six days. Also mother to nine was Zurina Mat Saad, a Malaysian woman who also gave birth to five boys and four girls, but again though, none survived.
The controversial mother
A happier outcome was in store for Nadya Suleman, the Californian who in 2008 brought forth no less than six baby boys and two baby girls - all of whom lived to become the largest number of children to survive a multiple human pregnancy ever recorded. The births were very controversial at the time - owing to the large number of embryos that were deliberately transplanted into the woman’s womb.
The miracle mother
The Chukwu Octuplets born as the result of IVF treatment in 1998 had previously held the record - of the eight babies, five girls and two boys survived. Parents Nkem Chukuru and Lyke Louis Udobi - Nigerian born American citizens went on to have another child in 2002 - without fertility treatment. They called the little girl, Devine Favor believing that God had given them back their lost daughter.
The blessed mother
Born in Albania in 1910, Mother Teresa was 18 when she joined the ‘Sisters of Loret’. After a short period in Ireland learning English, she was shipped off to India. It wasn’t until 1946 that she felt what she termed ‘‘a call within a call’ to go and help the poor and needy whilst living among them. When she died in 1997, the order that she founded - the Missionaries of Charity boasted 4000 sisters, a brotherhood numbering 300 and a total of 610 missions in 123 countries consisting of AIDS hospices, Leprosy and TB treatment centres, soup kitchens, children’s orphanages and schools.
The foster mother
Rio Hogarty, from Clondalkin - Dublin was awarded the title of Ireland’s Mum of the Year 2010. The 73 year old had fostered a grand total of 140 children over a 40 year period. The first child she took in was just three months old at the time - and still keeps in touch. Interviewed by the press, she said that she couldn’t believe how the time had flown by - but that she had no plans to stop.
The young mother
Finally - if you are at all squeamish, stop reading here. Peruvian Lina Medina’s parents thought that their daughter’s distended abdomen was the result of a tumour. Her father carried her to hospital where a month later in May 1939 she gave birth to a baby boy. Young Lina a sufferer of the condition, extreme precocious adolescence never revealed the identity of the father. Her age at the time she gave birth? five years and eight months!
We hope you've enjoyed reading our list of super-mums and don't forget DotComGiftShop have a variety of unique Mothers Day gifts on offer to spoil her rotten on April 3rd.
Mother's Day Facts
Have you ever wondered when the tradition of Mother’s Day began and why? Are you keen on freakish and fun mother-related facts? If so, read on. If not, read on anyway, as there's lot to learn.
Mother’s Day in Britain always falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent while in many other countries, most notably the USA, it is celebrated on the second Sunday in May.
The modern festival of Mother’s Day has its roots in the old church calendar date of Mothering Sunday, which goes back to the 16th century when families would traditionally gather at their mother’s church, thus reuniting for at least one day a year. Later it became accepted practice for the rich to allow their servants to visit their families on the day.
However, springtime celebration of the matriarch goes back much further than that. From as far back as 250BC, the Romans chose the Ides of March to make offerings in the temple of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods. But even before that the ancient Greeks celebrated their equivalent, Rhea, in the spring.
They couldn’t have known what they were starting. Nowadays, according to the British Retail Consortium, approximately £45 million is spent on 30 million Mother’s Day cards in the UK every year, added to the £55 million that around four million people spend on chocolates for their mums.
And it’s not just cards and chocolates. Mother's Day is the biggest event in the UK’s cut flower and indoor plant industry, according to the Flowers & Plants Association. In the run-up to Mother’s Day, sales of flowers and indoor plants increase by an average of 40 per cent on an ordinary day's trading.
Visit DotComGiftShop's Mother's Day department for a range of unique gift ideas!
Mother's Day Trivia
Want to really wow your mum on Mother’s Day? Want to show her what a clever boy or girl you’ve grown into? Then impress her with our five fantastic mother-related facts…
1. The World’s oldest mother is believed to be Omkari Panwar from India, who gave birth to a twin boy and girl in July 2009. She claimed to be 70, although she has no birth certificate to confirm her age.
2. Britain's oldest mother is Elizabeth Adeney, from Suffolk, who gave birth to a son in May 2009 at the age of 66. The wealthy businesswoman travelled to Ukraine for fertility treatment.
3. History’s youngest recorded mother was Lina Medina, aged just five years and seven months when she delivered a six-and-a-half pound boy by cesarean section in Lima, Peru in 1939. Her son was raised as her brother and found out that Lina was his mother when he was ten.
4. The highest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev (1707-1782) of Shuya, Russia (her name is unknown). Between 1725 and 1765, in a total of 27 pregnancies, she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. All but two of her children survived infancy.
5. The highest number of children born to one mother in modern times is 64, according to the claims of Leontina Albina from San Antonio, Chile, although only 55 of them are officially documented.
If you want to wow your mom with a top-notch present as well as this top-notch trivia, DotComGiftShop have a selection of excellent Mothers Day gifts.
Ten Quotes For Mother’s Day
Some folk baulk at the perceived commercialisation of Mother’s Day and prefer to pay tribute to their mums with a simple card.
Whether your card accompanies a present or not, it has to transmit the right message and a simple ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ smacks of laziness.
So if you’re stuck for ideas as to what to write in your card, you can take inspiration from these famous mother-related quotes – or simply plagiarise them and tell your mum you thought of them yourself…
1. God could not be everywhere, so he made mothers – Jewish proverb
2. A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take – Cardinal Mermillod
3. There was never a great man who had not a great mother – Oliver Schreiner
4. A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie – Tenneva Jordan
5. The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness – Honoré de Balzac
6. An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy – Spanish Proverb
7. The sweetest sounds to mortals given are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven – William Goldsmith Brown
8. A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them – Victor Hugo
9. One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters – George Herbert
10. All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother – Abraham Lincoln
Don't forget there's still time to get an excellent Mother's Day present to accompany you're carefully constructed card, at DotComGiftShop!
