It may be Mother’s Day, but it’s important to remember that not all relationships between mother’s and their children are ideal.
Not all mother’s have been warm and nurting towards their children which has resulted in a lot of pain and mommy issues.
While daddy issues are more common, there’s a handful of characters who suffer because of absent or overbearing mother’s, mother’s who pushed too hard, or even, abusive mother’s.
On the other hand, some mother’s are so close with their children, the relationship teeters on obsessive.
Either way, none of these relationships are healthy due to awful parenting.
Which other characters with mommy issues would you add to the list?
Adam Carrington – Dynasty
Adam’s mommy issues are the reason he pushed his mother, Alexis, headfirst into the fireplace and told the doctors to reconstruct her new face to look like Fallon’s. He’s so overprotective of the mother that “abandoned him,” he’s consumed with rage whenever someone says anything insulting about her.
Erin Lindsay – Chicago PD
Lindsay’s childhood was messy. Her dad was abusive and her mom was a drug addict. Her mother’s addiction carried into Linday’s adulthood and she was a continuous bad influence in her life until Lindsay accepted a job at the FBI and left town.
Norman Bates – Bates Motel
Norman had a dysfunctional, hypersexualized relationship with his mother who was domineering and very controlling of her son. He eventually killed her, made it look like a suicide and spoke to “Mother” as if she were still alive.
Cheryl Blossom – Riverdale
Cheryl’s sassiness masks her fragile mental state. Her parents blamed her for the death of her twin brother, Jason, and her mother, Penelope, resented her and put her through years of emotional abuse and torture. Being devoid of love and affection from her parents also forced her to put up many walls.
Rafael Solano – Jane the Virgin
Rafael spent his whole life wondering why his mother abandoned him when he was just four-years-old. When they finally reconnected reconnect, Elena dropped an adoption bombshell on him and eventually, he learned that she was the crime lord, Mutter. To this day, Raf continues to search for his birth parents so that he can learn more about himself.
Sutton Brady – The Bold Type
We see Sutton’s stormy and emotional side come out when she reconnects with her alcoholic estranged mother. We learn that Sutton was forced to become a responsible adult at a tender age to clean up her mother’s messes. She’s even hesitant to believe her mom when she says that she’s changed.
Eleanor Shellstrop – The Good Place
Donna Shellstrop is responsible for all of Eleanor’s bad qualities. She’s rude, selfish, and dishonest because her mother taught her to put herself first. She also has trouble creating meaningful relationships because her mother was flaky and consistently chased after worthless men.
Olivia Pope – Scandal
Olivia Pope didn’t have a good relationship with either of her parents, but things were especially fraught with her mother who she assumed was dead for half of her life. Liv despised her for being manipulative, greedy and an international terrorist.
Stefan & Damon Salvatore – The Vampire Diaries
Lily Salvatore “died” when Stefan and Damon were young, but in reality, she left them after being turned into a vampire. When she returned from the Prison World, she cared more about her family of Heretics than she did her about her own sons. At her funeral, Damon says she was a “terrible mother at birth and a terrible mother when she was dead.”
Liam Ridley – Dynasty
I know we’re all Team Liam, but the guy has some serious mommy issues that were illuminated when his mother swooped into his life to break him and Fallon up by faking stage four cancer. He believed his mother without question, was willing to change his lifestyle to take care of her, and accused Fallon of being jealous when she tried to tell him his mother was lying.
Alex Drake – Pretty Little Liars
Alex Drake’s jealousy over the life her twin sister, Spencer, had was the motive for torturing the liars. She exhibited signs of mental illness at an early age after being given up by her mother, Mary Drake.
Brooke Davis – One Tree Hill
Brooke and her mother, Victoria, had a turbulent relationship because Victoria never wanted to be a mother. She blamed Brooke for taking away her dream career of having her own clothing line. She was cold and uncaring towards Brooke when she was growing up which caused her to look for love in different places. After Brooke’s junior year, she abandoned her and moved to California only to return when she saw an opportunity after Brooke started her own fashion line.
Patrick Osbourne – Revenge
Patrick was conceived after Victoria Grayson was raped by her neighbor. She gave him up for adoption to pursue her dreams and tried to pay him off so he would never find her. Eventually, the two reconnected, and their tight-knit relationship angered her other children. He loved her so much, he would do anything for her and hurt anyone who crossed her.
Jim Street – S.W.A.T
Jim came from an abusive household and witnessed his mother shoot his father. She spent 25 years in jail while Jim grew up being consumed by anger. And despite joining S.W.A.T, Jim was initially impulsive, reckless and only thought of himself.
Cara Bloom – God Friended Me
Cara spent much of her childhood wanting to know why her mother abandoned her and thinking she wasn’t good enough. When she finally got the courage to track down her estranged mother, her fears seemed to be confirmed when she witnessed Susan being loving to her other daughter.
Christy Plunkett – Mom
Christy’s relationship with her mother, Bonnie, was so rough, she became heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol. Bonnie lacked any maternal instinct and would rather go out on the town and drink then spend time with her child. Christy’s upbringing affected her relationship with her children, a relationship she’s been trying to mend after becoming sober.
Kate Beckett – Castle
Kate’s mother, Johanna, was murdered in the line of duty. Following her death, Kate abandoned her dreams of becoming a lawyer and followed in her mom’s footsteps by joining the force. She became obsessed with her mom’s case so much so that it nearly destroyed her. Her mother’s death also took a toll on her father, Jim, who turned to alcohol to numb the pain.
Davia – Good Trouble
We’ve yet to meet Davia’s mother, but Davia, a social media influencer, is open about her mom’s constant trolling and judgment of her weight on Instagram. Davia says her mother is her worst critic, never defended her when she was bullied as a child, and admits that her mother believes she brings the weight-shaming upon herself.
Amelia Shepard – Grey’s Anatomy
Amelia always felt like the black sheep in the family because her mother always treated her like a screwup. She was the most troubled of her siblings suffering from addiction that led to plenty of bad decisions. Her mother even refused to attend her wedding because she thought she was making another poor decision. Turns out, she reminded her mom too much of her late husband who was murdered in front of Amelia.
