7 Awful Fictional Moms

Sit back with a cup of coffee, read this list, and pat yourself on the back.  You might not be a perfect mom (who is?), but next to these broads, you're doing just fine.  Here are 7 of the worst moms in fiction, from annoying to downright murderous.

7.  Carolyn Burnham (American Beauty):  This shrill, self-centered mom is obsessed with power and virtually ignores her family while pursuing her real estate career and a real estate agent.  Annette Benning did such a bang-up job portraying snooty Carolyn we're a leetle afraid for her own kids.

6.  Beverly Sutphin (Serial Mom):  Beverly sure loves her family... maybe a little too much, i.e., enough to kill for them over the slightest transgressions.  A bad grade for her son or a lady in white after Labor Day?  That's a bludgeoning.

5.  Livia Soprano (The Sopranos):  Two out of three of her children are murderers: not exactly Mother of the Year nomination material.  Livia's constant emotional abuse and manipulations wreaked havoc amongst her children.  She even put a hit out on her son for moving her into a retirement community.  A truly awful lady who we truly loved to watch.

4.  Deidre (Running with Scissors):  OK, she's not fictional per se, but it's hard to believe that a mother would give her child away to her psychiatrist, especially one who lives in a filthy house and scries with feces.  Not only did Deirdre basically abandon her child, she subjected him to her sexual dalliances and approved of his relationship with a pedophile all while staying drugged to the gills.  Hmmm... two moms on this list are portrayed by Annette Bening.  We're not quite sure what that means, but we don't think we'll be using her as a babysitter any time soon.

3.  Margaret White (Carrie):  We're all for teaching abstinence, but Carrie's religious-fanatic mom locked her in a closet for menstruating and stabbed her for going to a dance with a boy.  No wonder Carrie set the prom on fire; she was full of pent-up sexual energy!

2.  Joan Crawford (Mommie Dearest):  Confession time: we love this campy movie.  But as much as we love it, we can't say Joan was a good mommie.  Heck, she wasn't even adequate.  After all, "Joan Crawford" is synonymous with "Bad Mom."  The movie scared us so much as kids that we haven't used a wire hanger since.

1.  Medea (Greek Myth):  Medea is a serial killer, pure and simple.  She killed her brother to escape with her husband Jason; she killed the woman whom Jason left her for; and then she killed her kids to get revenge on her adulterous husband.   And we bet she burned the roast too.  Sigh.  We bet she burned the roast.