But we all love these movie moms

We’d be remiss if we left out any mention of the good movie mothers that have graced the silver screen over the years. Here is a sampling:

Mildred Pierce in “Mildred Pierce”

Joan Crawford plays a single mother struggling to keep her family afloat during the Great Depression. She finds a good-paying job that she feels is below her station, but she continues to work to support her daughter even as the girl demands more and becomes less grateful.

Aurora Greenway in “Terms of Endearment”

Shirley MacLaine and her independent onscreen daughter rarely see eye-to-eye in this movie, which follows their lives through several decades, but they nevertheless share a strong bond that remains true when the younger woman is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Martha “Mama” Hanson in “I Remember Mama”

In a mother-daughter riff on “The Gift of the Magi,” Irene Dunne as Mama sells her treasured brooch to buy a dresser set as a gift for her daughter’s graduation, but when the girl finds out what her mother has done she sells back the set to regain Mom’s beloved heirloom.

M’Lynn Eatenton in “Steel Magnolias”

In this terminal illness tear-jerker, Sally Field plays M’Lynn Eatenton, a well-to-do

Southern gal who has spent her life watching out for her diabetic daughter.

Her worst fears are realized when Shelby (Julia Roberts) denies her mother’s wishes and gets pregnant, putting her life at risk.

Among other motherly deeds, Field donates a kidney to Shelby in a failed bid to save her, cares for Shelby’s young son and is the last one in the room when Shelby’s dies.

She’s the ultimate self-sacrificing mother.

Marge Simpson in “The Simpsons Movie”

Perhaps the very mommiest of moms, Marge Simpson (voice of Julie Kavner), who appeared in theaters in last year’s big-screen version of “The Simpsons,” is the glue that holds together the gears of this dysfunctional cartoon family. Whatever crazy schemes Homer cooks up or whatever trouble Bart gets in, Marge is there to keep everyone in check.

—Justin Hoeger