Characters / Bad Moms

Played by: Mila Kunis

Amy Mitchell is the mother of two — Jane and Dylan. She is very much involved with her kids and works as a sales rep for a high end coffee business. As a result, her two roles often come into conflict with each other. She befriends Carla and Kiki and ends up running for PTA president with Carla and Kiki as her running mates and wins. At the end, she finds balance between her family life and career life.

• Grew a Spine: Not to quite the same extent as Kiki, but part of her arc involves her learning to stand up more for herself and not let herself be solely defined by her children. In particular, she starts making Dylan do his own schoolwork.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: She downs quite a lot of hard liquor to take the edge off.
• Mama Bear: Very much so for her two kids, especially for her daughter Jane. Amy begins her entire campaign because the current PTA President Gwendolyn unfairly terminated Jane from the soccer team. After a series of personal blows, Amy was willing to concede the entire election to Gwendolyn until Gwendolyn decided to frame Jane as a drug addict, getting her kicked off all extracurricular activities. Then Any pulls her entire self together to beat Gwendolyn.
• Parents as People: She's a loving and devoted mom and really wants the best for her kids, but getting overworked to the point that she's been doing her son's homework for him pushes her to decide to indulge herself a bit.
• Sexless Marriage: Her and Mike's marriage qualifies as this. She states they haven't had sex in years.

Played by: Kathryn Hahn

Carla is the single mother of one son. She is very hands off to the point not of neglect and spends her time getting laid and getting high. She befriends Amy after she took a stand against Gwendolyn and later becomes friends with Kiki. At the end, she resolves to become a more involved mother.

• Abusive Parent: Of a mild kind, as the most of what she does is put down her son.
• The Alcoholic: Of the trio, she drinks the heaviest. Her first scene has her with a glass in her hand.
• All Women Are Lustful: Every cast member shows a healthy sexual appetite, but her brazen hussiness is a sight to behold.
• Mama Bear: Despite her constant neglect and put downs to her son, she will do anything to protect him. She also invokes this trope to motivate Amy into not conceding the PTA President election to Gwendolyn after she framed Jane as a drug addict, resulting her in getting kicked out of all her extracurricular activities.
• Parental Abandonment: Apparently, Carla hadn't seen Isis for years by the time this movie rolls around and, after Carla lends her money, she disappears yet again. From what Carla says, she's had a history of just vanishing. Her father meanwhile is not mentioned once.
• Parental Neglect: She doesn't even remember her son's birthday, often forgets or chooses not to pick him up from school, and spends most of her time smoking weed than attending to her son. At the end of the movie, she tries to become a better parent.
• Parents as People: A bit more (or less) than the other of the trio, in that, when we meet her mother in the sequel, we find out that she didn't have the best example to learn from, so she's not really capable showing it properly.
• Really Gets Around: Her promiscuity is the source of several jokes.
• Toxic Friend Influence: To learn how to be more carefree, Amy and Kiki learn from her example and we see how that went.

Played by: Kristen Bell

Kiki is the stay-at-home mother of four. Because her husband expects her to do all the work without any help, she dedicates all her time to taking care of her kids. The lack of a social life makes her seem socially awkward and depressed, shunning her from the other moms. She eventually begins to branch out and take a stand for herself.

• Disappeared Dad: Her dad died she was a child.
• Extreme Doormat: In the beginning, she was at the mercy of her very domineering husband and Gwendolyn, and her kids walked all over her. By the end, she grew a backbone.
• Friendless Background: Has no social life because she has to look after her kids all day. Amy and Carla change that later.
• Grew a Spine: Her main arc in the movie involves her learning to stand up for herself.
• House Wife: She stayed at home to take care of the kids and the house while her husband works. At the end of the film, she remains a housewife but receives help from her husband.
• Mama Bear: She would die for her kids any day.
• Only One Name: Her surname isn't revealed, not even in the script.
• Took a Level in Badass: She stands up to her demeaning husband and becomes more assertive and confident in herself.

Played by: Christina Applegate

Gwendolyn is the domineering and overzealous PTA president of 6 years and the mother of two little girls.

• Alpha Bitch: All grown up. Blonde, rich, president of the PTA, bullies those she considers to be bad moms, and treats her two friends as minions.
• Beneath the Mask: She did a pretty good job of hiding her own deeply dysfunctional life from everyone else.
• Functional Addict: She admits that she's addicted to Vicodin. Somehow, until she confesses it to Amy, she kept it a complete secret from everybody she knew and has a seemingly perfect life.
• Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: Everybody's worst nightmare of a pushy suburban soccer mom and PTA parent come to life.
• Stepford Smiler: Puts on the appearance of a perfect wife and mother right out a 1950s family sitcom, but in truth, she's deeply miserable.

Played by: Christine Baranski

Amy's overly critical, controlling mother.

• Abusive Parents: She's implied to be emotionally abusive.
• Alliterative Name: Ruth Redmond.
• Doting Parent: Grandparent rather. She throws an elaborate Christmas party to the joy of her grandkids but Amy wasn't pleased.
• Parents as People: As her husband, Hank, tells her, she's insecure about how she was a mother and worried about failing but she always had the right intentions.

Played by: Susan Sarandon

Carla's promiscuous, hedonistic, alcoholic mother.

• Addled Addict: She's an example different than the usual, as her problem is gambling addiction and it's been the source of many of her problems while Carla was growing up.
• Generation Xerox: Like her daughter, Carla, she's just as hedonistic and promiscuous, too.
• Parental Neglect: Her treatment of Carla is similar to how Carla is with her son, however, from what we can get, she was much worse, as other than living a hedonistic lifestyle, she spent whatever money she'd have on gambling and, apparently, she's vanished on Carla more than once.

Played by: Cheryl Hines

Kiki's overbearing mother.

• Hates Being Alone: We find out that some of her smothering came from her feeling extremely lonely since her husband died.
• My Beloved Smother: As much as she loves and cares for her daughter, she's overbearing and invasive with showing it. This leads to Kiki snapping at her when she comes up with the idea to move in next door.