Recently on “Desperate Housewives,” Teri Hatcher’s character Susan, thinking she’s started menopause, mourns the end of her youth and sexual attractiveness, only to find out she’s pregnant. What a change from the television moms of our childhood! Susan’s sexual activity is assumed, while her post-40 pregnancy is a surprise. The mothers we watched on TV had children, but never sex. Someone has yet to ’splain how Lucy Ricardo conceived Little Ricky in a bed across the room from her husband’s.

Television mothers of the 1950s through the early ’70s were perfect: perfectly dressed, perfectly coiffed and always perfectly pleasant. Nothing dirty touched their carpets, children, clothes or, heaven forbid, their tongues. Margaret Anderson’s children never failed school (they did, after all, listen to their father, who knew best); and the worst thing the Beav ever did was pester Wally. Donna Reed’s character dealt with proms, not pregnancy; and Carol Brady shared wisdom about sibling envy, not sibling violence. Even Shirley Partridge raised a family of musicians with nary a drug to be found in the house. Intimacy among couples was shown in a knowing smile or a chaste kiss; and the only working mom was Mrs. Partridge, who was forced into rock stardom by widowhood.

As our culture changed, the pendulum swung the other way. Roseanne Conner, who claimed looking at her children was the best contraception, and the randy Peg Bundy of “Married with Children” were perfection’s opposite. Thankfully, we also had Mary Beth Lacey, cop and loving—though imperfect—mother, who was terrific at her job and passionate about her husband. “Kate and Allie” and the “Designing Women” also had jobs and men, and were great—if flawed—parents.

Perhaps the best examples are some newer models. Yes, they still look beautiful, live in fabulous homes and often have glamorous jobs, but upon close examination, there are glimpses of reality. Social worker Maxine Gray and her daughter Judge Amy together raised Amy’s daughter with humor, wisdom, character flaws and fatigue. Miranda Hobbes, the attorney of “Sex and the City,” struggled with reducing work hours, sharing mothering with her nanny and, shockingly, losing her post-baby weight. Even Lorelai of the “Gilmore Girls,” the youngest, hippest mother of all, made mistakes, argued with daughter Rory and realized she couldn’t always be Rory’s friend—all while demonstrating that, despite work, men and friends, Rory was her priority.

While the older shows evoke a wistful nostalgia, it is for something that never existed. Even the most fortunate of us, with the best parents, never lived like early television families; in real life, there is no perfection.

But wouldn’t we rather be (and have) mothers with real lives and real emotions, and the occasional dirty carpet?