25 of the best family feuds on TV

Lorelai and Emily Gilmore — Gilmore Girls

There is little more complicated than the relationship between a mother and daughter. The politics of such a relationship are often difficult to navigate, and things can fall apart for very little reason at all. Such is the case between these two Gilmore ladies.

Lorelai and her mother, Emily, have been at each other’s throats since forever. According to Lorelai, her mother’s rigid, unyielding child-rearing tactics pushed Lorelai away, and caused a rift in their relationship. If you ask Emily, Lorelai was intractable, rebellious and completely non-compliant. The two couldn’t find a common ground to save their lives, even when Lorelai became a mother herself.

In fact, it was Lorelai’s teen pregnancy that pushed their relationship into the chilly, distant waters in which it was stuck for most of the series. There were thaws here and there, but for the most part these two women waged a passive-aggressive war on each other that made everyone in their life miserable.

Whether it was the tug of war over Lorelai’s daughter, Rory, or the bickering about money, Lorelai and Emily were always at each other’s throats. No amount of cajoling from the people in their life could get them to act like human adults, and it made for a lot of uncomfortable dinners and strained family events.

I won’t deny there were moments when the two women came together in moments of crisis, and you can tell there is genuine love there. But that’s usually how it goes. The people we love the most make us the craziest, and with a mom like Emily Gilmore, it seems like it’s inevitable that she would make the people in her life insane.