Sally Goodson (Kirstie Alley) is a Struggling Single Mother in New York City, raising her sixteen-year-old autistic son David (Michael Goorjian) and trying to avoid social worker Gladys Johnson (Phylicia Rashad), who is adamant that David should be in an institution. Her sister Bea (Stockard Channing) sets her up with wallpaper salesman John Nils (Sam Waterston), who thinks David could be capable of more.
David's Mother contains examples of:
- Because You Can Cope: Sally tells her daughter Susan that she can take care of herself and David can't, and that's why she neglects her in favor of David.
- Daddy Didn't Show: In a flashback, Susan complains about the fact that Sally missed her play because the babysitter canceled and she didn't want to leave David alone.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sally, to the point where other characters call her on her lack of concern for other people's feelings.
- Disappeared Dad: Sally's ex-husband Philip (Chris Sarandon) moved to California because he couldn't deal with David's autism.
- Doesn't Know Their Own Child: When Sally learns that Susan is pregnant, she says, "She's only eighteen!" Bea says, "She's nineteen."
- Eyes Always Averted: When Sally tries to force eye contact on David, he looks away or squeezes his eyes shut.
- Flashback Effects: Every flashback opens with a POV shot from Sally's perspective, shot with a very low frame rate.
- Freeze-Frame Ending: On a shot of Sally about to leave David's new institution.
- Potty Failure: In a flashback, Sally picks David up from school and finds him sitting in a corner in his own urine. She criticizes the teacher for not noticing that he's wet himself.
- The Speechless: David grunts, moans, and occasionally screams.
- The Unintelligible: As a child, David mutters unintelligibly.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Sally views David's autism as a punishment and fantasizes about him waking up healed.
