Pam is the mother of Jackie Burkhart and ex-wife of Jack Burkhart. She has a strained relationship with her daugher, mainly stemming from the trauma to which Pam exposed Jackie to. For example, cheating on her father, one of these affairs resulting in Jackie's irrational fear of clowns, and then abandoning her family to run away to Mexico. Pam seems to be also where Jackie has gotten much of her shallowness and vanity, and she is seen as a "neighborhood mom" to all the men in the series, causing constant tension between Pam and Donna and Kitty as well.