Barbara Mack (on occasion Barbara Hoffman) is the wife of scientist George Mack and the mother of Alex and Annie Mack. Barbara has medium-length blonde hair, often wears jeans and baggy men's shirts, and loves activities related to English, reading/writing and languages. Barbara often feuds with Alex over Alex's immature behavior, but still sides with her sometimes in cases where Annie's genius research gets in the way of everything else.Barbara is a public relations manager and has had the unpleasant experience of working with Ms. Atron, who frequently belittles her and threatens to fire her. In Season 2, a socially-awkward Danielle Atron asks Barbara to help her appear more kind-hearted to people, which backfires in a very weird way. Barbara surprisingly gets along well with Vince, although she still finds him really creepy. They both work for Danielle in various ways so they occasionally cross paths. Barbara has a sister called Ashley who is a forty-year-old rebel and everything Barbara wished she could be herself.