Other boys, meanwhile, come to see their mothers as sources of comfort, love and guidance. If that’s the case, developing a strong mother-son relationship over time is less likely. Coming to associate women and femininity with weakness can mean even your mother could come to represent primarily negative connotations for a boy not yet out of grade school.
When it’s her son doing it, it may be due to a personality clash - but it might also be due to gendered reasons.īecause we live in a culture that is often dismissive to females, it’s possible for boys to develop sexist attitudes even quite young in childhood. What causes some men to have strong bonds with their mothers? How about those who see their mothers as extraneous to their lives or somehow unimportant?ĭespite a mother’s role in carrying a pregnancy to term, giving birth to a child, and (in most cases) raising them - sometimes, despite the best of intentions, a mother’s love is rejected by her children. Whether a man’s relationship with his mother is healthy or not can be tricky to determine from an outside perspective being termed a “mama’s boy” alone certainly isn’t an indication that there’s anything wrong per se. In short, it might be a pejorative with some weight to it, or it might be an insult born from jealousy, dislike or some other factor. “A mama’s boy is a man who has a very close connection with his mom,” says House, though she notes that “the name is broad, and can be assigned to men who have an unhealthy relationship with their mom, as well as those who have a very healthy and loving relationship with their mom.” Laurel House, dating and relationship coach and host of the Man Whisperer podcast, agrees to the above, but notes that it can group together a variety of different guys whose relationships with their respective mothers might not all look exactly the same. “He usually consults Mom in all things, and is dependent on her approval.” Tessina, Ph.D., psychotherapist and author of Dr. “A mama’s boy is a man who is unusually tightly attached to his mother,” says Tina B. What’s the deal with that? To get a better picture of what a mama’s boy is, how he’s perceived by other men (and women!) and what the strengths and weaknesses of a powerful connection to your mother entail, we had some experts chime in on the topic. And while caring too much about parental approval is often seen as a weak trait in men, men who bond more closely with their fathers don’t receive the scrutiny that so-called mama’s boys do.
Termed “mama’s boys,” such men - whether teenagers on the cusp of manhood or fully grown adults with families of their own - are often seen as weak, or at least strange.Īlong with the concept of a “ daddy’s girl” - which also has iffy implications - mama’s boys are derided for caring too much about the approval of the opposite-gender parent.
In particular, there’s a sense in modern culture that a man who has a close relationship with his mother is suspect. The relationship between mother and son is one that’s been studied for millennia.įrom classical Greek plays like Oedipus Rex and the fascination with the Biblical significance of the Virgin Mary in medieval Europe, to Hitchcock’s thrillers Psycho and The Birds, motherhood has long been a fascinating concept to humans in many different ways.