The Mama's Boy Myth: Why Keeping Our Sons Close Makes Them Stronger

A radical reexamination of the mother-and-son relationship that advocates the end of the “mama’s boy” taboo.

Mothers get the message early and often—push your sons away. Don’t keep them emotionally bound to you. Back off, because boys need to learn to stand on their own. It is as if there were an existing playbook—based on gender role preconceptions dating back to Freud, Oedipus, and beyond—that prescribes the way mothers and their sons should interact.

Kate Stone Lombardi, an award-winning journalist who has written for the New York Times for more than twenty years, persuasively argues that much of the entrenched “wisdom” about mothers and sons is hopelessly outdated. Highlighting new research, The Mama’s Boy Myth reveals that boys who are close to their mothers are happier, more secure, and enjoy stronger connections with their friends and ultimately their spouses. With revealing interviews and moving case studies, Lombardi argues that the rise of the new male—one who is more emotionally intelligent and sensitive without being less “manly”—is directly attributable to women who reject the mama’s boy taboo.