As Olga Silverstein writes, "[O]ur culture believes that a male child must be removed from his mother’s influence in order to escape the contamination of a close relationship with her" (1994). Mother-love his for her and hers for him is thought to ‘feminize’ a boy, to make him soft, weak, dependent, home-bound and ill-equipped to cope with the world. Only through renunciation of his mother and identifying with his father does the boy become a man. Presentations challenge the norm of distances by revealing its cultural orchestration. Distancing demands that boys deny or repress the feminine dimension of their personality; the consequences of this include: male feelings of betrayal and deep loss, revealed in loneliness, lousy marriages and mid-life crises (Silverstein). In the last few years, our culture has recognized and responded to this crisis in modern manhood; commentators on the subject matter of the wounded modern man argue, for the most part, that masculinity must be refashioned through a reconnection of father and son. Feminists challenge this received narrative and argue that the real pain in men’s lives stems from their estrangement from women. "As a culture," Olga Silverstein writes, "we have to face up to the longing [of sons for their mothers] its power, its persistence throughout a man’s life, its potential for destruction when unacknowledged." "The mother-son relationship," as Silverstein concludes, "offers us one of our greatest hopes for transforming ourselves and the world in which we live if we will but have the courage to make the necessary changes."

African Canadian and African American mothers may experience raising sons as contradictory: gaining maturity comes from interaction with the public world, yet black sons often find the public psychologically and socially hostile. A similar pattern is observed in the experiences of First Nations mothers and sons. Lesbian mothers identify challenges in raising sons in a heterosexist culture. Egalitarian and non-homophobic teachings clash with traditional practices found in schools and homes. Mothers and sons with special needs also present unique challenges. When the culture itself encourages sons to be recipients rather than givers of care, the task of mothering special needs sons, as Haessly observes, can seem quite daunting

The Mother Son relationship is a major cause of discussion in recent years and the questions being raisedcertainly store some thought.

Also check out fathers of daughters tips.