Boys with lots of conflict with their mothers engage in more delinquent behavior as they get older, says a new study published in the journal Child Development. This is hardly suprising, but the study revealed something else interesting, too: mothers who had good relationships with their romantic partner tended to form closer bonds with their sons that endured through childhood and adolescence. This flies in the face of the stereotype that mothers who are close to their sons are compensating for some lack of emotional support they are getting from their husbands or lovers. (See modern literature, ranging from D.H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers" to Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom.")
I'm just sayin'...
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