What’s a Mama’s Boy?
As Joseph explained in our phone interview from their home in Asheville, North Carolina, “You’ll never find a Daddy’s Girl without a Mama’s Boy, because they complement each other.” Joseph, a Mama’s Boy, explained that his mother was the primary influence in his life. A Mama’s Boy develops either out of the fact that his father was also a Mama’s Boy or that his father was emotionally distant. During the same pivotal teenage years as a girl, a boy learns how to push or pull on his mother in order to find his freedom, but if Mom hovers, imprisoning her son, and the son doesn’t re-bond with his father through the discovery of danger, power, and freedom, then the son becomes a Mama’s Boy. When this power struggle exists between him and his mother, the Mama’s Boy grows up to believe that he can only find his power by pushing or pulling against women, and fulfillment (like the Daddy’s Girl) is found through women instead of where it resides—as power within himself. When operating from the extremes, a Mama’s Boy might find his power by abusing women physically or emotionally. He might become a sex addict or hop through multiple partners. In the contradictory position, the Mama’s Boy can also begin to depend solely on his woman (insert the dominant Daddy’s Girl) to do it all for him. For the Mama’s Boy, it ultimately comes down to power, and trying to harbor that power by reflecting it off women while in relationship.
When Complements Attract
When the Daddy’s Girl and Mama’s Boy come together, it starts passionate and forms a magnetic attraction that makes getting out of each other’s bed like trying to keep double-sided tape from sticking to itself. Intimacy grows, the couple shares their secrets, and eventually, when the Daddy’s Girl and Mama’s Boy form their union, it progresses into a mirror of the Daddy’s Girl and Mama’s Boy parent-child dynamic.
Sarah, who became Joseph’s second wife of ten years, is also seventeen years his junior. She shared what can transpire when the Daddy’s Girl and Mama’s Boy shape their connection.
