What Every Son Needs From His Mother

As I’ve traveled the world over the last two decades exploring the dynamic of healthy family relationships, one thing has become abundantly clear:A boy needs his mother’s respect.

Not only her love, but also her respect. That’s the message of my upcoming book, Mother & Son: The Respect Effect, and I believe that it will transform your relationship with your son in ways you’ve only dreamed about. It won’t be because of my writing. In fact, I’ll try hard not to get in the way. It will be because the principle is life-changing in its simplicity, and it cuts straight to the deepest part of a boy’s soul.

When it comes to respect between a mother and son, the point that most make is that a mother needs her son’s respect. And to this point, I wholeheartedly agree. A boy does need to be respectful. In fact, I wrote a whole book about a father and mother needing the respect of their children called Love and Respect in the Family.

But it’s only half of the equation… especially when you move from the parents as one unit into the highly unique and beautiful relationship between a mother and her son.

I explored this relationship briefly in “Parenting Pink and Blue,” one of the chapters of Love & Respect in the Family. There, I briefly tell mothers that their “blue” sons need respect in the same way their “pink” daughters need dad’s love. Yes, sons and daughters equally need love and respect, but I show that the felt need during stress and conflict differs among males and females. Research bears this out. Males filter their world more through the respect grid.

Fascinatingly, moms zeroed in on this teaching immediately. They began sending me hundreds of stories and testimonials surrounding this revelation. With great excitement, they applied respect talk to their sons, whether he was four or forty. These moms experienced astounding results.

Thus, I have written a book- Mothers and Sons: The Respect Effect - with the many stories told to me by mothers - stories no longer untold!

-Dr. E