Mothers get the message early and often--push your sons away. Don't "baby" them with too much cuddling and comforting. Don't keep them emotionally bound to you, because boys need to learn to stand on their own. It is as if there were a playbook--based on gender preconceptions dating back to Freud, Oedipus, and beyond--that prescribes how mothers and their sons should interact. Journalist Kate Stone Lombardi persuasively argues that much of the entrenched "wisdom" is outdated. New research reveals that boys who are close to their mothers are happier, more secure, and enjoy stronger connections with their friends and ultimately their spouses. Lombardi shares revealing interviews with mothers--and fathers and sons--who are pushing back against the old prohibition, and argues that the rise of the new male--more emotionally intelligent and more sensitive without being less "manly"--is directly attributable to women who are rejecting the "mama's boy" taboo.