She never called her son by any name but John; 'love' and 'dear', and such like terms, were reserved for Fanny.

Hey Baby.
Baby? You're kidding me, right?
I was trying it out. No?
No.

You just stood up to your mother.... I should think now you could take on the world.

We found that mothers showed no differential behavior toward their sons versus their daughters. They weren't being nasty to their sons or encouraging to their daughters.

Most young men are such bores. They haven't lived long enough to learn that they are not the wonders to the world they are to their mothers.

I suppose the mothers of most twelve-year-old boys live with the uneasy conviction that their sons are embarked upon a secret life of crime.