It’s arrested development.
An unnamed 26-year-old man took a good-natured ribbing online after revealing he still enjoys crawling into bed with his mother — much to the chagrin of the women he dates.
“My girlfriend, 24, and I have been dating for about four months now,” the hapless heartbreaker shared in a now-trending Reddit post.
“My Mom, 49, was coming in town and planned to stay with a friend of hers but the train got delayed so…she asked if she could stay the night at my apartment. I said yes of course.”
But when the real-life Buster Bluth informed his inamorata — who he recently met on a dating app — that he’d be sharing a bed with mother during her impromptu overnight, the disapproving diva threw a tantrum.
“‘What’re you gonna do have sex [with] your mom?,’” the man claimed his girlfriend fumed. “‘Seems weird to me.’”
The miffed motherboy — who confessed to regularly sharing a bed or hotel room with his mother and 22-year-old sister during family gatherings and vacations, presumably never nude — didn’t take kindly to his sweetheart’s sour remarks.
“I don’t know where this is coming from. It’s just sleeping in the same bed. My Mom and I have never had that type of relationship and it is gross you would suggest that,” he recalled telling her.
But his judgmental honey wouldn’t let up about the unscheduled trip to Camp Kissamemommy.
“She is still sending jabs through messages asking if my mom and I played footsie last night in bed and asking if I was going to change the sheets or if I preferred my mom’s smell on them,” he complained.
“I told her the comments are making me uncomfortable and I’d prefer if they stop,” he continued. “She then goes on to tell me that she’s just not getting clear on how this relationship is any different from her ex’s relationship with his mother.”
The frustrated fella went on to explain that his girlfriend struggled to bond with her ex’s mom, a challenge that ultimately torpedoed their relationship. He also noted that his lady-love’s connection to her own family likely isn’t as “close” as his is tightly-knitted kin.
“Do you think that is the reason she thinks it is weird? Is she intimidated/jealous of my mom?,” he asked his online community. “It seems like she wants me to distance myself from my mother [and] to not be like her ex. All this to say, should I be worried about this from her? Is this a red flag?”
While leaving himself wide open to ridicule, a small army of red-hot Reddit warriors actually wound up rushing to the poster’s defense.
“Your [girlfriend] sounds gross. The fact that she literally asked you if you’re gonna have sex with your mom. Wtf…,” barked one Redditor.
“I would consider her behavior a red flag,” wrote another.
“Your girlfriend is an a—hole and a weirdo. I have slept in the same bed with my husband and mil, it’s so not a big deal,” spat a ticked critic.
Some seemed to sympathized with the man’s perturbed partner.
“I personally would never share a bed with either of my parents as an adult or even a teen, but I do [understand that] there are cultural differences here. I feel like the sexual suggestions would be a huge dealbreaker though,” penned a commenter.
“I’m not sure why she has to sexualize it,” said another. “I would’ve slept on the couch or floor personally, but she’s making way more of it than it needs to be.”
“I don’t know where this is coming from. It’s just sleeping in the same bed.”
Anonymous Redditor, 26
The special bond some younger men experience with their mothers can often be misunderstood.
The popular #BoyMoms trend, for example, took a digital licking this week after TikTok was flooded with videos of mothers teaching their sons how to outdo their future romantic partners in the kitchen.
In some cases, the mother-and-boy relationship can seriously cross the line — such as the instance in which a TikTok user named Emma caught her ex-boyfriend having sex with his mom.
“Me realizing that my ex cheating on me with his own mother is something that I should probably go to therapy for,” she admitted in a viral post, “and not something that I just joke with my friends about.”