Cutting apron strings can cut the heart, but not doing so wounds much worse:

I've been doing a survey of Moms.  "What is hard about being a Mom?"  

I guess I should give the usual disclaimer.  This isn't a scientific survey.  So far, though, the answers lead me to conclude that one of the hardest things about being a Mom is not being a Mom--in the hands on sense--any more.  My Father-in-law said one time, about his adult daughter, "I can still smell the baby powder."  Moms' hearts are full of the smells, sights, sounds, and varied experiences of child-rearing.  Good Moms invest themselves in their youngsters to nurture and protect them.  If they do their job well a time will come when the job must change.

We talk about young adults, especially, young men, being tied to their mother's apron strings.  We all know what the words mean today.  Too frequently we see young people in their twenties, or even thirties (I've seen one case where it lasted until a guy was nearly sixty.) who still depend on Momma for housing, income, various domestic services, etc.  The syndrome has been fodder for countless sitcoms.  I did a quick websearch to find out where the metaphor came from.  Some claim there was a time in years past when Moms would tie their young charges to their aprons--kind of a leash.  Another theory is that it wasn't the Mother's apron strings that were cut, but the child's.  According to this scenario children wore an apron-like garment to keep their other clothing clean.  The strings made a convenient handle for Moms to grab.  One more view made reference to men in centuries past who enjoyed the benefits of their mother's or wife's aristocratic title, while having no independent title of their own.  They were tied to the woman's apron strings.  

Where ever the term came from,  a Mom tied to an adult child in a controlling way, creates an abnormality on both ends of the string--apron, or otherwise.  At the beginning of human history it was stated that a man would "leave his father and mother."  (Genesis 2:24)  The task of parenting is to "bring them up," a term that speaks of maturity, not continued dependence.  (Ephesians 6:4)  We provide children what they need in order to encourage maturity.  

It is one of the reasons that being a good Mom is so hard.  They must go from the point of providing everything, to the point of letting them go.  In the blink of an eye between those two extremes she needs to help provide what they need to succeed.

Mom, my hat is off to you.  We ought to honor you, not only this Sunday, but every day.

It's STTA