Mother and Son Bond

Today, we discussed a prompt concerning whether or not it is a must for a son to have a nurturing relationship with his mother. I really wish that I could say yes and no considering the fact that not every male has a mother and turned out fine. However, since my teacher would bring up "society" or "majority," I decided to keep my opinions within. After discussing the prompt, we were presented with 2 poems that seem to be telling a story. It is ironic because they are by 2 different people but they fit together perfectly. Following the completion of our assignment, we were told to answer a question about what we would say or ask our mother concerning the state of our life. The teacher then took it a step further and said that for homework, we have to read what we wrote to our mother and post about her reaction. I honestly did not read what I wrote to my mom because we always discuss what it is that I have written. I basically tell her that I am stressed out because my schedule is always so full. Her response is always that I can overcome it and not stress myself out over it but to let it come naturally because I am intelligent. I find it extremely difficult to follow this advice because if I'm not hard on myself then I feel that I'll begin to slack; that I will fall to standards of those who put in little to no effort and receive a good enough grade. The one thing I didn't ask her and will never ask is that if I was to start slacking, would that disappoint her and shatter the "smart child" image that she so badly desires for me to uphold? I assume that it will only offend her and that her response would be that she only pushes me past the limit so that I can achieve great things in life. While that is a good reason, the side effects are that I am now stressed to the point of fatigue and anxiety. My health is not of the norm. In fact, I have low iron and since I forget to take my pills, hence my busy schedule, I am lacking something that I need in order to perform properly throughout the day. Overall, today was inspiring and a little emotional.