the.com/apron strings
The umbilical cord's clingy cousin, cut decades late and still twitching.
means Used to describe someone who remains excessively dependent on or controlled by a parent (usually the mother), long past the age when that should be happening.
from The phrase comes from the literal apron strings tied around a woman's waist — a garment so associated with wives and mothers that by the 1500s–1600s 'to be tied to someone's apron strings' became shorthand for being under a woman's control or care. There was even an old legal term, 'apron-string tenure,' referring to property a man held only through his wife's rights — his claim to it hung, quite literally, on her apron strings. The image stuck long after the garment itself faded from daily wear.
- origin
- 18th century term for maternal control over grown sons
- phrase
- tied to apron strings means still dependent emotionally or financially
- irony
- aprons were practical garments, not metaphors for control
- usage
- almost always aimed at men, rarely at daughters