We attach to everyone who is important to us, with greater and lesser degrees of attachment depending on how important they actually are to us or who they "represent". I remember in my teen years being in love with various women, teachers, camp counselors, and volunteer leaders I was helping, etc. My stepmother and I did not have a very good relationship and I needed that "practice" of attaching well. I think there's various developmental growth spots/situations where we need to learn or work through attachment issues. A teenage girl is becoming a woman and needs to learn what that is and how to deal with love feelings, etc. for both future mating and child bearing behaviors. Boys attach to their mothers and then over to their father's to learn to be men but girls attach to their mothers, over to their fathers, and then back to their mothers again to learn to be women. If anything goes "wrong" during any of those periods we don't learn important behaviors but some of that can be learned/practiced later. I did eventually "grow up" through my attachment and work with my T.