It's not unusual for a male child to break ties and want to be on his own. Our children all get to a point where they no longer want to be under our thumb and feel they have to listen to us.

Sometimes we teach a child unknowingly that its ok to stay with a partner you are not happy with. Sometimes they pick a partner we don't like and it could be how this other person has aspects of the things we don't like about ourselves.

What IS important is teaching your child to gain the strength to walk away from another person that makes them unhappy or is unhealthy for them. It's important to understand that often the one a child experiments on when it comes to this IS us the parent. Thing is Tisha, while it's hard to experience him distancing from you and ghosting you, he is learning how to do that and it may be the one thing that helps him walk away from this wife if she IS toxic and makes him unhappy.

Don't you think your son KNOWS that if his relationship doesn't work out you will open your arms to him even though he has distanced from you? Tisha, your son KNOWS you love him. IF this woman is isolating him so she can control him, it can take him time to finally recognize that and he will need to have some courage to walk away from her.

As far as your son distancing from your mother, well, you already know she can be toxic and you yourself have had to distance from her and basically ghost her. You need to admit though that you did play along with her game too. You know your son did see that.