The concept of the "mother" has twofold meanings: a primary caretaker and a female parent. Most of the time they end up being the same person, but in the case of a single parent or being raised by someone other than your parent, the role of the "mother" is more important than the female parent part.
Where "Issues" Surface
"Issues" surface when the child is sufficiently grown into a state where they start forming their own identities. Everyone eventually comes to recognize that they are different from their parents. This usually has two prominent outcomes: reinforcement of the parenting the child received, and opposition of the parenting the child received.
The word "parenting" is such a big umbrella term, but what needs emphasis isn't the actual cognitive knowledge the child obtained through their parents. It's their unconscious habits and beliefs that transfer without explicit knowledge.
This goes from something as trivial as food preferences or music tastes to something deeply unconscious as body language and figures of speech. These things aren't explicitly taught — these are implicitly picked up by the unconscious.
It's not the facts or lessons your parents taught you that shape you most. It's the things they never explicitly said — the unconscious habits, beliefs, body language, and emotional patterns that you absorbed without realizing it.
The Tragedy of Inheritance
Unfortunately, reinforcement and opposition of received parenting isn't necessarily compartmentalized separately. I am a male, and my father has a big influence on what I consider to be masculine — whether I like it or not.
But suppose my father is a male role model I despise and never want to be like. Even if I spend my entire life trying not to be like him, there comes a time where I find myself resembling him because I inherit him unconsciously. A great literary example of this is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
Same-Sex vs. Opposite-Sex Parent
With an opposite-gender parent, the inner effect of parenting is more accentuated towards how you interact with the opposite gender. This is why so many people's marriages are an exact replica of their parent's — somehow in both sides of the family.
The reason why there's a generalization of same-sex parent issues running deeper than opposite-sex parent issues is because it impacts the unconscious in a twofold way. You are both reinforcing and opposing what you despise inside of your identity.
With a same-sex parent, the struggle is doubled: you're simultaneously building your identity based on patterns you inherited AND fighting against the parts of those patterns you don't want. With an opposite-sex parent, the impact shows up more in how you relate to others — especially romantic partners. Both run deep, but in different ways.
Understanding this isn't about blame — it's about awareness. When you can see where your patterns come from, you're no longer at their mercy. The unconscious only has power over you when it stays unconscious.