A woman could expect a certain distance, both emotional and physical, from her sons after he turned seven. A girl lived in her mother’s house until she had her first child and was declared married, but a boy left the house at age seven and did not return to live there. His mother may have seen him occasionally, but for the most part he belonged to his cohort.
There are some stories of Spartiate mothers interacting with their own sons and all show the importance placed on honor in battle. The best-known of these, of course, is that of the mother handing her son his shield and telling him to return with it or on it, that is, having acquitted himself well in battle or dead. Others tell of mothers refusing to mourn their sons who died in battle, preferring to express joy at the honorable sacrifice they had made. The flipside of this pride could be deadly for sons who displayed cowardice or even survived most of their cohort. A woman named Damatria, for example, is said to have killed her son when she learned he had deserted his post. To be the mother or sister of a celebrated warrior was a high honor, but to be related to a coward was the greatest disgrace.
How widespread and deeply held this attitude was and how much of it was merely propaganda is difficult to tell,** but it almost certainly varied by time period. It is important to remember, however, that Sparta was a society whose common morals were geared very strongly towards the good of the community and such an ideology suited such a warlike state quite well.
*Spartiate as opposed to free non-citizens (perioikoi) and helots.
**Sarah Pomeroy shows that millennia later many Confederate mothers during the American Civil War seem to have taken this propaganda to heart at least.
Plutarch, "Sayings of Spartan Women," Moralia - Lacus Curtius
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Spartan Women. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.