Do mother’s treat their sons differently?

I’d prefer those with brothers to discuss this and not parents talking about how they don’t do this as most parents who did/do this refuse to acknowledge that they did/do this.

So throughout my 20 years of life I’ve noticed one thing that happens within families and that’s how differently mothers treat their sons. They’re protective (in an unhealthy way), and while they’re more eager to let their sons start dating, they’re more aggressive with the girl they bring home, almost as if they feel threatened in some way. I’ve also noticed they’re easier on them compared to their daughters and let them get away with behavior that they would scold and punish their daughters for. I went through this growing up and so did my best friend and my cousins and now it’s something I’ve seen repeatedly in multiple families. Now it makes sense as to why I see so many MIL horror stories, even when there really isn’t anything wrong with the wife/fiancée/girlfriend.

My friend and I were talking about this just yesterday and I was just curious what other daughters thought. Is it something you’ve noticed? Is it something you went through? Obviously it won’t be the case with every family, but it’s something I’ve seen happen a lot and it’s weird. It’s like they’re jealous of girlfriends or feel they have to compete with their daughters or just feel that it’s ok if their son do things they wouldn’t tolerate from their daughters because he’s a boy and that’s just “how they are”. So I’d really like to get some more opinions.