My mom says I should just totally disregard him for a while and not talk to him at all and eventually he'll start talking to me again

Which is exactly what you should do. Give me a couple of reasons why that WOULDN'T work.

Once he knows you're doing fine without him, he might get a little uncomfortable or feel annoyed with himself and come back to you.

After all if you carry on the way you are doing now, you won't get anywhere and he'll continue to be like this until he decides to just stop talking to you altogether because he might be getting annoyed by you giving him so much attention.

So yes, just give him a break. He might still be hurt and confused and not want to talk or give away any thought or emotion. Let him calm down and he will eventually come back to you. If not, then you'll have to get over him or you could at least, if you've waited a while, send him an e-mail explaining yourself if you like and see if he responds.

I agree with your mom. The two of you were dating for a while and now you aren't. There is going to be a period of funkiness before you are able to go back to being friends. It didn't take long for you to go back to normal, but it's apparently going to take him a little while longer. Try to be patient with him and just accept that it's going to be a while.

I don't think you should ignore him completely. I think you should keep attempting to talk to him just the same as you are now. If it doesn't appear that he is interested in talking to you, then make the call as short as possible and don't get upset with him. Then try again... and again. Eventually he's going to come out of this shell, you just need to give him a little bit of time and space. Don't try to force this, just let him deal with it at his own pace.

One thing I wouldn't do is discuss it too much with him. You aren't going to tell him anything that he isn't already well aware of, and it would be very hard to talk to him about this in any way that isn't going to seem like a criticism. He's going to be extremely sensitive to things such as that for right now, and if you give the perception of being 'pushy', you might drive him further away and make this process take longer.

Just sharing my thoughts:

Maybe this guy is still totally in love with you, is still not handling the moving away and breaking up part of the relationship. And the reason why he is avoiding you or giving you short answers is because he's trying to sever his love for you so that he wont have a harder time with being friends in the future. It's a very hurtful thing to be broken up due to life's circumstances. It is also hard to 'unlove' a person when that person is constantly talking to you. Do you get my point? or was i kinda vague?

These are just my opinions...

Listen to your mama!

No but for real

^What they said about listening to your mom.

As a guy, if an ex keeps trying to talk to me persistently, I know I can go back to her anytime I want because she obviously is desperate to keep up communication, so I don't really need to make an effort to stay friends with her at that moment because she'll always be there, waiting on edge for a response. That's not the most respectable mindset, but it's how a lot of guys think, if an ex is adamant in trying to keep up any kind of relationship, platonic or not.

So like others suggested, back off and he'll begin to miss you. If you just keep talking to him, you'll continue to get the same results. Same thing goes for anything in life; keep doing the same thing, nothing will change. He'll realize that he wants to talk to you and that it hurts now that you're not showing any signs of desire or, at the very least, communication. Keeping up efforts to talk to him will just repeat this cycle over and over, so break it.