As the title states, “What does your child call you?”
On my paternal side, they mostly call their parents by their given name. As far as I know, I am the only one grandmother, granny. I believe I may have also have a couple that may call their parents mom or dad; but most call their parents by their given name. I am not truly close with my paternal cousins, so I can only remember so much. However, I am positive, they will call my grandmother by her given middle name–her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchild alike. I was never allowed to do so, thanks to my mom teaching, but I do find it odd and confusing. [name]Do[/name] you think it’s disrespectful in any way?
On my maternal side, we call our parents, mom or dad–grandparents, grandma and grandpa. Or some variant of it, such as mommy, pops, papi, gramps, grams, papa, etc.
So, what does your child[ren] call you and/or your parents?
[name]Just[/name] curious.
My kids call hubby & I mommy & daddy. My oldest girl calls me mom though 'cause she’s 6 going on 14. LOL Hubby’s parents are called Mema & Papa. My mom & dad, my kids know them as Grandma & Grandpa. My parents divorced & remarried along time ago & I’ve never been close to the step-parents, so when my kids are old enough I’ll explain it to them & they’ll know the step-grandparents by their first names. We live 5 states away from them so this isn’t something that needs to be explained now.
If my kids called us by our first names, yes, I would think of it as disrespectful.
My son calls me mommy, mama, or mom, and he calls my husband daddy. It would be odd for me if he called us by our first names, because I’m not used to children doing that. Is it cultural or just family preference to call parents and other family members by their given names?
I think to each family their own, but generally I do find it disrespectful.
I don’t have any children, but I know my future kid/kids will call me Mum/Mummy. And they will call my SO Dad/Daddy. My parents have already specified what they’d like to be called, though I’m unsure of his parents. And I know my SO’s grandparents would want to be called by the same as they’ve got, as they are fairly distinct and it’d work nicely.
I feel like using these sorts of names really is just out of respect. Anyone can call you by your regular name. On a normal bases, it really doesn’t mean much. But the special moment when someone calls you Mummy/Daddy… melts my heart
I can see how someone could find it unnecessary though. Its not like we go around calling our siblings “brother” or “sister”, even though they are our brothers and sisters. And it could be seen the same way here.
I do think its cute how my best friend calls her dad by his name, [name]Mike[/name]. And she talks about how her future child would call him “grand-[name]Mike[/name]” rather than grandfather he he he! Then again her entire family is strange, so I don’t tend to compare
I don’t think it is disrespectful if they are okay with it… I go the traditional route, my parents are mom and dad, my grandparents are grandpa and grandma. I never use their names.
My fiance’s nieces and nephew call their maternal grandparents “gee” and “bompa” because they couldn’t say grandma and grandpa when they were little and it just aged with them. They’ll probably use the proper terms when they are older. I’m not sure what they call their paternal grandparents…
Personally I wouldn’t like it if my child called me by my name unless it was necessary. In a sea full of mom and dads and you get lost, sometimes “mom!” just doesn’t cut it. My sister and I only ever use their first names when we need to get their attention and “mom! dad!” just doesn’t cut it.
I think that the line between parent and child should be distinct, but not overbearing. Calling a parent mom, mommy, dad, daddy, shows that line but it’s not overbearing. It’s an affectionate term, and should be used as such while being respectful.
I think to disregard that is to put the parent on the same level as the child, and that’s not possible.
Parents are always “above” children in that role, they maybe be equals in height, strength, even intelligence, and are both equally worthy of respect, but they’re different.
I’ve always just viewed Mom and Dad as terms of affection, and when I’m upset with my parents, I drop the Mom and Dad, same as I do with the terms of affection I uses with my siblings ([name]Bubba[/name], [name]Sissy[/name], [name]Buddy[/name]).
I don’t find it disrespectful when people call their parents by their first names, just a bit odd.
I call my own parents mama and pops (or a variation of it:Popadom, Popsicle etc.)
Grandparents on both sides: nana and grandad. Only distinguish them by [name]Nana[/name] ‘surname X’ and [name]Nana[/name] ‘surname Y’
I’ve a lot of friends (teenagers, early 20s) that call their parents by their first names, I see no problems with it, and I’d often my mother [name]Tessa[/name], affectionately. There’s no obvious diffeence in Parenting overbearing or trying to be their friend. Each to their own, no disrespect shown in simply how you call your parent or are called by your child.
No, it’s not a cultural thing. As far as I could remember, that is how they called my Granny/Aunts/Uncles. I guess since the first set was use to calling my Granny by her given name it kinda stuck when they had theirs.
It was not until I was older that I realized that the name they called her was actually her middle name, her fn is something entirely different. My mom has always taught me to call her granny, no matter if the other kids called her _____. Because of that, I remember I would get teased by my cousins, aunts and a couple of uncles, and be called, “a daddy’s girl, snooty, etc.” I didn’t really get it until I became older of course.
I remember asking the only two cousins I am close to why do they call their parents ____ and ____ – they couldn’t really give me a good answer. [name]One[/name] roughly responded that it didn’t seem right and that they preferred it that way, “I guess.”
To be honest, I joke around with my grandma on certain occasions when I call her by her full name. Not in an disrespectful way, but to let her know I am talking to her. My older two sisters call her mama as well, so she will sometimes ask who am I talking to–her or my mom. Lol
My paternal grandma is strictly granny.
My maternal grandma is strictly grandma.
I never knew my paternal grandpa, so I never had the chance to call him papa or something like that.
My maternal grandpa is grandpa, gramps, or his given name to get his attention when he is too involved in television. Lol
My kids call me mommy or momma. My husband is dad or daddy…occassionaly “pops” if we’re feeling silly.
They call their paternal grandparents [name]Nana[/name] and Papa. (my [name]MIL[/name] decided she wanted to be called [name]Nana[/name] so we went with that.) They call my parents Grandma [name]Jan[/name] and Grandpa <first name>. We are also pretty close with my husband’s grandparents (my kids great grand parents) and they are called Grammy and Pap Pap to the kids.
I don’t think adding a first name to Grandma, such as my kids Grandma [name]Jan[/name] is disrespectful, especially when she is ok with it too. However if they just called her [name]Jan[/name] or me by my first name, that would be disrespectful.
Our daughter calls us Mama and Papa, and I love hearing her say Mama. I don’t think calling parents by their first names is inherently disrespectful, but I wouldn’t want it–to echo someone above, anyone could call me by my first name; only she can call me Mama. Having her call by my first name would feel chillier. (She does sometimes like to call us by our first names to be funny, but that’s not a big deal to me. She’s six.)
Grandparents are [name]Nana[/name] and Grandpa First Name and Gammy and Grandpa First Name.
I find this subject so interesting, and I think it is a cultural thing because I would never ever be allowed to even playfully/affectionately call my parents by their first names, and same thing in their families, etc.
It’s just rude and disrespectful.
It’s a “Who do you think you’re talking to? I’m not one of your friends.” kinda of thing my family. And I know my parents culture has to do with it as well.
My 13 year old son calls me “mom”, my 5 and 8 year olds call me “mama”, and my baby calls me “dada” LOL. My husband is dad or daddy to the kids. Grandmas are all “grandma”. grandpa is “papa” or “grandpa”. I think the first name thing is weird!
Although I am not sure they know that it means me, my baby boys say “Mama”. They definitely call their dad 'Dada" or “Dadi.” When they are older I expect our monikers will be some variant of those. I wouldn’t find it disrespectful if they wanted to call me by my first name, but as several pps have mentioned. However, they are the only ones who can call me mom and that brings a wonderful love to the title which I would be sad to lose.
My boys don’t have many really words yet, but we are referring to their grandparents and grandma and grandpa (paternal) and Grandpa/Gramps and Momo (maternal).
My grandparents were always Grandma and Grandpa (on both sides with the ln given to differentiate). My parents called their parents Mom and Dad (paternal side) and Mother and Daddy (maternal side). When I was growing up it was always Aunt X and Uncle Y rather than just their names. But probably in my mid 20s I naturally dropped the titles and no one had a problem with it (that I know of).
Sort of a side note- I am a teacher and at my last school the students called the teachers by their first names. At first I was shocked and really uncomfortable with it, but over time I came to realize that in that particular environment it served to bring the community together and increase the respect rather than the loss of respect might have been expected. That said, I realize that such a system wouldn’t work in all situations and this was a very special case- but I loved it! When I go back to teaching I don’t know if I can go back to the Mrs. X and Mr. Y comfortably.
Mum/mummy/ mummsie and Dad/ daddy.
Grandparents are Grandma (First Name) and Grandpa, Grandma (First Name) and Pop. I would have preferred one of the grandmas had been nan/ granny / nanny just to make it easier. Interestingly when MY grandparents became great grandparents my Pop was known as “great pop” but my grandma decided she wanted my children to call her “Granny” rather than great grandma (she felt it was too long and hard to say for small children).
When I am a grandmother I want to be called Grammy.
I know one grandmother who didn’t want to sound “old” so her name is “G”.
Another I know is called Ma because the first grandchild had trouble saying grandma.
My daughter is only 9 months old but she will call us Mommy and Daddy when she can talk better, right now we are just Ma and Dada. I wanted her to call my Mom “[name]Nana[/name]” but she’s calling herself Gramma, so I guess that’s what she wants to be called. In the South, it’s very disrespectful to call your parents by their first names, so it’s always struck me as very odd if not downright rude. Probably because the kids I knew who did were spoiled rotten little brats. I do have a friend who’s kids call their grandma [name]Mamie[/name] because her name is [name]Amy[/name], I think that is cute.
Reminds me of the girl [name]Farrah[/name] from Teen Mom, she calls her dad “[name]Michael[/name]” and she always sounds so bratty and mean when she says it. Of course, she is pretty much the epitome of spoiled.
I would never dream of calling my parents or grandparents by their first names. To me that is very disrespectful and says that I’m on the same level as them… and I’m definitely not. I call my parents Mom and Dad. I call my grandparents Grandpa, Grandmama, [name]Nan[/name], and Pop. I call my great-grandmother [name]Gee[/name] [name]Gee[/name], and when my great-grandfather was living I called him Pa Pa (pn like Paw Paw). There were two other great-grandparents who were alive when I was born. [name]One[/name] died before I could talk, and the other died when I was five. I have no memory of her so don’t remember if I called her anything.
I’ve seen people call their parents by their first names, and am shocked every time. I don’t even think my parents would be angry, but I was taught that’s just plain disrespectful and I was raised better than to do that. I call my parents Mum, occasionally Ma and Dad. My grandparents on one side were [name]Nana[/name] and Papa and the other was Grampy.
