Mommy and Daddy

[teaberryblue]

I was thinking today about how, when I was a kid, I called my mother "Mommy" and my father "Daddy."

There was a brief period where I called my mother "Mommy Sharon," and I'm still not sure why I did that. It didn't last very long, maybe six months to a year when I was about five?

I could never bring myself to call my parents "Mom" and "Dad" even when all the other kids graduated to the more 'grown up' terms of affection. Mine were still Mommy and Daddy.

But at some point during adulthood, and to be honest I can't recall when it was, but I stopped calling my parents "Mommy" and "Daddy" and started calling them "Mama" and "Dada" instead. I have no explanation for it. I just did.

So I thought I would see what the rest of you call your parents. I know that doing polls like this doesn't take into account the sheer variety of families in today's world-- I know some of you have multiple mothers or fathers, or step-parents with whom you are closer than bio-parents, or were raised by aunts and uncles. If either of your parents passed away or lost contact for some reason but did so recently enough that you remember your relationship with them, just fill this out with what you best remember. I did add an extra field to put in other things-- like, if you have two moms, what do you call each of them, or what do you call your uncle who raised you, or what you call your stepdad vs. your bio-dad. Whichever. If it doesn't fit, please comment!

[Poll #1213490]

Comments

[phuck.livejournal.com]

When I'm annoyed with my mom or dad, I pull out the "mother" or the "father". When I want to annoy my mother, I call her "ma". Mostly, just "mom" and "dad" though. I call my grandfather "pop" and my grandmother "gram", just for a random note.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I thought about including the grandparents on this too. I had three sets of grandparents:

One was Grandma/Grandpa
When I was referring to them in third person, they were "Grandma/Grandpa Fougner"

One is Grandma/Papa
These grandparents were Grandma Rose and Papa (Rose being first name)

One is Nana/Pop

My two great-grandmothers who were alive when I was born were "Grandma Coviello" and "Grandma Florence" (Coviello being last name, Florence being first name)

Grandma Rose, my maternal grandmother, is sometimes Grandma Rose to her face. My father's stepmother, Grandma Fougner, called herself "Grandma Fougner" in cards and phone calls, but acted like kids weren't supposed to know she had a first name.

[phuck.livejournal.com]

My father's parents died before I was born, so I don't know what I would have called them.

[applespicy.livejournal.com]

I can't conceive of calling my dad anything but "daddy." I really only call him "dad" if I'm angry or frustrated with him or if I'm talking about him to other people.

[balcarin.livejournal.com]

My mom flips her shit if you call her "mother". I forgot to add that. My sister and I make up pet names for her like Mumsy/Moomin/Mumbles too.

[emmiiiie.livejournal.com]

mommy & pop(:

[bubonicplague.livejournal.com]

I started calling my mother by her first name when I was about thirteen, just to be a jackass. It somehow stuck, but in a less jackassy fashion.

My father just gets called "asshole", when I am feeling civil.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

My father calls my mother "Dickhead" most of the time. She calls him "Foogs."

[gildedage.livejournal.com]

I had/have a Grandpa/Granda and Granma, a Nana and Papa and a Honey Bee and Pop Pop.

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

My maternal grandparents were Grandma and Grandpa. My father's mother was Granny when I was a little girl, and has more recently become Nana (or Irish Nana when I refer to her in front of other people).

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I posted my grandparents names up in reply to phuck. Grandparents' names are funny.

[katieupsidedown.livejournal.com]

I call my mom "Lady". This got started when I was a kid and we would watch Animaniacs together. I wasn't a big fan, but my mom loved Buttons and Mindy cartoons, and it was a running gag that Mindy called her mother "Lady", and it annoyed her mother to no end. (ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0APMoSKmXQ)

I started calling mom Lady sometimes as a joke, and then gradually I guess I did it more and more often until I remember one day in high school I was standing away from her in a store going "Mom! Mom! Mom!" to no response until I finally said "Hey Lady!" and she turned around immediately and I realized even she didn't really think she was "Mom" anymore.

[rainy-day.livejournal.com]

I call my mom Mom/Mama/Mumsy, and my dad is usually dad/daddy/old man! I went through a phase as a middle schooler where Mack and I renamed our dad QQ and called him that for a year or so?

My grandparents were always Memaw and Papaw, and that's stuck around. Started calling all my other relatives by their first names sometime between college and now (i.e. just Mike instead of Uncle Mike).

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

On my mother's side, I have so many second and third cousins who are older than me that I was always taught to call them Aunt or Uncle--I suppose as a matter of respect? I don't know. It took me years to sort out that none of these people were actually my aunts or uncles. Likewise, there is now a younger generation of second and third cousins who know me as Aunt Lynette, even though I don't eve have any siblings.

[liret.livejournal.com]

My family does this - if they're from the older generation, they're aunts/uncles, even though my mom is an only child and they're actually her cousins. Or, in some cases, my grandmother's cousins.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

All my cousins are first-name, no matter how old they are. Some of them are in their 70s and are still Honey and Jim. Uncles and Aunts are Uncles and Aunts.

[henpecked.livejournal.com]

See, I call my bio-mom, "mom." When I am talking to other people about my step-mother, I say, "my mom" or "my step-mother" (even when I call her work, I say, "May I speak with ____, this is her daughter"). If I am talking to my step-mother directly, I will call her by her name.

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

Ugh, this is hard to answer. My relationship with each parent has ranged from nearly best-friend-like to completely estranged, and generally both parents don't have the same status. Right now I'm not really speaking to my father but am very close to my mother. Usually I call them Mom and Dad, but sometimes I will say "I want my Mommy!" or similar to my mother, as a sort of half-kidding thing.

My husband was adopted by his grandmother and step-grandfather; he calls his grandmother "Mother" and his step-grandfather by his first name. He tends to talk about his mother and step-grandfather, which can be very confusing if you don't know what the family situation is.

Alex calls me "Mama" or "Mommy", her father "Da" or "Dah-dy" and when talking about both of us calls us "Ma-and-Da" as if it is one word.

[abhor.livejournal.com]

I found this hard to answer too for a lot of the same reasons as you. I'm not even sure what I'd say our relationship status is now, but there was no "fucked-up" or "weird" option XD

[lauranalantha.livejournal.com]

It also lacked the, Can't be in the same house for more than a week option as well.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know this was a pretty surface-level poll, but I didn't want to complicate too much to leave people second-guessing.

I used to do the all one word thing too, except it was "MommyDaddy."

It's interesting that John's step-grandfather is step-grandfather, because my father's stepmother is always described as "My father's step-mother," not as my grandmother. I called her grandma to her face but she was very clear about me not being a real grandchild, so I never felt as if she got to be a real grandmother. My godfather's mother is much more my grandmother than she was.

[delizia.livejournal.com]

I think it's interesting that a lot more people had/have an "excellent" relationship with their mother than with their father.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I think that might have to do with the fact that a majority of the people answering are women? I know a lot of daughters who say they had good relationships with their fathers as kids, but that they got awkward and less close during/after puberty.

[delizia.livejournal.com]

I guess that's particularly interesting to me, because I would say the opposite... I had a strained relationship with my dad until late in high school, and now I feel pretty close to him (I was actually debating putting "excellent" rather than "good," but I didn't =P).

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Same here-- but that's what I was talking about. A lot of girls have awkward relationships with their dads as teenagers, more so than with their moms, and while people like you and I go back to having good relationships, some people don't.

[bubonicplague.livejournal.com]

I think that nails a lot of it. Some fathers tend to be a little bizarre about their "little girl" growing up, which is kinda...well, disturbing in a way.

[vaguelyclear.livejournal.com]

I have never ever called my Dad, "Daddy". Even when I was little, he was always "Dad" to me. That's mostly because he/his personality doesn't suit, "Daddy". On the other hand, I called my Mum, "Mummy" when I was younger, and only call her that now when I want something. Lol.

I also call her "Mother" when I'm annoyed with her or I want to have a serious conversation with her, and "Ma" when I'm just being lazy :D

[eschatologies.livejournal.com]

I call my mom by her first name when we are in a situation with multiple mothers in the area. Because saying 'Mom!' will get the attention of moms who do not belong to me, and we don't need that kind of confusion.

[bubonicplague.livejournal.com]

*snicker* Just what constitutes a Multiple Mother Sighting?

[eschatologies.livejournal.com]

You know, like after a sporting event, or a mother-daughter book club.

Or Walmart.

[bubonicplague.livejournal.com]

Sale on Mom jeans on aisle five!

[ninepointfivemm.livejournal.com]

More like sweatpants on sale. XD

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

This is one of the benefits of saying "Mama." It's rare that you hear another adult using "Mama."

[buttfacemakani.livejournal.com]

If I ever stay from "Mom" and "Dad", it's Mother and Daddy.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

It's sort of interesting to see who uses the more 'little kid' name for one parent but not the other!

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

As a very small child, I referred to my mother as "Momma" and my father as "Daddy". Around the time I started high school, they became Mum and Dad. What's odd is that this was the same time I changed my own name, and I never realised the relation until just now.

My relationship with my mother is now a matter of public record, if not outright legend.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I changed my name very gradually-- and, really, my friends changed it for me when I was about 17. I don't think I called my parents Mama and Dada until after college, and I don't even remember when it started. I think it may be because my father and I talk baby talk at each other such an awful lot?

[liret.livejournal.com]

My mother told me to stop calling her mommy when I was about ten. Something about how I was too much a failure as a daughter to use terms of affection. I honestly doubt she would have remembered she said it an hour later, because she has a habit of making ridiculous demands and then saying she never meant it, but I tended to follow through on these things anyway. I had usually called her 'mom' anyway.

I called my grandparents Ana and Tommy-Tom, and I'm not sure why. Possibly because I called my great-grandparents Grandma and Grampa, which was because that's what everyone else called them.

[ninepointfivemm.livejournal.com]

My parents are Mom and Daddy, and my grandparents were Mama, Papa, Mama Ruth, and Papa Steve (You have no idea how excited I was, "Oh, his name is Steve Stephens!" And my parents said, "No, honey, Steve is what everyone called him in WWII" LOL)

[tigera4j.livejournal.com]

I call my dad "daddy", and I rarely call out to my mom.

We live in a two-story house that somewhat encouraged yelling out, which annoyed my mom to no end, so she'd tell us to go to her location if we wanted to say something to discourage the yelling. Since I'd be in front of her by that time, I'd just start talking.

My dad sees me as his little girl still, so he occasionally wants a hug&greeting whenever he gets back from work.

Better relationship with my mom than dad because my mom became a stay-at-home mom when I was young, and my dad would come home later from work. I ended up knowing my mom much better as a result.

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

When I am talking TO them it's mamma and pappa (mommy, daddy)

When I am talking ABOUT them it is mor and far (mother, father)

[lookslikelove]

I forgot to mention that when I'm being a silly child, I call my mother "Mamsy" or "Mother Dearest". I almost never joke around with my father. If I call him "Father", it generally means that I am upset with him and in conversation I refer to my father by his given name and my mother as "Mum".

Also: I refer to my step-mother by her given name only (but that's due to the relationship and the closeness in age between us). If I want to piss her off, I could refer to her as my stepmother, but that would freak her out. My stepfather & I actually have a better relationship than my bio-dad & I do, but I still simply refer to him by his given name, due to the age that I was when he met my mother.

[f4l.livejournal.com]

I'll call them Mother and Father if I'm being dramatic in some form, or teasing. I could never bring myself to call them Mummy and Daddy...although I'm sure I did when I was younger.

[papercakes.livejournal.com]

It's usually mum and dad, but sometimes I stray to mummy and daddy if I'm feeling more affectionate/less annoyed/trying to get something from them.
And if I'm upset, it's mother and father or just literally an unintelligble "my kadfjgkdfj" to stand for both of them.

[427.livejournal.com]

It's exclusively "Mom" & "Dad" for me. Mommy & Daddy sound very weird coming out of my mouth. I'll call my parents by their first names to either get their attention or if we are in a large group of people.

I also call my parents-in-"law" Mom & Dad (or their first names).

Random Thought: I HATE calling people Mr. or Mrs. Blah. I much prefer first names.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Me too! MY high school had us call all our teachers by first names. I only call people Mr. or Mrs. something if it's a formal setting and appropriate, like I'm making a business call to someone I'm asking for money.

[dootsie.livejournal.com]

Excellent and fascinating poll. Kudos!

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[corabell.livejournal.com]

I don't know why I put male in quotes in my comment above. I think I meant to put them around major.