Did you grow up calling your parents by their first names?

No, and I don't know anyone who does. I'd find it very odd or probably assume it was a step-parent or foster-parent scenario.

I get sad that my 2.5 year old sometimes calls me mum not mummy. Definitely wouldn't be happy with him using my name!

I went through a very short phase in my teens, when I feel out with my parents so I referred to them as 'Mr [Surname]' and 'Mrs [Surname]'. I did this deliberately to deny them the status of 'Mum' and 'Dad'. I think the phase lasted about two days before we all burst into laughter.

The only times that my (now adult) sons have called me by my first name was when they were imitating their (abusive) father, so I really would not like them to do this.

However, I do know families in which children refer to their parents by their first names, and this works very well for them.

Nope but we are south asian and it would be considered rude. I wouldn't like it if my kids called me by my name. I'm their mum, I don't mind what variation of that they use. Dd says mum, ds says mama and dd2 says mummy.

My cousin did this just to show us all how intelligent she is. Bore off

I've always called my mum by her name it's normal in our family to use names.
My mum said it's my name mum isn't on my birth certificate.
My sister's kids call her by her name.
My kids call me mum.

Tried it once in 1959.
I can still visualise the death stare from my Mum.😱

No, I never did. However, I imagine that it might sound quite posh, daring and unconventional if your parents have names like Genevieve Rose and Montgomery Lewis; just plain Chuck and Edna doesn’t have the same hip and glamour factor.

The thing is, @MinPinSins it's not about parents' insecurity in emphasising their relationship through a name, it's about giving security and confidence to the child. It reinforces subconsciously that this child has an unconditional claim on that adult. Can you really think it's bizarre or weird for parents to think that use of parental titles is a good thing?

DS calls us Mama and Daddy if speaking to us directly. But for reasons unknown to me will only write our first names in cards, actually DH doesn't even get his real first name, he gets his nickname. Been the same since DS was at nursery.

I didn't, would have felt so weird to call them by their names. We did call my dad 'The Rev.' instead of dad sometimes when talking about him though.
We called our aunties and uncles 'aunty/uncle name', one in particular insisted on it - I still don't dare call her just by her name!

My children call me mummy and mama, I wouldn't like them to call me by my name. DD calls her stepdad a variety of nicknames though.

I grew up calling my parents by their first names. I don't think they planned it, they just didn't make much effort to call each other mummy / daddy when I was little, so I heard them calling each other by their first names and copied it, then they didn't bother to correct me. I did use grandma / granny etc. for grandparents, and aunty / uncle, like "normal"

I honestly can't understand why it's such a big deal or why people get worked up about it. I don't feel it makes much difference or ever has.

They never forced anything but they taught us their first names instead of any version of mum and dad. We didn't spend much time with other children and by the time I went to school it was ingrained in me and I didn't feel I could change it. It was another thing that set me apart from other children. I think my parents enjoyed being unconventional but I really hated being different.

Obviously I'm not going to force my child to do anything but it would be really upsetting to me if she called me by my first name. I wouldn't make her feel bad if she did, but it would just be difficult for me.

@WilliamButt why did you hate it? Did they say you couldn’t call them mum & dad?
I think that’s the thing here. Forcing a child to call you something rather than allowing them to go with the flow. Works both ways mum & dad OR first names. I don’t think force suggests a great relationship.

We did with our parents. I hated it then, hate it now but I'm an adult and it's too late to stop now. My husband tried at first to refer to me as my first name to our daughter because he found it a bit silly calling me mummy but I made it clear I didn't want her to call me by my first name (which also happens to be a name I don't like). It might sound a bit dramatic but I'd be devastated if she started calling me by my first name.

My boyfriend when I was 17 did this. Him and his brother both did. I thought he was adopted at first!

They were a normal working class family.

He wasn’t sure why they called them by their first names. Just said they always had.

An ex of mine had parents who taught him to call them by their first names. When he asked them why (when an adult), they said they always wanted to be their children’s friend rather than a parent. He had quite a bit of resentment over it.

I came across it as an adult and I think it's brilliant. I actually think using the parents name is more special once the child isn't little any more. It confers respect, which I don't feel I get as a 'mummy'. Both DC are teens and I'd be very happy for them to start calling me drooly instead of mummy at this stage.

We don't use 'aunty' etc either.

I have three children. The youngest calls DH and I by our first names - DS started calling DH by his first name when he was about 4 and then using my first name when he was about 6.

my cousins kids called them by name but they were young and I guess following fashions and trends!
I always called mum and dad just that right up until their last day on earth.
mum and dads friends were always auntie and uncle still are

Always called my parents by their first names until my mid 20s when for no reason I can recall we all started to call them mum/dad

My parents were always mummy/daddy or mum and dad - I'm 35 now and they're still mum and dad.

I did this for my entire childhood (so they were never anything but their names). Some of these responses are bizarre, an suggest a lot of insecurity if their parental relationship hinges on a name. For me and my brother, it was because we had a childhood nanny who used their names, so it was normal to us. Once we knew their names, we weren't going to call them Mum or Dad when we know they are actually Janet and Steve! We were strong willed children, and not willing to call them the 'wrong' thing!

Some people in person did react as weirdly as people on here. The worst was after my parents split up, my father had a gf who found it so weird, she would call him dad to try to encourage us to. Like 'can you pass this to dad?'. I really don't understand why it matters to anyone.

My son can call me whatever he wants (as long as it's not offensive), but he's 11 weeks so can't talk yet!

Ive no clue where it came from but I called my dad by his first name but my mum, mum. I think my mum said his name a lot and I just copied. Neither discouraged it so it stuck. It was well ingrained by the time I started middle school (age 9) and because I’d refer to him by his name rather than my dad, I was teased; ppl thought he wasn’t my biological dad. When I insisted he was it’d cause an argument & bullying. So that stopped. Or at least at school he was ‘my dad’. At home he was still his first name. I don’t recall calling my mum by her first name, but maybe I did and middle school quashed it. It’s quite long with no short version so ‘mum’ would be easier at home too.
Interestingly my middle daughter (19) has very recently (in the last 2 years) started to both call and refer to me by my first name. She’s done this with DH since she was around 15/16 but a shorter version of his name. He was ‘bro’ for a while too! My other two DDs (20 & 15) still call us mum & dad. Thinking about it, she’s called me varying versions of ‘mum’ over the years. All as a teenager; it was mummy/mum & daddy/dad prior to teens.
Doesnt bother any of us. Sometimes our friends or family will comment ‘did she just call you NotDonna?’ seemingly shocked and slightly disapproving. Maybe they see it as disrespectful. I don’t, they are our names after all, and we don’t call her ‘daughter’.

I was born in the 1960s to Teenage hippy parents.

I called my mum - mummy and my dad by his name

So I lived with mummy and Bob- apparently it caused a few raised eyebrows.

When I was five my brother was born and I started calling my dad 'daddy'

From the age of 12 I called my dad by his first name ( I lived with both parents) and carried on all the way til my late 20s. He's still in my phone under his first name. I think it came about because he'd always take my friends and I out to places and they'd obviously call him James, so I did the same