What pet names do you call your kids?

[Roxietrees]

Just out of interest really and wondering if pet names are class-based. I grew up working class and was called love, lovee, baby, babe and variations of those by my parents, depending on how old I was. I’d say I’ve gone up a couple or so class notches since becoming parent..maybe not quite to the realms of middle class, more just graduated from Asda to Tesco! But I call my 4 yo DD nicknames based on her real name, baby, bubba, sweetheart when she’s upset, bum bum face sometimes to make her laugh, monkey, sometimes sweet pea. I feel like darling is very middle class or am I wrong about that? I’ve only ever heard middle class parents call their kids darling. And love and babe is more working class, both make me cringe a bit (maybe cos of over use from my own childhood! But I couldn’t ever call my own DD that) so also wondering do you find yourself calling your DC the names your parents called you as a kid or actively avoiding them?!

This has made me think about the fact that I call my kids “darling” despite vehemently denying I am middle class (husband is a barrister and we live in a very middle class area, but I come from a North East pit village!), and I feel a bit ashamed of myself!

Going to make the extra effort to call my children “pet” from now on, like my ancestors would have wanted 😂😂😂

(you’re so right though, darling does seem very middle class!)

I call my kids ‘sausage’ mainly.. no idea what class that makes me..

I am not going to put them there are they are pretty unusual BUT DD is called a diminutive of what her brother used to call her before he could say her name and DS is called "son" in a different language by me (he calls me Mum in the same language)
They are older teens now but we still use them
I also use Sweetheart and Darling sometimes, no idea what class I am though. Probably MC

I'm a working class brummy so mine hears bab a lot😂

Poppet, darling, sausage and sweetheart here.

Plus “Hen Ben banana men” which is probably less classy to be honest 😂

Diminutive/derivatives of their given names, sweet girl, pickle, occasionally when they say mum I answer yes, my darling. None of these were nicknames to me as a child.

Whilst we’re in the top 1% for earnings I still wouldn’t call us middle class. Both very working class backgrounds.

DH called them Hamudi and Hamuda (male and female cutie in Hebrew).

I call DS variations on “bear” as his middle name is the Hebrew word for bear.

I call DD one of the syllables of her name.

I mainly use sweetheart, sweetie, sweet pea etc. I'm middle class.

Bum bum face is awful sorry. What has class got to do with nicknames? Mumsnet seems to love talking about class but tesco rather than asda is a weird way to describe class at all. Middle class people shop everywhere in reality. I call my girls darling sometimes and I'm not middle class. Maybe I'm just a classy person anyway...sweetie, sweetheart, girlie, kiddo, chicken, chick pea, sausage, cheeky monkey and they're own private nicknames based on their names.

I like bab it's cute! I heard this a few times in Wales when I was on holiday.

Mine for DD are silly. 'Benita' because she had a grey outfit with leggings and long-sleeved vest when she was c. 6 months and used to raise a fist in the air and hoot loudly so she reminded us of Mussolini. As she got older, I adopted the abbreviation MLB (my little Benita), which has stuck. Also, once we started playing word games with French, 'Mon petit chou', said by both of us in a very exaggerated sing-song way.

My dad, not from the North East, always called me, and only me 'pet', which I loved but haven't been tempted to use it with DD. My mum told me that my dad's mum mocked him for calling her 'darling' when they were first married.

Sweetheart, love, chick, toots, choochie face. Even now they are teens 😁

Our Jamaican neighbour called DD baby girl for years, quite miss that.

Monkey! (Middle class)

I called both my kids Buster when they were tiny. No idea why, or where it came from. I probably stopped when they became toddlers. One of the kids still gets called various nicknames linked to their name.

Darling, precious girl, my love (not love), tinkerbell, fat head, bum head, dearest, beloved.

^ MC.

Monkey, Mr Stinks, darling

My angel, my little chickpea, my baba ( though she's 17).

Haha. I mainly use Darling AND Babe.
I don't know where or how the 'Babe' happened. But it's there.
Chicken Pie is another regular.

I call mine pumpkin pants 😳

I think these sorts of endearments are more area based than class based.

Call my teenage sons sweetheart, love, or first and middle names when they are in trouble 😂😂

A lot of food names.

Sausage, chicken, cake chops, nugget, pickle, sweet cheese, meatball, avocado, toffeepop, sugar, pea pod etc.

My 23yo (6ft 3) get called shorty a lot too.

Also elongated versions of their names, like the name game song - eg - Ellie Ellie Bo Belly, Banana Fana Fo Fellie Fe Fi Fo Fellie - Ellie

It's a rare day that I use their actual names.

Oi, you, whichever one you are.

Youngest and Eldest

(also Sweetheart, my lovely)

They're late teens / early twenties

These replies have made me remember the massive range of (also mainly food-based!) names I also call her - pumpkin pie, sausage, cupcake, farty pants 🤣