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?!

Baby, darling, beautiful, fat man, son, freckles, blondie. Pretty much any name other than their name !

Sweety or sweetheart.

Dd was ginger ninja till about 14. Now she's chick.

pumpkin and pickles

Bug (shortened from a bigger nn which would be outing) sweetie, iggle piggle (even tho she’s 18 and hasn’t watched ITNG since she was little).

My niece is still ginger ninja 😁 love it

I suppose we're middle class although I hate class labels. Mine are now 14 and 12 so I don't use the more babyish pet names I used to use.
They get darling, angel, little one, little mouse (not so much anymore), lovely. I also use variations of their names.
My mum was working class and would call me darling, angel and variations of my name. My dad was middle class abd never used pet names. Just realised my DH doesn't use pet names either. I think women are more likely to use petnanes, although I know some men do.

I know toilet humour and 4 year olds and I can imagine them saying it and having a sense of humour about that, it's the fact this has become a normal nickname in your house which I think is awful. It's like something a child would say but a parent wouldn't. That's my opinion anyway.

I do know about the supermarket being an indicator (albeit jokingly) but asda and tesco is hardly a big difference so it made you sound a bit silly.

Baby and Darling, oldest stopped being called Baby when she was around 5 or so but youngest is still called Baby at 7, more than any other name, and I don't see it ending any time soon. His big sister only ever calls him Baby.
Both getting called Darling but not very often.

My parents called me Blossom and also an actual name that wasn't my name or in any similar to my name, no idea why.

lol it’s not a nickname it’s what I call her back when she calls me a silly name, amongst others. Geeez learn to have a laugh and be silly with your kids at their level, it’s an important form of bonding.

I’m glad the supermarket thing made me sound silly, it was supposed to be lighthearted and silly. And the Asda Tesco comparison was supposed to be a small difference because I said I’d only climbed up a few “class” notches. Not Waitrose level 🤣 the whole post was lighthearted and a bit of a joke, no need to take it so seriously 🥱

@Natsku my mum still calls me baby now! So your 7 yo might have a long road ahead! I quite like it though (apart from slightly cringing when she says it in public 🙈)

Mine sometimes moans and says "I'm not a baby though" and I tell him he might not be a baby, but he's still my baby and he then agrees with me. And tbf he is still a very cuddly baby so it suits him.

Mine are adults now but still happily answer to a whole stream of nonsense pet names, though I tend to use Darling a lot. DDs still call me Mummy but also like to call me by my school nickname which I foolishly told them in a moment of weakness.

Stinky
Pumpkin (cat also gets called that)
Baby
Sweet Pea (friends also get called Sweet Peas)

Toots
Bambino

Littlest one gets called squeak because when he was tiny his cry was so quiet my their toddler used to shout "mummy the baby is squeaking" if he was crying and it stuck. Second youngest is twirly, short for too early because he was premature.

Older ones had nicknames when they were babies but they didn't stick. Then years later they moaned that they didn't have them even though they hate nicknames so I picked something based on their actual names that sounded completely ridiculous. E.g. Jimmy-pops for James etc.

The cats are both called Mr fluffy boots

”Baby girl” (we’re also Jamaican heritage so that’s probably where that comes from. A PP mentioned this upthread!)
“Son” (it sounds weird when typing it but it doesn’t feel weird when I say it)
“Schnuckums” (don’t know where that one came from)
“Bubs”, “Bubbalubs”, “Bubba” (but pronounced “boo-ba”)

I’d say we’re more middle class than the people we live near and the kids’ schoolmates, but more working class than the people I work with. We’re also not culturally British, so I don’t know if that makes a difference.

Cor blimey, lighten up, love!

Darling, sweetpea, honeybee, pumpkin, puffin, petal. DH calls her squishy.

Her small friends tend to get ‘flower’ which is a throwback to my north eastern childhood.

I’ve just asked DD (4) what I call her, and she told me that I can call her ‘chicken nugget’ from now on so there’s one to add to the list.

Monkey One and Monkey Two!

Lamb chop here

I bet you go down a storm at parties?

DD2 is doing terribly serious forensic auditing at one of the Big Four. But she's saved in my phone as her first name with Bum tagged on the end. Can't even remember why now?

DS1 Duck, Duckling, Deek, Young Duck, Mr Duck, Dingle

DS2 Tib, Tibby, Bib. Bibby, Mr Bib, Wriggle, Wrigs, Bibington