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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think there should be a point at which you stop using Mummy and Daddy for your parents?

175 replies

Surprise · 27/08/2010 19:44

I'm not sure at what age, but there seems to come a time when it just sounds wrong. I think maybe up to 11 is fine, but after that it just starts to sound a bit ponce-tastic. Do you agree?

(you can tell I have a boring Friday night ahead of me and am looking for a fight can't you?Grin)

OP posts:
Gay40 · 29/08/2010 11:55

No Rockbird, I'll still be sniggering along with everyone else when I hear you say "Oh Mummy"
lolololololol

CakeandRoses · 29/08/2010 23:10

Galena - just saw your comment re: my 'I'm not mum, I'm mummy'.

I think for me, it's partly because the word 'mum' doesn't have any of those nice, warm motherly feelings associated with it as I've always called my own mother by her name. The only mum in my life is my MIL (not that she's my mum but she's The Mum, iyswim) and so it conjures up an image of her - and isn't something I relate to at all. It sounds kind of frumpy to me.

DS saying 'Mummy' melts my heart, I just love it. If he gets to an age where he doesn't want to call me Mummy then he could choose to call me my name or some kind of nick name or variant of mother. Just not Mum!

CakeandRoses · 29/08/2010 23:15

Gay40 - you're disqualified from any kind of right to judginess of Rockbird after your eye-splintering lols (even if they were tongue in cheek).

Galena · 30/08/2010 09:06

Thanks for replying, Cake. Fair enough, I guess. For you that's not a motherly word. However, since I call my mum 'mum', for me it's not a problem.

I think I was just fascinated that there were quite a few people who really dislike 'mum'.

ILoveDonaldDraper · 30/08/2010 11:27

You are unreasonable to think its any of your business what other people call their parents! What difference does it make to you?

taffetacatski · 30/08/2010 11:36

agree with Donald - who cares what others do?

I call my parents Mummy and Daddy when I talk to them but I refer to them when talking about them to other people, incl my sister, as my Mum and Dad.

DS (6) tried calling me Mum recently and I told him I preferred Mummy. He mostly calls me Mummy but sometimes Mumma, which I adore.

DD (4), OTOH, regularly calls me Mum and won't be swayed.

I dislike Mum. To me its a harsh word.

Gay40 · 30/08/2010 12:48

Cake...I don't think it's your decision as who can be judgey. Sorry and all that.

I would (and have) actually laugh out loud if I heard a grown woman address her mother as Mummy.

LaraJade · 30/08/2010 13:04

I never heard my parents using anything except 'mum + dad', + like all the kids at my school i stopped using 'mummy + daddy' by age 6 at least. I don't know anyone who says that?

thumbwitch · 30/08/2010 13:06

Around about puberty seems a good time to change it over, IMO - definitely when DS's voice breaks anyway! But I'm pretty sure it will change of his own accord when he goes to school - mummy and daddy don't seem to be used as much in Australia :(

Rockbird · 30/08/2010 13:44

Well then Gay you need a hobby and some manners because you sound ignorant and childish, and if that is your goal in life, then poor bloody you.

laydeecornyofsilke · 30/08/2010 13:46

Gay40 - you would laugh out loud? How rude.

Gay40 · 30/08/2010 13:48

No, I have hobbies and plenty of manners because my parents did a good job. Educated to high heaven too, sorry to disappoint.

Oh Mummeh! Mummeh! I say, Mummeh! Some prole has tucked into my Eton Mess!

MmeBlueberry · 30/08/2010 13:48

My 16 and 18 year olds refer to us as Mummy and Daddy.

I don't know how this came about as I have no recollection of referring to my parents that way and I have memories of thinking of school mates who did that at age 8, 9. 10 as babies.

We are not a touchy-feely family either.

Heracles · 30/08/2010 13:51

Mater and pater should be the only nomenclature. You're all dreadfully common...

Gay40 · 30/08/2010 13:53

Yeah I would laugh out loud. It just sounds so moronic in adults.

AgentZigzag · 30/08/2010 13:59

Has the situation ever come up gay40 where you've actually laughed in someones face for saying it? What did they say if it has? Presumably it wasn't someone you had to have anything else to do with?

laydeecornyofsilke · 30/08/2010 14:00

I think it's pretty moronic to find something so insignificant amusing.

frogs · 30/08/2010 14:04

It's regional as well as social. I know quite a few people from Ireland, Northern Ireland in particular, who refer to their parents as Mummy and Daddy even when talking about them to other people. It's just part of the culture they grew up with.

One of them is a 6'4" 40-something bloke from West Belfast, so you probably wouldn't want to be laughing at him.

Hmm
Gay40 · 30/08/2010 14:04

I don't think I've actually squared up and laughed directly in their face, toe to toe, but I have laughed and so have the people I've been with.

As I said earlier, anyone who called their parents Mummy and Daddy as an adult isn't my sort of person. And thank God I'm not theirs, either.

AgentZigzag · 30/08/2010 14:14

'but I have laughed and so have the people I've been with'

Laughing at the person 'behind their backs' with the other people you're with when the person is actually there??

The butt of a shared joke against them?

That sounds a horrible thing to do, so the person you're all laughing at can feel OK that they're weren't being paranoid, everybody was laughing at them.

Lovely.

AgentZigzag · 30/08/2010 14:18

Did you all make eye contact and raise an eyebrow at the ridiculous hoo ray henry, and then have a good laugh so they felt a right plonker in a crowd of people.

Feeling excluded and that the other people you're with are making fun of you secretly with a shared joke is the most socially isolating and thing someone can do.

Laughing with someone and laughing at someone are totally different things, I've seen it written on MN so many times, but I have to say I'm so glad I don't have any contact with a person who would do that to someone.

Gay40 · 30/08/2010 14:20

I don't know if it was behind their backs or right in front of them. The person wasn't known to us, fortunately. As a social group, we heard a grown up saying "Mummy" quite a lot and we just descended into giggles at how ridiculous it sounded.

As for paranoia, who cares, but they did sound a complete tit.

mathanxiety · 30/08/2010 16:28

...and we wonder why there is so much teasing in schools, among children...

Gay40 · 30/08/2010 16:35

I'm all for equality, but the self-infantilisation of adults....urgh

ILoveDonaldDraper · 30/08/2010 17:00

Gay40 - if someone like you thinks I sound like a "complete tit" for affectionately calling my father Daddy occasionally, then I think I can just about live with that. You sound like a bully to be honest, and not a very bright one at that. In any event, see my earlier post re this being none of anyone's business!!!