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

[Surprise]

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?)

Oddly enough, ds addressed my Dad by his first name in a thank you card yesterday. Think he was copying the grown ups. 'David, thank you very much for the wonderful holiday.' Sounded very strange in a message from a 7yo grandchild to his Grandad!

I call my mother "mummy" and I'm 54, IL prefer it if my children do the same though I seem to have morphed into Ma just lately, or Mama-ski when I'm in getting things done mode. "Mum" just sounds so drippy to me, and I really don't want anyone calling me that. DH has gone from being "daddy" to Pa recently.
When I was doing my A levels at college many years ago "the old dear " was the term most of my male friends used for their mothers!

I still call mine mummy and daddy. (Am 40, adore my parents.)

If I'm talking about them to other people, I tend to call them 'my mum/my dad' though

The DCs are staying with them atm and yday DS, at the end of our phone chat, said, 'Do you want to speak to your mummy or daddy now?' which just sounded so lovely somehow

DH doesn't call his parents anything when he's speaking to them. It's really weird. If pushed he calls them Mother and Father, ie when talking to his sister on the phone, but never directly AFAICR. He used to call his mother Mummy but when he went to boarding school at 11 she suggested it might be time to drop that [sob]. She is a truly odd woman

I've never met anyone that still uses Mummy, honestly thought it was something only done as a piss take of tim nice but dim types.

I think I would find it odd if they referred to their parents as mummy and daddy in the third person.

But each to their own.

I still call my parents Mummy and Daddy but I think that's an Irish thing. I would call them Mum and Dad when talking about them to anyone else. I'm 58.

My SIL and her sister still call their parents Mummy and Daddy and they are 28 and 25 respectively. There is something rather twee about it...

I don't think it's any of my business what other people call their parents.

Is "I don't suffer fools gladly" one of those phrases that makes anyone else cringe or is it just me?

It's not just you, mathanxiety.

I find that fools cringe.

All the time or just when you're around?

I call my father "daddy" when talking with him and "my father" or "my daddy" when talking about him. It's something I've always called him, why would I need to change? My mother would be "mummy" too, if she were still alive. Both my elder siblings use the same terminology. By all means laugh if you should overhear us, it won't bother us in the slightest.

I am neither an ickle baby nor emotionally overwrought. As far as education goes (which you have hinted is lacking in those of us not sharing your views) mine is about as good as most gets and my last IQ (fwiw) tested at 155.

I think it sounds horrible and makes them sound childish and spoiled. ....sorry!

applauds mathanxiety

When a tree cringes in the forest and there's no one there to laugh at it...

Look, it's all about associations isn't it.

If you grow up in a group where everyone switches to calling their parents Mum and Dad at the age of 8, then naturally you will think using the words Mummy and Daddy is "childish".

If however you grow up in a group where everyone uses Mummy and Daddy all their life, then you won't see those names as childish and may even regard the name Mum as a bit common

Tolerance for others who do things differently to ourselves is always a good thing.

Hmmm, I can't remember when I stopped using Mummy but I now use Ma to her face and Mutti on anything written.

My DD (2.5) loves using my proper name and thinks it's very funny. I can't decide if I find it a bit sad.

I and my brothers referred to our parents in many ways from truly poncetastic Mater/Pater to plain Mum/Dad, depending upon what we wanted usually.

I don't think it's particularly poncetastic to call 'em mummy/daddy.

When a tree yawns in the forest...

@ foolish brave minipie!

math - I salute you and will leave you to the gay40-baiting as you're by far the best at it.