to think adult males should not call their mothers "Mummy"

[MamaLaMoo]

Brother and sister both professionals in their 30s call their mother Mummy to her in conversation, in letters and emails and between each other, this is said with a certain awkward little boy/girl voice.

Mother calls them by childhood pet names, daughter is "Honey Bunny". She buys them chocolate advent calendars every December, I could go on but you get the gist...

DH is the son, it all makes me want to yell "Eeeuuuuwwww! just stop now!"

Is this actually odd or is this because they are middle class English and I'm not?

Thing is Adverse "mummy" and "daddy" are only baby names if you think of them as such. I've never thought of them as babyish names to use.

Camber Mater and pater? really?

My friend called his parents Mother and Father (you could hear the capitals). I find that more than mummy and daddy.

my DB and I made up nicknames for our DPs when we were teenagers. The names stuck, all our friends ended up using them too, so now my DPs seem to have a vast army of children. That's a bit odd, too, but I think they like it :)

erm, why is it anyone else's god damn business? Its what he calls his mother in private?

mmm Adverse see your point a bit but then again, if that's what they've always always called them, it would seem a bit odd for them to suddenly stop calling them "Sausage" one day and start calling them "Jane" or whatever. To the ILs, it's not a baby name, it's just what they call their children.

My DS1 calls me 'mum,' my DS2 and 3 call me 'mummy.' DS1 is going through that awkward just becoming a teenager phase, and barely refers to me at all, but cringes visibly if I refer to myself as 'mummy.' He's just growing up, I certainly don't mind. 'Mummy' sounds very childish to my ear, and I think it's a coming of age thing. I'll be sad when DS3 changes to 'mum' in a similar way to being sad when he started school, the end of an era! It also sounds very upper middle class to me, adults saying mummy, very Enid Blyton. That's just not me. Sorry if it offends you but I'll continue to cringe when I hear adults use it for their own parents.

I just think cringing is very childish and immature and shows that you aren't really able to deal with things very well. People make that silly cringing action when they see a spider or something, like a little kid. Sorry if it offends you but I'll continue to think that people who cringe over something so inoffensive makes the cringer a bit of a tit.

where I live "mummy and daddy" sounds really pretentious.
My irish father refers to his mother as "the mother" - sounds odd to my ears but I've got used to it when he says things like "the mother called" or "the mother is ill".
His father/my grandfather was always known as Da Surname.

Hi Gwendoline. Are you very Enid Blyton? I think I can remember one in the Malory Towers books. Thanks for calling me a 'tit.' I always cringe when people have to resort to childish name calling because they have no intelligent vocabulary. Or AIBU?

Quite a few of my adult Jewish friends call their respective parents Mummy and Daddy. It comes naturally to them and doesn't seem in any way odd to me.

Is this common amongst Jewish families, does anyone know? Or is it just coincidence?

YANBU, my MIL insists on being called mummy by his grown-up sons - disturbing.

I've another (non Jewish) friend who is in her 30s. Middle class family, she calls her parents Mama and Papa, both to them and when referring to them in writing. Oddly, when speaking of them she'll say "My mum/mother" and "My dad/father".

The whole family are lovely and very close without being in the least vomit-inducing for it!

My middle class Irish boyfriend uses Mummy and Daddy when addressing his parents but refers to them as his mother/father in non-familial company.

I think it's sweet and somewhat endearing but then we've only been in a relationship for a year. I'm sure it will piss me off in time to come.....

Still sometimes call my dad daddy, no mummy left sadly.
I hate it when spouses call each other mummy and daddy, especially if no toddlers in sight, yeuurch.

My DH does.

I only call my mum and dad "mummy" and "daddy" to their faces - is this acceptable, then? Would you lot sneer and cringe at me, too? Or is it acceptable if you're not a slightly creepy middle-aged man?

Am genuinely as to why anyone cares. If your DP/DH wishes to call his/her mother "mummy" that's between them and their mother. If you think it's "childish" or "nauseating " or (ffs) means they need to "cut the cord" then frankly, you're a bit loony and/or need to get a better hobby. Or alternatively, try working on getting that mahoosive chip out of your shoulder.

Let's just hope you only have daughters so you never have a DIL sneering at your relationship with your son.

I can never understand why this issue concerns people so much. What on earth difference does it make to anyone else what we call our parents or what our children call us?

If we reserved opinions for things that actually concerned us, this place would be dead, for a start!

I write Daddy in my Dad's cards because I know he likes it. I would NEVER say it out loud

Mummy and Daddy is for wierdo posh types only

I've been thinking about this [no life emoticon] and I wonder if it is because of an unfair assumption (prejudice?) that people - especially men - who refer to their mum as mummy are somehow 'mummies boys' (with controlling mothers. The whole mummy's likkle soldier thing), and that's why it's viewed negatively by many.

I have challenged myself and realised that I have been viewing it this way, and that's why it gives me the boak. Which is most unfair of me and I intend to change my view forthwith