to think all this DH/DS/DD business is very twee?

[MardyBra]

Yes, I'm a hypocrite. I use the abbreviations.

But is hunning, hugging and lolling is frowned upon on MN, how come we're all talking about our "darling" family members.

Or is it being used in an ironic sense?

YANBU mardybra I hate them, and I use them too.

I do swap and change though so I'm not always annoying the same groups of people... I use kids, hubby, smalls, other half etc.,

You can't annoy all the people all of the time but you can annoy some people some of the time.

But never hun, hun, its annoying hun, and surely it should be hOn if anything?

For me it stands for dear .
So I think yabu .

Hun i hate hun with a passion my friends friend Huns everybody Im not sure if she does it because she cant remember names But god its irritating HATE IT piss of with your hun ,

I think the D does stand for "dear" and it slightly tongue in cheek as it's such an old fashioned express.

According to the MN acronym list, it can stand for darling or dear.

I always think of it as Dear in a 1950's kind of way. Like you all have perfect children with girls with plaitsand pinafores, and boys with smarmed hair wearing grey shorts. And husbands smoking pipes.

I think whatever the D stands for its meant as ironic

Phew. There is someone else who thinks this. I find it icky and refuse to use it. I don't see how it is any less confusing than just abbreviating to H or S or D, etc. Or type the word in full.

It seems very "unmumsnetty" too.

YABU

I can't bear it either. Ugh.

Course it's twee.
I don't think too much into it.

If you type it enough times it fails to really mean anything.

Is that your first YABU Whispers?

Might need to think twice about encouraging lurkers to delurk if they're just going to tell me I'm being unreasonable.

It's ironic, innit? Especially when used in conjunction with someone else's child/ren.

I always assume the Dear/Darling is tongue in cheek. I just use them as an abbreviation without really thinking about what they actually stand for.

I am more Edina than Patsy

I don't read it as "Dear" anything. I read it as "my husband" only shorter. Fewer syllables so it takes less time to pronounce it in your head.

If you were talking to real life people you'd be saying "Steve did this" or Dan said that" or "Rob wants the other"

DS2
vs
My second-oldest son

I'd always assumed it was ironic.
Writing DH is simpler than writing 'my current husband' or 'the first mr bagelmonkey'

DD makes my teeth itch. I have no explanation, it just does.

YANBU

I use daughter/s or girls all the time, have never and will never refer to them as my DDs [vomit]

You get used to it though. I started a thread like this when I first joined. Now I don't notice so much.

Sometimes you get some abbreviations that take more time to work out than it would to type the words though, I swear!
DSis - oh come on, that's nearly as long as sister!
Dbro - same!
DF, DM, DFiL, DMiL, DTs, LO - aargh, madness!

You are not being at all unreasonable - it is very twee and makes me cringe. I won't do it.

The 'dear' or 'darling' bit is unbearably twee, but I do it as I am lazy and it is simply much quicker than writing husband, son, daughter and if you have multiple husbands, sons, daughters, then naturally DS1, DD2 and DH3 is just quicker - and more importantly - instantly recognisable for everyone reading.

It really is nothing more than that. For me, anyway.

The abbreviation is greater than the sum of its parts. I read DH as husband, not as dear husband. And I would far rather see DH than 'hubby' or even worse, 'hubs'.

I believe a lot of these abbreviations have American origins - all the TTC ones take the biscuit for twee-ness - Aunt Flo, baby-dancing, etc, etc. They make 'dear husband' look positively acceptable.

Maybe it is time for an overhaul of the system where we have a far less sugar-coated version, or else just agree that the D stands for something else altogether.

Dastardly?
Delinquent?
Dirty?
Demanding?
Delirious?

So what's wrong with H, S1, D2 etc?

I've noticed that a lot of MILs don't have a D.