To call my kids my babies?

[Youwillalwaysbemybaby]

OK, we need the MN jury.

My DDs are 3 and 7, and I often refer to them as "the babies" and call them "baby" when we are cuddling or whatever (so not when I am calling for them across a playground)

DP (doesn't live with us, not the kid's dad or in a parental role to them, but he has his own, much older, kids) says that I should stop it (he'll be here to put his side across in a minute) but I think it is nice.

They will always be my babies, even when they are grown up. My mum still calls me and my sisters her babies, and now she calls my daughters her babies too. It was embarrassing as a teenager, but I always secretly liked it.

It's like in that book "Love You Forever" (sob), except I don't plan to climb through their windows when they are adults. They can still have a big cuddle if they want though.

I think it's important for them to be reminded that I will always be here for them, no matter what.

So, AIBU?

ah fuck it op. my 4 are 24,23,15,14 and they are and always will be my babies.

I'm 37 and my DM still calls me her baby

Ds2 however is 4 and is horrified if I refer to him as my baby. Most indignant. "I am a big boy and I'm getting bigger every day. I am DEFINITELY NOT a baby now!"

I still call my much taller than me 15 year old DS baby, as in 'baby, 10 mins till tea'. Wouldn't use it outside the house or in front of his friends, but even at his most stroppy it doesn't upset him. If anything, he responds well to the affectionate tone that accompanies it.

i would think you dont want them to grow up if i heard that , your choice though, rather hear that than some of the names ive heard people call their kids .

I can remember my mother, aged 90 worrying about my brother,then aged 70, because she said he was getting a bit forgetful- and she though he might be starting with altzheimer's....

I say that they'll always be my baby, even when they have grey hair. I suppose I use it in a way of establishing relationships, I'll always be their mummy/ mum.

I don't like it as a pet name though. I see a 3-4 year old in passing who gets called baby, and it seems daft,, she's not a baby, and at the far end of toddlerdom, and it's a word with romantic connotations (thinks of half the songs that made it into the chsrts) which is also inappropriate.

I think it would make me squirm if I heard a friend refer to her children as babies.

I'm 23 and still call my parents Mumma and Daddy, Mum refers to both me and my sister as her babies, none of my friends have ever batted an eyelid!

Admittedly my baby is still an actual baby but I call him 'baby' as a term of endearment. As in 'Aww what's the matter baby?' And 'shall we change your nappy baby?' When I was pregnant he was 'the baby' and it's just stuck - me and DP refer to him as 'the baby' or 'our baby' as in 'I've put the baby to bed'.
I always tell DP that DS will still be my baby even when he's 30 with babies of his own.

I call mine (12 & 14) collectively 'the babies', as do my mum and sisters. My mum will say, "come over, I haven't seen those babies for ages."
I'll shout, "BABIES!" when I'm about to leave the house without them because they're faffing.
DH will ask if it's a Babies Weekend, meaning are they home or at their dad's.

But nobody ever treats them as babies. It's just a term of endearment. My mum has 4 adult daughters of which I'm the eldest at 36 (the youngest is 25). She still calls us her babies.

I suppose it's ok as long as you keep it as a private term of endearment. They won't thank you for it when they're older if their friends cotton on to it. Teenagers love an excuse to take the piss out of their friends!

Is it a regional/ cultural thing? I have only heard my Liverpudlian friend and my Asian family call adults and older children 'baby'. (Bizarrely, they also have other cultural references in common too!)

I dunno, we are both in the NW. I do tend to talk like an old woman apparently, but then he is actually older than me so fuck knows.

Maybe it's a gender thing? My family are very female, if that makes sense - grandad and dad both pretty quiet so it is basically a load of working class women nattering away at each other. We are also all either old or have worked with the elderly and only one of us has ever lived down south at all so maybe we're some kind of throwback if that is an old fashioned thing?

But then DP has many of those elements too. He has boys and a girl, though, and a brother, and is obviously male himself.

Interesting what fancy said... Do you mean like calling adult friends of the family 'auntie', or is that everyone?

You will Yes, the auntie thing, and they both pronounce my DS2's name the same way- everyone else pronounces it the way I do! I think it may be linked to the British Raj in India as I think a lot of workers were shipped over from Northern cities but I'm not entirely sure.

Honestly I really, REALLY hate it when my parents refer to me, an adult woman, as their baby or as the baby of the family. Term of endearment or not, I find it condescending.

I try to call ds2 my baby. He is 3. He says, no mummy I am a big boy! If your kids like it then it's fine. Ds1 (7) and dd (10) would not be impressed if I called them babies!