to not understand why so many OPs use the word 'mom' when they are not American.

[LuluJakey1]

I regularly see posts on MN where the OP uses the word 'mom' instead of mum/mother. At first I thought they wete all American OPs but now I tealise many are British. Is it just me who finds it a bit of an affectation?

Yes, but East or West, Jennifer? Mom seems to be concentrated around Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

I have heard Frank Skinner talk about his "Mom".

You could be right, edam, I live in Warwickshire. Maybe it's a Black Country/Brum thing.

edam I was always told that mom was the older version and that "mum" was the change but I don't know if that's true. The Black Country dialect certainly has lots of old English in it. It sounds almost German at times.

When I learned Dutch I couldn't believe how similar it was to Black Country!!

I'm a Midlander, I say mom but write mum! Most people I know use mom, but these days youngsters seem to be using mum.

I've never heard parts of the Black Country dialect sound almost German though, and I'm well versed!

Agree, Squoosh. My Irish DH calls his Connemara-born, bred and residing mother 'Mum'.

I also think adults calling their mother 'Mammy' just too schlocky, a la Mrs Brown's Boys. But fair play to people who do it.

Nelly how about the use of bin eg ar bin yow? (How are you?) which is almost identical to Dutch!

Sadly, while the accent is very much alive, the dialect isn't heard so often now.

This really gets me too!
I live near Birmingham where most people do write mom but my family don't.
My 5 year old DD was recently told to write mom in her mother's day card she made me at school. She told the teacher we spell it mum and was told that was wrong!! I wasn't happy - in card shops there are no cards with 'mom' on!!

That really gets my goat. In my part of Wales virtually everyone calls their mother 'Mam' yet you cannot get a birthday card or mothers day card that says anything other than 'Mum' these days. I would settle for 'Mother' but 'Mum' sounds so wrong.

This company sell Mam cards

I'm from the Midlands and I say Mum but my hubby says Mom. I hate it haha.

My dad is from Dudley and he says Mum too.

As Cheapbread said, Mam/Mammy/Mami in Wales. It's cultural, from the language.

In Ireland it's Mam or Mammy, or Mamaí or Maim among Gaelgoirs, to quote Cheapbread " It's cultural, from the language." Or was. Anything else has been 'acquired'.

Squoosh, " I absolutely cringe when adults refer to their mother as Mammy." Do you also cringe at the Welsh usage of Mammy or Mami? If so, why? And what makes 'mum' and 'mummy' so superior? Is it because they are derived from culture and language which you regard as superior?

JapaneseMargaret, I had to look up the word 'schlocky' and it means cheap or trashy in yiddish. Why do you call 'mammy' cheap and trashy? If they use the word 'stairs' in Mrs. Brown's Boys, does that make the word 'stairs' cheap and trashy? Mammy does have a usage outside of a sit-com. I know a lot of lovely and fine adults who call their mother 'mammy'.

I must admit, having been reared in Conamara, the only people I heard use the term 'mum' growing up were children of people who had emigrated to England and returned home with their families. A lot of families returned home when the economy improved (and social welfare increased in Ireland). When I was growing up we only received Irish tv stations (not bbc). Maybe as the economy exploded and people were exposed to more Anglophone media the usage has been 'acquired'. Maybe people with pretensions reinventing themselves too, and in their thinking it makes them appear a little bit 'cooler'. It certainly has no origins in Conamara. I have family there who the term would be absolutely foreign to (both Irish speaking North and English speaking south), so can't be that common. Mind you, some parts of my family don't speak English to each other, so are hardly going to use 'mum'. It would be as natural to them as 'mutti'.

Mum may be used in other parts of the country, but I don't know about common. I think stating it's 'common' is over egging the pudding. I suspect, if you go back even one or two generations from a lot the people who use it today in Ireland, it was not used in their families. The very common 'Mam' or 'Mammy' would probably have been overwhelmingly used. Now, I understand as we are exposed to a huge Anglophone culture through media which we were not exposed to before, so it is easily acquired and becoming more common. And maybe those most susceptible to consciously acquiring it are people who perceive it to have a 'cooler' vibe because it's not humdrum homegrown, certainly among people who place less value on any remnant of our own culture. Or people just unconsciously imbibing it.

I have a relative (Gaelgoir) who got her daughter to call her 'Mamma' and the father 'Pappa'. Don't know how common that is in Dublin, but it's the first generation usage in our family and certainly acquired. They did proceed to go and live in a Francophone country though. (funnily, it wasn't Maman and Papa). I don't think the fact that I can refer to someone who uses 'mamma' and 'pappa' in Ireland gives it validity as common usage though. However, trends change and 'mum' and 'mummy' may grow more common is usage as Irish people are more exposed to them and they could replace the more traditional terms.

Just for the record, I know a lot of lovely and fine people (adults and all English) who call their mothers 'mum' and 'mummy'.

Schlocky, 'Cheap, inferior or trashy'. I forgot the inferior part.

'Squoosh, " I absolutely cringe when adults refer to their mother as Mammy." Do you also cringe at the Welsh usage of Mammy or Mami? If so, why? And what makes 'mum' and 'mummy' so superior? Is it because they are derived from culture and language which you regard as superior?'

No, It's because I think any adult calling their mother Mammy or Mummy sounds ridiculously infantile.

'Mum may be used in other parts of the country, but I don't know about common. I think stating it's 'common' is over egging the pudding. I suspect, if you go back even one or two generations from a lot the people who use it today in Ireland, it was not used in their families.'

Actually no, there is no pudding being over egged

Obviously 'Mum' is a recent thing in Ireland but it is common in many parts of Dublin.

' And maybe those most susceptible to consciously acquiring it are people who perceive it to have a 'cooler' vibe because it's not humdrum homegrown, certainly among people who place less value on any remnant of our own culture.'

Wow you have a real (and patronising) bee in your bonnet over this don't you? Should I be terrified my Irish credentials won't stand up to scrutiny I wonder.

My mum's my mam, really annoys me when DP calls his mam mum.

And fyi neither of my parents (Cork and Clare), who are now in their seventies, ever referred to their mothers as 'Mam'. They were always 'Mother'.

Squoosh, I did say overwhemingly, not exclusively. The point is that in general it is an acquired affectation in Ireland (and fairly recent at that). The original post was about the use of mom in Britain being an affectation. Many people have posted that it is not merely an affectation and there is a very long history of use and long history of regional variations . There is not the same correlation in Ireland with the usage of 'mum'.

As for common, I don't know how many people have adopted 'mum', so it's kind of anecdotal. Nobody in my family has, or other families I know, so I wouldn't call it common in my experience. I do know two families in Ireland who use mamma, but one is nordic and the I don't know the reason for the other one. I wonder what is the critical mass of usage you would need to call it common. Does every single family you know in Dublin use mum now? I am interested. Again that is merely anecdotal.

Any term that denotes someone as your parent is infantile by definition.

Mind you, two people I know who use 'mammy' and 'mummy', are hugely supportive and responsible towards their respective aging, dependent parents, so I associate their usage with the opposite of infantile.

ageing.

On my planet we say "splond" if we are talking about our oldest mother, "splind" if talking about our older one, "splurd" if talking about our younger one and "plurnplast" if talking about our youngest one.

Males do not count as they are just boxes with a generative proboscis and a cloaca.

Mam all the way!