to refuse to answer when my daughter calls me Ma?

[jaimearose]

MiL is called Ma by her doting sons. It really grates, not sure why. Now my 5 year old DD has picked it up and calls me it constantly, Ma this, Ma that. I've asked her to call me Mum but she keeps reverting back, so now our conversations start 'Ma' 'mum' 'sorry, mum. Mum, Ma, mum I meant argh!' AIBU and way too controlling?! Should I just force a smile and hope this will pass? Or should I stand my ground and escalate the correcting to not responding to all Ma references for as long as it takes?!

I don't mind 'Mumsie', it's said affectionately. Mostly they call me Mor/Morsa though. Sometimes I'm 'Mamacita'

If dc call me mum rather than mummy I call them Bob. If they can't call me the right name I won't call them by their names. They laugh but then call me mummy. Can't believe I read someone saying you were controlling... If a colleague called you the wrong name or tried to give you a nickname you would correct them. Anyway yanbu and can ask to be called what you like and at 5 dc is completely able to realise talking to you nicely and using the name you like is how to get something. My 3yos are able to deal with this - they've tried mum and also my full name (Christian name and surname) which was very funny but nope I'm definitely mummy.

Wow, that really is quite controlling. Your name is not mummy, that's a title you've chosen. Your name is your name. Can't believe some people freak over their kids calling them mum!

I thought mummy was more reasonable than your majesty. Anyway, dds are 3 - I won't be able to control them forever but why on earth would I let them call me something I don't like? Seems odd to me. In my life mum is a name older dc use.
I did have a boyfriend who called my dad dadsy... It didn't go down well!

My s-i-l calls me Ma, I quite like it, it makes me laugh. My dc on the other hand call me everything from Mum to Mother and most stops in between, I answer to everything except 'Oi'

I'm still mostly mummy at the moment but my 5YO likes to go by different names depending on what he's into (he's been insisting that his name is 'Mittens' for about four months now and before that he spent about a year only answering to either 'Steve' or 'Masterchief') and generally likes to give me interesting soubriquets as well, stuff like Zelda, Hermione, Princess Anna or Captain Pirate Girl, all of which are fine by me.

I personally have always referred to my parents by their first names (they didn't bring me up) so would actually prefer that when they are older but won't force them into it as I suppose it might come across as a bit Viz Modern Parents.

Ah yes, DD2 was once a Scooby Doo alien, called Crystal, for many months.

When my DC grew up they started calling me Muv.

I quite like it.

I'd like Ma as well.

YABU

I use lots of different connotations of mother for my (mostly) Mam, Ma, Mater, Mother, Motherest, Mammy, the only one I never use is Mum, although I do say Mumps, lol

Don't really mind what my DC call me, though draw the line at Mummy now they're adults.

My exh and his siblings always called their Mother Mummy, and in fact still do, even though their Mother has been dead for years and he and his remaining db are now both very old men.

Really sets my teeth on edge.

Ooh strange MillingtonBoo I also went to Cheltenham Ladies' and also call my mother Ma. I wonder if that's where I got it from?

yanbu, DD(5) has started calling me Muvvah, I bloody hate it, mum, mummy, mumma, or mother would be all be fine, even her stage of mum-moo was better but i refuse to answer to muvvah, she gets a raised eyebrow then ignored until she talks properly (this also happens when she asks for wa'er or says aint.)

I call my mum Mummy or Mother Dearest, although I make a conscious effort to say Mum if I'm talking about her to other adults.

I have no idea why but my 3 DC all call me Mama - I refer to myself as mummy or mum but all day long I hear 'mama, mama!!'. i am beginning to love it!

If it really, really, really is an issue for you then just gently remind her to call you mum every time she does it.

MIL hates nanny and wants to be called grandma. She says so every time her DGS calls her nanny. Every. Time. But she won't do anything constructive about.

funny how Ma has different connotations in different areas. I think of it as quite posh

It's not uncommon in certain parts of Edinburgh. Make of that what you will.

AdoraBell I'm not a grandmother but your mil gets my sympathy. I really don't like "nanny" for grandmother.

I'd actually never heard of it until my son was born and I got caught in an excruciating cross purposes conversation about his nanny.

On the up side at least she hasn't taken to calling you "birth giver" like one of my dd's

Where we live its Mama, but my children shorten it to Ma which I also love because its what I would be called in the very working class community I grew up in in Scotland.

DD calls me mama, always has done, have no idea why. Maybe because she is the youngest, I don't know but she is 11 now and I quite like it.

All the others started off with mummy and graduated to mum as they got older (now teens and twentys) but if any of the older ones were to start calling me mama now, I would hate it as that's dd's name that she chose herself for me when she was able to talk.

Kids will settle on a name that they feel most comfortable with, it may be a passing faze and she may well end up reverting back to mum or calling you something completely different entirely. But I do get where you are coming from as its not something that has happened naturally and its a sudden change. Your dd is just repeating what she hears her dad say.

Hopefully it wont last long.

I'm from Yorkshire and most people use mum but some use mam. My dad and uncle call my nan mam. My nan has always been nanna, she hates grandma with a passion. Sometimes we'd call her it just to wind her up, she's hilarious when she gets into her full blown rants . She always makes sure my DC know she's great nanna not great grandma as well.
My best friends gran is granny or grandma, she hates nan/nanna. To each their own I guess.

Yanbu, if you don't like it you don't like it. I've said when DC get to about seven/eight mummy will switch to mother. I'm more of a mother type of person than mum, I can't imagine being called mum. Just don't want the inevitable MUUUUUMMMMM that happens from about twelve onwards. You can't really screech mother in the same way as mum (trust me, I've tried it.)

Birth giver .

I will not answer if I am spoken to in a grumpy/not nice way but I don't care if it is Mum/Mummy/Ma or whatever

My MIL says it make her think of "nanny goat". My own GM was nanny, as was my DM to her DGCs, so it seemed natural to me.

One of my DDs, just turned 13, as started calling me mother when she's messing around

Ah, just let her call you Ma!

My DS is 13 months and has started calling me "mam". No-one in my family has ever used mam, and Ive only ever referred to myself as mummy. But that's what he's picked, and so be it.

My friend switched to "ma" when she was a teenager. In a really annoying, bleating tone of voice. Very sheep like! It was a very effective way to trigger a permanent, irrational dislike of the word.