To dislike 40 yr old dh calling his mother "mummy"

[Mala]

Always think mummy sounds horrible, unless the person is under 16. I mean it's okay as a one off, but as an adult I prefer mum. Also don't like dd calling her grandmother "grandmummy"(which is how dh will often refer her as).

My DH's grandmother insists that everyone calls her Granny - I refuse to do so as she isn't my granny, so I find myself going through linguistic contortions to avoid having to address her directly as anything. Which is daft, but there y'go. It's gotten easier now we have our DD, as I can say to her 'your great-granny' and talk through her if necessary.

Thank Christ she lives on the isle of wight and we only have to see her a few times a year...

I am 6 months pregnant and your question sparked a conversation between my husband and I about whether we would like our children to call us by our first names or say Mom and Dad - my hubby says he would prefer for our children to call him by his first name once they get older, but I feel it is a show of respect when you call your parents Mom and Dad as that is how I was brought up (being 32 years old and Afrikaans I still call my parents Mamma and Pappa).

Sure it's ok .........for a serial killer with mummy in a rocking chair

Except it wasn't his mummy..................

It depends on your class. Posh people say mummy and daddy forever. Other people only do it as small children and for them it would be a bit creepy to still be saying it into the teens.

My DH calls his mum 'mate' which grates on me. He used to call me mate but i swiftly informed him it was 'bumperlicious', darling, babe or any other forms of affection etc. but i was not his 'mate'

It makes me absolutely cringe - definitely posh, and somehow ostentatiously posh when done in public. Eeeeyyooo

My mother freaks out if anyone calls her anything other than mummy, but actually it's my dad who is posh, and he often refers to her as mum, and did with his own mum...
So I don't know what I'm saying except, maybe my mother is more like hyacinth bouquet than I like to admit . I call her mum or mother when referring to her, but I'm very comfortable with calling my dad "daddy"... I just adjust for other people as I already know how creepy some people find it - as witnessed on this thread!(I suspect my Aussie in-laws love it, being anglophiles/respectful of royalty/impressed by our very English/posh wedding, but DH's friends in Oz must think it's hysterical...)

Hello - btw - only my second post, and first chatty one.

Hello Jackaroo

I always used to call my dad 'daddy' when I wanted something!

My dh's parents are Newcastle-posh.

Dh is Nick and his mum & sister will insist on calling him 'Nicky'... Bleeeurgh!

He absolutely hates it but is far too polite to tell them.

It seems a little illiberal to get bothered about what you partner calls his parents .

However there is defintely a class and sex issue.

Upper mid/Upper class boys always call their Mother Mummy but as adults never refer to their father as Daddy - pa or Dad suffices -girls always keep Daddy.

Mater/Pater is completely redundant only midlle class precocious teens say this as an ironic statement.

It is utterly working class to call ones grandparents Nanny/Nana and Grandad

Only Middle class peopel with academics and leftwing political views have their parents call them by their first names.

I'll tell mater on you, puppydog.

If i am a precoshus teen, you are a gurl and a sneke and you must be frends with Fotherington-Thomas.

To me it is not a posh thing, it is an Irish thing. Lots of Irish call their parents Mummy and Daddy all their lives.

I think chubbleigh has made a good point. My dh is Afro-Caribbean and it is commonplace for adults to call their parents mummy and daddy. Have Irish parents and it was the same for them too. It only grates on me when I hear posh people say it, but that is because I have an inverse snobbery agains the upper classes (my name is a pun - common as muck is me).

i call my mum mummy sometimes, and my dad is always daddy. not sure why always daddy but only sometimes mummy. i think its because daddy is step-dad and dad is real dad, so its always been daddy to distinguish from the two. explains a lot really - as a child daddy is more affectionate and to this day if i had to choose i would choose him over my real dad as horrible as this sounds.

Tell you what does make me raise an eyebrow. Two sisters in dds school who address themselves as sister, as in:

"Sister, that's not quite right."

"What's wrong with it, sister?"

ala Jane Austen

I've always called my mum 'mummy' and my dad 'dad' or 'daddy'. I'm not in the least bit posh but see it as an affectionate term. And even though I'm 29, I still sometimes sit on my mum's knee for a cuddle - which she likes.
I also think what people call grandparents is more often a case of not confusing children if they have more than one set.
It really doesn't matter what anyone calls their family - if they've always called them it, it's because it's familiar and they like calling them that.

earlgray, that's creepy

grey even

My mum is Mum and dad is Dad unless I want something in which case Dadd-deeeee!

But my mother talks about her mother as "Mummy" although when she was alive, she called her "Ma" quite a lot.

My mum is probably quite posh though.

oxocube do you remember that tv documentary about those identical twin sisters who lived together and did everything together, even hoovering at the same time with one hoover, both holding on to it ? And they had their own language as well. And they were about 49 ?

I think I do CAM. Was it quite a few years ago? They were VERY strange.

Every Irish person I've met has referred to mummy and daddy - I assumed it was usual there.
I'm from the NE and 'mam' really grates on me, sorry!
Xenia, good point about Prince Charles, also, what do you think Prince Philip calls his wife? Lizzie? Liz? Ma'am?

Yes oxo it was probably a decade plus ago!

I hung on every word though it was totally creepy