to smirk when my sister's fiance calls her darling?

[NoBiggy]

She's middle class all of a sudden. Keep thinking of Richard Briers and Felicity Kendall.

Go on, tell me to grow up.

Nah, of course not
My sister calls her DH 'lover' a lot. If he's upstairs she'll shout, "LOVER!" really loud to get his attention, over and over until he responds
Even when they have people round that they don't know very well!

Grow up. I think it's lovely that they call each other endearing terms and you are being way too cynical and way too concerned with class stereotypes.

Makes me think of dh's ex who couldn't stop making fun of him trying to be better than his class (he's working class from the northeast) when I gave him a series of tattoo removals for his birthday. He had a tattoo on his neck from his teenage years which he was desperate to get rid of. Why on earth couldn't he aspire to look more respectable without someone making fun of his aspirations and denigrating them to a superficial class issue.

PS. I call dh husband and he calls me wife. It gives the Americans a big giggle.

Gawd! What's wrong with darling? I didn't think it was a class thing. What would you prefer?

better than babe [shudder]

and better than 'sweet chunks' or 'squidgy bum', especially if they have company.

Deffo better than babe!

Dont people realise how revolting it sounds.
I think darling is lovely.

Nothing wrong with darling. (Hate babe though)
DH screwed up awhile ago and (affectionatley) said
'You ok, fuckface?'

in front of my mum.

at chirpygirl's DH.
We don't use darling, sometimes he calls me babe, but not often. Usually it's Hunni when in company or if we're alone it's Hunnipie lol.
But yes, really you shouldn't smirk - each to their own I say!

The best thing was that he didn't realise what he had said, my mum did the whole 'I don't think you should speak to my daughter like that' and he was genuinely confused

(I call him it too, inside joke, but I don't do it in front of MIL (or DD) as I have a brain)

I can't use those grown-up sounding words of endearment. I don't know why, I would feel such a fool. BUt then I'm probably the least romantic person on this planet. I call him anything under the sun, whatever springs to mind but never dear or darling or anything like that. I find lover worse than darling TBH.

I call DH darling sometimes I think. I deffo call DS and DD and DN and other DN, darling, and also various random friends of theirs. And sweetheart. In fact 2yo DD mimics me, when DS says "please may I leave the table", DD replies "yes darling" in my tone of voice.

Littlelapin - rofl, I was just thinking that!
I use sweetie as well, but generally to small children and my girlfriends. Of if I'm drunk it's
alwwwight dahhhrling in my strongest cockney accent (deffo not posh )

I can use those words with dc but not with men. Geez I must be weird...

Me and my dh call eachother honey, darling, sweetie, sexy, chubby, grumpy arse. Depending on our moods. No matter who is around. Believe me we are not high class!!!!

I wish someone would call me it!! ;)

My sister's DP called me Darlin by mistake... she was not amused

I tend to call DH "Love"and everyone else "hon" except my son who's sweetheart or my little man.

I think darling is lovely. I can't remember exactly now but it's from a very nice Anglo Saxon word.

Although as people comment on the thread there are class issues on the words people use there is also a separate issue of couples having their own special words for each other as well which is entirely up to them what they choose.

Grow up indeed . It could be far worse, my DH calls me Stinker (he's got reason to do so admittedly....

I call OH by his surname, always have. If I use his first name, he knows he's in trouble and if I call him darling, he knows I've either forgotten his name or he's getting lucky.

I call everybody by terms of endearment! But then again I am very middle class...

There is one quite senior partner at my firm who insists (even in front of clients) on calling me "Dear"...

And I am such a wuss, I never pluck up the courage to say anything to him...

It's a class thing to call someone a term of endearment?

Well fuck me pink!

I am sooooo confused now.

I'm confused too, expat.