to cringe when adults call their parents mummy and daddy?

[Milly848]

A friend of mine still calls her parents mummy and daddy. She's 27, and she does it in public.

I asked her once (casually), and she said her parents have always insisted on it and thought mum/dad was disrespectiful.

Fair enough and I know it's none of my business, but I can't help but cringe a bit when I hear adults call their parents this. It just sounds childish and makes me think they're still treated like a child. Then again her parents do still finance her...

This is a genuine question giant banger. Is Welsh or Irish genuinely a different race? I'm not being goady but I thought it is xenophobic and horrible to mock yes but not racist? I am half Irish half Scottish but my race is white European surely. Caucasian or whatever? You couldn't be done for racism legally for saying something about a northern Irish person like you could for saying something about a Pakistani person surely?

It is more Mammy than Mummy in Ireland. When I moved back to Dublin DD was 3 she called me Mummy from living in the North. She came home from preschool to tell me I was not a Mummy as I had not bandaged wrapped on me. I was a Mummy like her friends Mammys.

Mammy not Mummy.

There’s no clean definition of a race so you can draw the lines as broadly (Asian vs European) or as finely (Yorkshire vs Lancashire) as you like :p

Jeanclaudejackety

This is a genuine question giant banger. Is Welsh or Irish genuinely a different race? I'm not being goady
I don't think so. Like you I am a white female english speaking. We are all Europeans just some have different traditions and some culture difference.

YANBU. Whenever I hear it I always think ‘grow up!’ 🤷🏼‍♀️

Irish is a different ethnicity and as per equality act meets the defn for racist discrimination

FFs we had this a fortnight ago and HQ promised to take action.

Is it the op you object to Giant?

YANBU. Whenever I hear it I always think ‘grow up!'

So presumably you call your parents "mother" and "father" if diminutives are childish?

I don't find either to be odd tbh... But what I do find extremely is my partner and his siblings calling their mammy Mother... Now I find that a tad cold!!

My 90 year old friend refers to her late father as daddy

I really didnt know you could sort of draw the lines where you want with race. I thought it was pretty clear cut and down to genetics tbh? I sometimes say don't be racist as a joke when someone mocks my extremely red hair but I'm joking. I don't think you could actually claim racism about it.

Red hair? Doesnt that make you a Viking jeanclaude?

I thought it was pretty clear cut and down to genetics tbh?

The population of Lancashire is genetically different to the population of Yorkshire. Not as different as it is to the population of Ghana of course but you can draw the clusters how you like because there’s no hard and fast lines.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/race-discrimination

The Equality Act 2010 says you must not be discriminated against because of your race.

In the Equality Act, race can mean your colour, or your nationality (including your citizenship). It can also mean your ethnic or national origins, which may not be the same as your current nationality. For example, you may have Chinese national origins and be living in Britain with a British passport.

Mil does this!! I try not to laugh every time xx

You can cringe if you like - I doubt anyone who does it will care.

Doesn’t make me cringe becasue it’s none of my business. I don’t get the problem—different people have different ways of speak to their parents. Whatever.

But. My brother annoys me a little and I know I’m being unreasonable but my god—he always refers to our dad as “my dad”. Like we’ll be talking on the phone and he’ll say “my dad is visiting on the weekend” or “I bought my dad a sweater for Christmas”. Like dude. He’s not just “your” dad!! 😂 My husband thinks it’s sweet but for some reason it grates on me. 😂 Should add we’re in our thirties and it makes no difference to me whatsoever but for some reason i always catch it and bro, stop.

Junkmail, is that a Liverpool thing? Me Dad, me Mum etc, even when speaking to siblings. I used to notice it in Brookside but never come across it elsewhere.

My siblings and I do that too Junkmail, always have

My OH's parents refer to each other as mummy and daddy. It does make me judge as it feels like a class thing to me. I know they have working class roots and have worked for the wealth they have but it feels too try hard. Strangely enough neither my OH or his sisters call them mummy and daddy. It's just mum and dad, which they respond to so they don't seem to mind it. It's that they call each other it that feels weird to me.

I am very working class and I call my mam many different things:

Mam
Mammy
Mother Bear
Mama
Ma
Mammy Dear/Dearest
or her actual name

My dad died at a time when I was interchanging Dad and Daddy but I'm sure if he were alive now he'd be Dad or Daddy or Daddy Bear/Dear/Dearest still.

I still call my parents Mummy and Daddy. And always will.

I expect there are terms you use, OP, that I would never use. We are clearly from different backgrounds and so have different views on the “right” terms for things. (Toilet vs loo, lounge vs sitting room, dinner vs lunch, etc).

But I would never be so rude as to say the ones you use make me cringe.

I'm 37 and call my parents Mummy and Daddy, because my mum always refused to answer to Mum which she hates. I sometimes call them Mama and Papa affectionately, but if I wanted to get their attention it would be Mummy/Daddy.

I refer to them as my mum and dad and am aware it's unusual, but it doesn't bother me and I think it's a daft thing to worry about. And they certainly don't fund me!

Posted too soon...

All the people cringing - what do you suggest I call my mum if she won't answer to Mum? I did try calling her that as an embarrassed 14 year old and she refused to answer. I didn't like any other options as they sounded old-fashioned, she doesn't like her real name so certainly wouldn't answer to that... do I just not speak to her?