To HATE the word 'Mama'?!

[grimupnorth1]

Just a lighthearted whinge really.
Why is the word mama suddenly everywhere?! I'm 24 weeks and feel like every other day someone says something like 'Are you excited to be a mama?' Or I see t shirts etc with 'mama' on. One of the midwives even uses it!

Makes me cringe beyond belief.

My DD is 50% Dutch and I've always been "mama", I much prefer it to "mummy".

It is less about ‘dropping’ it and more about adults ‘picking it up’.
That's my view too.
One of my relatives was always a mum. Mum when she was pregnant. They goot mama as the kids were learning to talk but was Mum as the kids were young. But once the kids hit university suddenly she reinvented herself as mama. It's twee and nauseating.

It’s better than Mam or Mammy. I cringe when I hear that, it’s so common. I much prefer Mummy or Mother.

I dislike mammy too but it is colloquial/regional rather than common. It is the abhorance if appearing ‘common’ that has resulted in otherwise ordinary people calling themselves ‘mama’ which is why also it sounds so pretentious.

It is regional but only lower class people in those regions use it.

@Silkei 'It is regional but only lower class people in those regions use it' is not true at all.

Respectfully I think you are missing the point, Silkei.

Mam or Mammy are normal British terms. They do have class connotations but there’s nothing wrong in that.

“Mama” is an adopted term amongst certain types of people. They know who they are. And so do we.

We went on holiday to the US last month, where I was referred to as Mama an awful lot by people we met.

DD1 keeps calling me Mama now and it sets my teeth on edge, especially as it's nearly always accompanied by a whingy tone at the moment.

My DS2 first called me Mama and I did miss it when he moved onto Mummy/Mum

I'm only Mama to the cat now

Mama” is an adopted term amongst certain types of people. They know who they are. And so do we.

How is an adopted term when it’s what nearly every baby will call its mother when they start to talk?

I hate it when used by adults, on clothes etc. But DS calls me mama (or more accurately mumma) hence my username and love it when he says it!

Mama and Mamma are pronounced very differently. Which one are people objecting to? Mama is pronounced like ma-MAR - it seems quite old-fashioned upper/middle class to me. Mamma is pronounced a bit like MAM-ma.

Oh, and I haven't encouraged it with DS, we use mummy/ daddy when talking about each other and selves with DS.

Are we now saying that language should be led by babies?

I like mama

Are we now saying that language should be led by babies?

I think what I am trying to say, probably more emphatically than I actually feel, is that we would normally gently correct our infants’ funny words and mispronunciations so that when they mix with other people they don’t make twats of themselves. Mama seems to have slipped through the net.

Are we now saying that language should be led by babies

Seemingly so by those who like to pretend they are a little different/aspire to be less ‘common’ to those around them including their own families.. I wonder if they also use all the other baby words that sound cute when a baby starts to talk, somehow I doubt it. 😀

I don't mind it. When DS was learning to talk he would call me Mimi - it was really cute! I'm plain old Mum now!

i used to get called MeMe too ..I supposed it was because of talking to DS1 "give that to Me" "come here to Me" "listen to Me" hahaha...as if!!

so he thought I was MeMe (or Mimi...babies don't care much for spelling)

they are all grown now so it's Mum usually, dd uses Mumma or Mama if she wants something....always know something is up if I get a message beginning "mumma, are you there??"
Or if I am in trouble it's "Motherrrrrrrrrrrr!"

In generally it doesn't bother me but I try not to roll my eyes too much when I see my 50year+ friends refer to themselves as Mama Goose or Mama Bear, usually on FB with their adult kids!

Makes me always think of being in Austria at the zoo and this Italian family, maybe 6 kids, walking in a line father and kids in age order. Then the father sees the animal in the enclosure and goes “mama mia” and each child in turn says “mama mia” until the last little squeaky toddler “mama mia”.

Cutest thing I’ve ever had the pleasure of irl witnessing.

Are we now saying that language should be led by babies?

Is that really what you’re reading from this thread?

My youngest (now 18) called me mama when he first started to talk.

These days he calls me by my first name.

There has to be an acceptable middle ground somewhere .

We have a mummy and a mama in our house. Just to annoy those who care one jot over how other people like to be referred to by their children.

To cover all the bases. Mummy is sometimes abbreviated to mum (or muuuuuuun) and sometines lengthened to muuuuuummmmmmeeeeeee. Mama is pronounced variably as moma, muma, mahmah, m'mah and maaaaaaaamaaaaaaa.

For the record not vegan, do not have instagram let alone follow instamummies and have never seen the kardashians. I am very happily middle middle class though. So I am fairly aspirational, believe in the importance of education and enriching activities and music that sort of thing