Why the use of DH,DD,DS,DC?

[angell84]

Why are they used parrot fashion by every user on mumsnet?

It is ridiculous! Where is any independent thought? Every single post is littered with hundreds of DH's, DS's, DD's and DC's.

Who calls their husband, "dear husband"? It is pretentious for a start. But what really annoys me is why does everyone say the exact same "code" as each other on here. It seems like a teenage thing to do

Did someone call me?

(Sorry, couldn't resist. I might actually keep this NC )

Am I the only one who reads those acronyms as letters, rather than the words they are standing in for? So, D.H. and D.D. rather than 'dear husband', 'dear daughter' etc? It helps mitigate the twee, I find.

I do get a bit confused with DF - sometimes it means 'friend' and sometimes 'father'. And yes, BF as well. You can usually get it from the context, but it is mildly irritating. People should really just use the actual word for the ambiguous ones.

@Eckhart- could be

OP, come back to the thread and take your arse that we are handing to you with good grace

GP could be a grandparent, or the doctor, or a small furry in a hutch in the garden but a quick read of the context and some intelligence you can easily work it out.

Shared language binds communities. It's usually historicalmquirk, so if you're looking for a good reason you won't find one for most of it. Here, or on any other site, community, or occupation which has its own slang.

D could ifcourse mean dickhead, it's a very versatile letter!

I domagree that it's better to use the longer form of DSis, or DDad to reduce the confusibles. But some, like GPs are multimeaning on any site.

If the language of a community leaves you cold (just like some cannot abide the swearing which is allowed here) one of the joys of the internet is that there will be a community which speech habits yunfeel comfortable with.

It's usually better to go and find them, rather than announce to a huge and well established (and self-selecting) community that they're Doing It Wrong

I wanted to namechange to SpecialOne but its already taken

Are you new to the internet, OP? This isn’t an MN thing, it’s a throwback to the early days of forums and has carried on since there.

YouFellAsleep My laptop doesn't have predictive text, how can i install that ?

It’s quicker to type, that’s all.
Very many years ago I was bemused by all the dhs mentioned on the first forum I ever joined. Did it stand for Dopey Herbert or what? Took me a while to work it out!

It can be confusing when somebody uses DS actually meaning their sister. I was also terribly confused by GP when I first came here. I thought people must have very odd doctors.

I also find it a bit cringe, and I read it in my head as the full dear husband etc. It's particularly odd when it's a thread about some abusive twat. And someone is writing something like "my dear husband calls me fat on a daily basis"

Personally I can't bring myself to use it. I love my husband but I don't refer to him as my dear husband in real life, so I don't see why I should online,

on a different forum, someone was once bemused by one particular poster who kept posting all manner of problems and signing off with her name, Tia...

@MaxPanic and @finkployd
Thank you! I've wondered about ODFOD for months

GP is the best.

"What should I do about biting GP?"

"Worried GPs aren't eating enough"

"GP didn't give any Christmas presents"

Ooh, I hadn't heard about that tante - thanks!

I don't even notice the 'D' bit after 8 years, I just read 'DH' as husband, not 'Dear Husband' or whatever. There's a bit of overthinking on this thread.

Yy sparklingbrook I’m imagining people reading threads out loud and voicing “dear/darling husband” etc

Are you new to the internet? Most forums have their own abbreviations.

Most use it because it is recognized shorthand, and when someone uses it we know who they are referring to and it saves having to write the whole thing out.

I agree. We use normal words for the rest of the sentence, then weird acronyms for the people we are talking about. Then sometimes you get confused reading the post and don't know whether DS is a son or a sister, or whether DF is a father or a friend.

Basic dh, dd, ds i’m fine with. Quicker on a phone than husband (or hubby), daughter, some etc.

Ddog, dcat, i’ve even seen dpony- i just don’t get as it’s the opposite of an abbreviation, there’s no need.

What i do hate is when people launch into long posts without making the abbv. clear, i’ve read posts several times before realising ds is dear sister or dear sibling, not son, dd is dear dad, dn is either neice or nephew,

Does anyone remember writing S.W.A.L.K on envelopes? When you were leaving an anonymous love letter for Steve in the Upper Fifth, and after you had annointed the envelope with Body Shop Dewberry

(Please don't let that just be me )

If you start prattling on about Joe and George, nobody has a clue who you are talking about. Even if you explain at the top nobody will remember because we have no emotional connection to those names. DS1, DS2, DH makes it immediately clear: Eldest son, younger son, husband. Of course you could omit the D but then it gets a bit confusing: S1, D2, H - these could easily stand for other things so having the D on the front, even though it's a bit archaic, is useful as an immediate signifier: Yes, this is what I mean.

When I write a letter or email I write "Dear So-and-So" even if I don't consider them to be dear to me, so I think about this just the same as that.

You can try writing stuff out in full but IRL conversation doesn't flow if you're constantly referring to "My husband" "My eldest son" and if you then revert to "He said to him" as you can in normal conversation, it gets even worse.

MaxPanic PFB is indeed "precious first born" And yes you can be "a bit PFB" meaning a bit fussy and over-protective and thinking the world should revolve round your PFB's needs.

Aww I'm glad someone has taken Dworm . I thought about it myself but I've only just nc (that's name changed, OP) to this one.