AIBU to think that is is completely normal to call your parents Mummy and Daddy as an adult.

[MillicentSmythFortescue]

I read a thread yesterday where someone mentioned people calling their parents 'Mummy and Daddy' in parenthood. A couple of people said they called their parents 'Mummy and Daddy too'. I associate this name with young children, when I was a child everyone converted to Mum and Dad around the age of 7. Trivial I know and none of my business but I was wondering how widespread it is?

AIBU - it is normal to call your parents Mummy and Daddy in adulthood in a non-ironic way.

I’m originally from the USA, and I refer to mine as mummy and daddy when speaking to them. If speaking to someone else, they’re my mother and father.

German DH calls his parents by their first names..

It's usual in N.I. I don't do it.

I can't bear listening to adults calling their parents "Mummy & Daddy" it makes me shudder.
I call mine Mum and Dad and my children call me Mum, the only time it's acceptable is when they are young

It's been mum and dad for me for as long as I can remember, anyone caught saying mummy and daddy would have been ridiculed from junior school onwards. I only use Auntie for my godmother - I hadn't realised I did it because I hadn't seen her for a long time, but when I did see her recently she remarked that she had always found it endearing that I called her Auntie Joy and I realised that was how I still thought of her!

Kind of funny to read this thread alongside the other one arguing over whether or not it’s reasonable to complain to Amazon about their hosting a vendor who sells “YES DADDY!” knickers.

My maternal relatives called their parents mammy and daddy until their parents died in old age. It may be an Irish thing? I don’t see a problem. I used to when I was young (like teens) but not in adulthood

@SweatyBetty20

My parents died early but even as an adult I called them Mummy and Daddy, and when I’m talking about them to my brother those are the names I still use. Definitely not a class thing for me - my mum was brought up in social housing and my dad in a two up two down slum house. We are Mancunians so a “breakfast, dinner and tea” family, and supper for us is a bit of cheese and biscuits about 9pm.

Exactly. ( Fellow Mancunian here.) Breakfast, dinner and tea - then supper before bed. Glad someone has it right! Supposedly mirroring the cotton factory schedule. Definitely Mummy and Daddy. ( Maybe the influence of Irish arrivals way back when? ) Not sure Ancoats was a posh address or even the Anson ( Council) Estate. Let alone the cellars of Old Mount Street. Didn't realise we were closet aristocracy.

Irish people do it.

Not sure how it all began but grown up DS (mid-20s) calls us 'mother' and 'father' (or sometimes the formal long versions of our first names) and we refer to him as 'son' - but all in a very jokey irreverent fashion. We're especially formal when addressing each other in texts and things like messages in greetings cards. Perhaps we'll grow out of it some day.

"I can't bear listening to adults calling their parents "Mummy & Daddy" it makes me shudder."

Oh no. I've made people shudder! And.. we sound "completely weird"!

I'm going to have to mend my ways, I can see that.

I call my parents Mummy and Daddy still (at least directly and to my sisters, though if I am referring to them to someone else, I would say "my mum").

I am neither posh nor pretentious. But why would I suddenly change what I have always called them just because I hit the arbitrary age of 18?

My mum grew up in council housing, and my dad was of immigrant stock living in the east end of London. Though some of us attended grammar schools, and some others worked as teachers. Does that magically make us posh? The BBC modern class calculator says I'm Precariat (the lowest one), anyway.

I found it very odd when I first moved to this particular part of South Wales but now it just seems normal to hear people of all ages and backgrounds refer to their parents as mammi and daddi

I only refer to myself and DH as mummy and daddy to the dogs.

The kids stopped calling us that when they were about 6.

To their faces I still use mummy and daddy most of the time but occasionally I say mum or dad. But when talking about them I say my mum or my dad. My sister is the same. I'm not posh nor rich. It's just something we've always done. My son 14 is the same - mummy to my face, mum to the outside world. I tried to change myself to mum but DS won't change what he says !

I normally say mum and dad but I say mummy and daddy more now I'm older. I wouldn't have done as a teenager.

@Iwantacookie

I only call my dad daddy if I want something. Although when i do that he will reply by calling me daughter

That took me right back 😀😢. My Dad used to do that too.

If you still have your parents, call them whatever you like.

Many south Asians do (when speaking English or speak English as first language)

My family do

These threads are always really useful for one thing.

All you people saying it's pretentious, or it makes you cringe, or how terrible or sickening it is:

you were those little bitches at school, weren't you?

and also the entire reason various teens independently start using Mutti or Mater or Mother Dear

When listening to general conversations at my school (East Midlands 80s suburban comprehensive) one might have been forgiven for thinking that "no-one" used Mummy and Daddy, but various slips of the tongue from a wide range of people suggest that it was quite normal at home, in private.

Personally I think it's far more cringeworthy to witness a Grown Adult doing the whole social policing thing. And I do hope you aren't bringing your children up to be like you.

Agree with you merry. I totally fail to see what is pretentious or sickening about children using (what is essentially) a loving term of endearment for their parents

My Mum rarely used my Christian name, and to the day she died called me cherub, sweetie, toots etc and I happily answered to all of them.

merryhouse
Actually what these threads show is that people's opinions reflect the norms in their area, which is why there seems to be quite a lot of regional variation in how language is used. In areas where Mummy and Daddy is the norm, posters don't bat an eyelid. In areas where it's the norm to stop saying it then it stands out and people will notice it and associate it with those who do use it in that area.

What threads discussing variation of language etc tend to show is that some people, such as yourself, can't comprehend that certain things have different associations to people, so instead of taking what could be an interesting anonymous discussion online at face value they have to start deciding people were little bitches at school.

It’s bitchy and nasty to call a regional variation in a loving term for parents creepy and suggest that people who say that are thick/common/stupid.

SIL says mummy and daddy and went to a private school. DH (same parents) just says mum and dad and they didn’t fund his education. It’s not a south east thing. It’s a posh/class thing. Lots of people don’t think they are posh because they are surrounded by other, upper middle class, people. It’s all relative.

Kcar
Calling someone stupid is unpleasant.

Finding a word cringeworthy or pretentious based on how it is used in your area isn't.

Mummy and daddy is not a Manchester thing.

Ancoats is famous as a slum area full of Irish immigrants back when Marx and Engels were hanging around the city.

In Glasgow it’s Maw, Ma, Mammy or Mum. You never hear non child say Mummy. Then it’s Da or Dad. Daddy is also only for kids. I agree in NI Mammy and Daddy is normal. I’d typically associate Mummy and Daddy with children or Upper classes in England.