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.

Pretty much everyone I know calls parents mummy and daddy. I do and I’m not posh! My children (15 & 17) call me and dh mummy and daddy and I think the majority of their friends call their parents the same.

I think it’s probably just the part of the country you live in. I’m in the South East.

I always thought it was only the vair, vair posh who called parents mummy and daddy into adulthood... and (inverted snobbery alert), I found it cringy.

But DH (now in his fifties) will absentmindedly use mummy and daddy (not posh, just Irish), and I find it endearing.

KittyMcKitty I am south east too. It’s a class thing. Most adult people in the south east do not say mummy and daddy.

I use mummy when I’m actually speaking to my mum (and used to use daddy before he died), but always say ‘my mum’ or ‘mum’ if I’m talking about her to someone else. My pre-teen dc do the same with me.

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies
It definitely sounds different from an Irish person; it's incredibly sweet.
I really hate it when spoken from a cut-glass English accent.

I'm from the South East and don't know anyone who says, Mummy and Daddy.

I did it - it’s an Irish thing.

My kids do it to me

See also wee mummy and wee daddy if they are elderly or infirm.

@Feminmister

KittyMcKitty I am south east too. It’s a class thing. Most adult people in the south east do not say mummy and daddy.

🤷‍♀️ Well I do and I’m not posh. If I’m talking about them I’ll say “my dad did ...” but if I’m speaking to him I’ll call him daddy (and write daddy on birthday cards etc). My children have always called dh & I mummy and daddy. Pretty much all their friends call their parents mummy & daddy when talking to them.

The South East is a big place and I do think it’s where you live ...

My teens call me Mummy but use 'my mum' when they talk about me. I cannot imagine finding the head space to care what adults call their parents.

I think is stranger when people call them by their given names.

@TheWitchCirce

My teens call me Mummy but use 'my mum' when they talk about me. I cannot imagine finding the head space to care what adults call their parents.

This ^ exactly. If it works for your family and your happy who cares and who's it hurting

I have one dd calls me mummy and the other uses mum, both in their twenties. I don’t mind what they call me

It depends on your class and culture. Upper class people often use Mummy and Daddy well in to adult life.

Gosh, I knew someone who was well spoken and he’d refer to his parents as mamma and pappa.

My dh calls his mum mother. ‘My mother...’ he is quite detached from her.

I call my mum anyu or anyuci, which means mum/mummy in Hungarian.

But love how my Irish friends say mammy and daddy, it’s very sweet.

Yeh, if you're in Brideshead Revisited

Regional. Very unusual where I grew up (Dublin), completely normal where I live now (Belfast).

My DS often calls me Mummy. He's 45. His brother in law also does it.

Only if you call your main evening meal ‘Supper’

My family (rural Aberdeenshire & Northern Isles) have dinner in the middle of the day and supper in evening. Very far from middle class. Parents were Ma and Da.

My children (1 & rising 4) currently call me Mama which I can't seem to break them of! Older one used to call me mummy as is normal, but then copied the baby calling me mama. I'm persisting in referring to myself as "mummy".... we're not french...and hoping they grow out of it.

Don't know if it was my post you read, as I made one sometime ago about it.
I'm Nigerian and I do call my parents mummy and daddy when I'm speaking to them or about them with my siblings. To others, we say "my mum/mother" or "my dad/father".

Really odd that some think it's pretentious. What's the big deal about it?

Im in the South East and my sister and I call our parents Mummy and Daddy. My brother prefers to call them Mother and Father but we would never use the term Mum and Dad unless we were talking about them to people outside our family. Its totally normal for us. Both my parents had a good upbringing but not what I would call Upper Class. Surely its just one of many family type traditions, I have friends who children call them Mama and Pops which I find sweet.

The only people I know who do this are from Northern Ireland, and it sounds totally normal as a regional variation.

As children, we weren't allowed to call our parents Mum and Dad, because my mum thought it was common. I found it excruciatingly embarrassing because it felt so ridiculous using such babyish language. Obviously by secondary school I wouldn't comply and they've been Mum and Dad since.

In my mind, when you're too old to say doggy, horsey etc, then move on to Mum and Dad (regional exceptions apply).

Always mummy and daddy, we also have supper of an evening (it's not dinner though, it's a light pre bedtime snack) and we aren't remotely upper class.

My mum has always refused to answer to Mum, she hates it, so I call her Mummy or Mama (Mamaaa rather than the babyish Mama). Both of which I guess sounds posh, but we're definitely not 😂

I found it hideously embarrassing when I was 14 and will probably let my son call me Mum for that reason, but I'm not keen on Mum at all and it's not the 'right' word to me.

Definitely not where I'm from its mam and dad.

I've heard people I work with say this and it does sound really strange to me, I think of it as childlike but it seems very wide spread on mumsnet.