Why do so many people on MN say ‘mom’ instead of ‘mum’?

[Waitingforthesunnydays]

Yes I know this is the internet so there may be American users on here. The vast majority are British though. I also know there’s parts of England where ‘mom’ is used rather than ‘mum’ but those two things really don’t account for how often I see posters writing it as ‘mom’. Is this another Americanism that’s creeping in or are there much more parts of the country where mom is used than I thought?…

I'm from the West Midlands and I and everyone else I grew up with say Mum

Not true. I’ve been here for 15+ years. I’ve never written mum here in my life.

Im 58. I’m a mom. My 88 year old mother is my mom. Her mom was mom.

I think it’s less about mom being used more recently, and more About you having your head up your arse.

Baycos oim from Wolverhampton I yam. Yau knau.

I grew up in the West Midlands so usually use mom but sometimes find myself using mam because that is what is used where I have lived for 20 years.

ESL speaker, here.

I have always found it fascinating that the word mummy can refer both to one of the people we love the most, our mother, and to a horrifying preserved body buried in a pyramid.

So you hate Brummies.

Got it.

You need to get out more. You are incredibly sheltered and fairly ignorant of the country in which you live.

You started this thread because you assumed those of us who say “mom” were simply copying Yanks, whom you have an issue with.

A 10 second Google on British dialects could have avoided this thread.

It hasn’t exploded on MN. Most posts says “DM” or “Mum”.

”Mom” simply stands out to you more because you don’t like it.

I think this is it.

Although I am a Brummie and say “mom” I never even registered there was a different “mum” pronunciation though I must have heard.

The difference was first made clear to me years ago when a housemate of mine I had only known a few weeks interrupted me speaking and said “are you from the Midlands” (I don’t have the strongest Brummie accent). I said yes and what made her ask. And she said in conversation I called my mom, “mom” and the only people she knows who do that are from Midlands and she always found that interesting. That’s when I first truly was made aware of a mum/mom split but I simply never noticed before.

I can't say I've noticed.

But as you say, parts of the country use mom all the time. I've got a lot of family out Birmingham way and towards Wales. They all use mom.

Does it matter?

Birminghams population must have exploded, rather than a younger generation copying Americans though, I'm sure.

When MN was younger it was more skewed to highly educated women in the SE/London area - since then it has been on an expansion so it is likely more midlanders have joined in that expansion- there being only so many people in the SE.

Though I'm a midlander and say Mum as DH is also one who says mam - though I grew up hearing mum and mom so it's not a huge deal either way.

Plus it is often DM on here for mother - and this has been a regular thread since I joing nearly 15 + years ago.

There are things that I hear in younger generation that do sound somewhat odd to my ear- Easter break of two weeks being called half term and gotten which DS picked up - though it's supposed to be around in Yorkshire and we've lived there don't remember if heard it -may have done but not registered it as different.

Dmum calls roundabouts Islands - as do many where I grew up took somone on here pointing out it was a regional usage that I clicked it was - knew what was meant even though I personally tend to say roundabouts. When we do those regional placement quizzes - they often pick up everywhere in UK DH and I have lived - north and south - west and midlands and we seem to be pick up a random smattering of local regional words in each place.

Speech to text often brings ‘mum’ up as ‘mom’ and sometimes I have missed this in the checking process.
DC uses lots of Americanisms, eg candy, trash, parking lot etc, all of which seems ridiculous to me, and claims that this is a Gen Alpha thing. Not to mention there are so many multinational kids at school who might use ‘mom’ anyway. But they’re a bit young to be posting on Mumsnet yet 😂

Mum and mom far more predominate where I grew up and where I live now.

Interestingly I have a friend who has a mam but she is mom to her own kids.

Where I grew up nobody used mam, it was mammy when small and progressed to mum or mom, mainly mum. I had cousins we used to visit and they called their mother mam which always fascinated me!

Where I live now mom is more widely used but mum is heard quite a bit too with the occasional mam. Very unusual to hear kids say mam.

Most cards say mum with a few mom and mam ones. I call my own mother both mum and mom interchangeably but always write mum.

Edited to add - nowhere near Dublin, hours away!

It's certainly not only been in the last five years that people in the UK have called their mothers Mom. Perhaps you've only noticed it recently but in areas where mothers are known as Mom (which is not only the WM, as several other PP have pointed out), this has been the case for as long as other areas have known their mothers as Mum, Mam, Ma or Mother.
I'm 69 - the people I know personally who use the term are certainly not "a younger generation copying Americans" or even any generation "copying Americans".

Where else in the UK is mom used apart from W Midlands? I know there’s plenty of variations like mam, ma etc but where else has mom historically always been used?

I suggest you read all the contributions to the thread you started, even if only out of politeness.

Oh yes, the hard G. I get picked up for that, and also "one" apparently I pronounce it incorrectly.

And don't get them started on my pronunciation of bath and path 🤣🤣

Goodness, America bashing/blaming is rife around here.

what does it really matter? Obviously I’m American and if people here started using “mum” I really wouldn’t care. I have never seen on any American forums that bash the UK about everything. I see more curiosity, respect, and embracing of other countries. It’s sad that so many people put down everything about an entire country.

Probably because it will ultimately render our own British words and expressions obsolete, which many people don't want.

Don’t worry, you’ll be dead by then.

Do you speak Shakespearean English then?

It became popular when Mom Jeans became a thing, i think shops spelled it the same way as the Americans so that people could goggle search them and therefore they could sell more. I noticed it at the time. I know people say it was around before that but I genuinely never heard it used in England before and I’ve lived in the south east and north west.

But not in the West Midlands, where it’s common.