to find it really really irritating when people refer to their daughters as princesses

[Notalone]

I probably am but it makes me grind my teeth manically. It is especially worse on FB - I have a few friends with baby girls who's status constantly say "My little princess burped today" "My little princess is soooooo gorgeous" etc etc. what is wrong with referring to them by name? It just seems a bit precious to me.

Ok, rant over. And breathe

I rarely call my DD 'a princess' shes just the bean.

I hear "princess" and translate it to "spoilt little brat"

I have sons with a myriad of nicknames. I favour 'Boo', 'Monster', 'Sunbeam' (used only when they are being vile), 'Stinky' and 'Bumhead'. My mother favours 'Sausage' and my MIL 'Chicken'. The foodstuffs NN confuse the youngest. I have never referred to them as 'sexy', 'little Prince' or 'Babe'

Little Princess and Little Man are equally bleesome.

I call mine everything under the sun

Pigwiggle, Groblet, BobbleGobble, Snooglebum

but not little prince

'Bum' is often mixed in with nicknames I find

when I need to insult them the "bum" thing tends to kick in

"put that back, you little bumboil" etc

'sexy man'....shudder.
my DH calls our DD [19] Princess to wind her up.
he is then subjected to versions of 'daddywaddykins'
little man, little prince bleurgh.
i also hate little soldior, but im in the minority there i know!

mine got called 'snotbag' when they were younger is honour of Drop Dead Fred

So do I Soupdragon.
"Babe" is awful- "babes" is worse.
Still, our next door neighbour when I was a child used to call her ds's "cowing little gits"- my mother used to make lots of cats bum faces at that.

I was a middle child. My mum consciously started calling me princess in order to avoid the middle-child-unspecialness.

That didn't change a thing about me being very tom-boyish, and hating pink and dresses.

I never thought of it being a status derived from a man (father=king, husband=prince) either, but rather came to the logical conclusion that if I was a princess to my mum, then she must be a queen to me.

Just posting this as a bit of a counterpoint to all the previous comments that suggested that being called princess equals behaving in a disney-princessy way/aspiring to be a disney princess. For me, being called princess by my mum underscored that I was special, whatever I chose to wear; and that I should aspire to positions of power (e.g. queen ). I think the problem doesn't lie in people calling their girls princess, but rather in the image of princesses that is sometimes passed along together with the nickname. As many have pointed out, "real" princesses could serve as reasonable role-models; it's just the disney princesses that are questionable!

Well I really don't see what the big issue is, what somebody calls their child as a pet name is up to them.

I generally call my children by their real names but on occasions have told my little girl that she is my princess - does that make her a spoilt little brat?, certainly not. I sometimes call my baby boy 'my little man'(because he is) - seriously, what is the big deal??

Def agree that calling a child sexy is very inappropriate though.

So I personally think YABU.

My Nan called us all 'Maggots Arse' when we were small. Seemed perfectly normal at the time

Mine are all called 'grotbag' and when I need to differentiate them it's 'child 1' 'child 2' and 'child 3'. I do sometimes get funny looks, but I always seem to call them by the wrong name if I try a real name so run through half a dozen, including my brothers', my sil etc etc so 'grotbag' seems to be all that's needed. And they answer to it.

I nicknamed my little brother 'Snot' when he was about 5. He still answers to it, and he's now 27

I call mine my "angels", yet they are not celestial creatures with wings, nor are they particularly angelic in character. Who cares what other people use as terms of endearment for others!

YANB in the slightest bit U.

But I have to admit, I came on here expecting a chorus of YABUs and accusations of misery for not bestowing 'princess' on all daughters. I stand corrected.

I just think 'good luck' to anyone who has fostered a princess mentality, and don't be surprised when they start behaving exactly like a princess, come the teenage years.

I agree with all those who have mentioned the Disney thing. I personally feel misled by Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc. All beautiful girls who met prince charming and got whisked off to live in his pink castle and live happily ever after. I mean, talk about unrealistic. It really should have mentioned that Prince charming lets off the most stinky farts in bed, leaves his dirty pants all over the castle floors, gets pissed with his friends and proceeds to urinate in the wardrobe and doesn't believe in cleaning the toilet. Meanwhile the beautiful princess discovers after they have their beautiful children that her arse is now so big she can no longer fit into her frilly dresses and glass slippers are now a thing of the past and highly impractical in the country.

I really think fairytales should be banned - they give children false hope!

''I just think 'good luck' to anyone who has fostered a princess mentality, and don't be surprised when they start behaving exactly like a princess, come the teenage years.''

I think every now and again telling your little girl she is your princess is not going to have the negative effect that you are talking about. Now if I gave her everything she ever wanted, never said no, let her rule the roost etc etc then yes I may be in line for having a very difficult teenager. However, I don't do these things and I am happy with the odd princess title I bestow upon her .

YANBU, it is a bit nauseating!

Pretty much all the babies I know are about to turn one and are having 'Princess Parties', urgh! My daughter is my daughter, she is not a princess - she is no better than anyone else (but always perfect in my eyes of course!)

"I think every now and again telling your little girl she is your princess is not going to have the negative effect that you are talking about. Now if I gave her everything she ever wanted, never said no, let her rule the roost etc etc then yes I may be in line for having a very difficult teenager. However, I don't do these things and I am happy with the odd princess title I bestow upon her."

I did say, 'if you have fostered a princess mentality'. Bestowing the word every now and then hardly equates to that, and of course won't have a negative effect. Am I missing something?

5dollar - I think anyone can forgive the occasional princess comment to their children. The ones I was referring to are the parents who call their daughter princess constantly so the children actually believe they are somehow better than their friends because they are a princess. And the ones who change their FB status every 6 hours to inform the world in sickly sweet tones exactly what their "Princess" has been doing today (basically nothing).

Mine are Little Lady, or bossyboots at the mo, but my best friend calls her dds RatKid!
My ds is Little buddy or his actual name.

Not a fan of prince or princess, or Chav speak. If you can't write properly don't do it at all!

My DS has all manner of names that I call him from lumpybum (no idea where that came from) to little lump of gorgeousness and yes I do use mummy's handsome prince

So what? no one else's business in my opinion. I don't use them all day long every day, just as a term of endearment every now and again.

If I had a little girl she would be my Princess too. Not saying I would call her "Princess" in the Katie/Peter way, I might add

I call ds2 squidge, because he is still really cute and cuddly and ... well squishy!
My Dad always called me 'Princess' or 'Poppet'. I used to hate it in my teens, but now he's gone I feel quite sad that nobody calls me that any more .

I'm going to join the minority and say I think it's lovely (as a term of endearment, not as a given name). I have a son who has lots of silly nicknames.

What I DO mind is a pal of mine of Facebook who posted photos of her pretty little 4 year old with the caption "Sexy." In the other photo she is leaning forward in a crop top and the caption was "Cleavage like mama's" which I personally thought was a bit inappropriate!