My 18 month old son calls me, dad, and other adults 'mummy'...?!

[Atownlikealice]

My 18 month old son has always been a bit mixed up on mummy and daddy. He has about 15 words, I've got no concernes over his verbal or communication skills, but he has recently started calling all adults mummy. Those on covers of magazines, those in streets - actually, he even called another child 'mummy'.

I imagine he thinks it's the word for 'person.'

Is it weird that he does this? I heard there's something called over-extension in language development where they call a whole group of things one name and then slowly 'clarify.'

And you know, it bothers me. it shouldn't but it does. I want to be the only mummy!

any tips for improbving his understanding? Should be worried?

My son went through a phase of all creepy crawlies were "bees"

Then we managed, by endless repetition, to say those were "not bees, they're ants/beetles etc."

Then all creepy crawlies became "Not bees"

You just have to continue to say "daddy" "man" "jenny" etc. until he gets it.

dont worry!

I think it can stand for "any lady who looks after me" . My friends son who I used to look after 1 afternoon a week would call me nothing, as in no name at all until she left for work, then I'd be mummy!

I wouldn't worry myself

Just continue to model it appropriately and correct him, he'll get it.

My DS, up to very recently, called every female relative who wasn't me, mo-ma (grandma). Including my DSis, who was horrified by the idea of being a grandma at 30! Gradually, he has started naming them appropriately and correctly, so hold on and don't worry.

My DD at this age used to call all men 'Daddy'. Waiters, bus drivers, shop assistants. I'm sure I looked like a bit of a tramp..

Ooh you've reminded me of te stage when ds2 called any other female "auntie" - the word to him seemed to mean "lady that isn't my mum". Similarly all animals were "goggie" (I once caught him telling an ant to "sit, goggie"

DD1 used to call her Daddy "Daddy" and me by my first name. Which was confusing for other people who didn't know us. Then she swapped, and I was Mummy and Daddy was known by his name...

She's now 3.5 and occasionally comes out with our first names instead of "Mummy" and "Daddy" which can be hilarious, especially if she's telling us off!

He'll figure it out. Ds had 'daddy' as one of his first words. Mummy wasn't in the first 200. So for a couple months I had a reasonably articulate nearly 2yo who shouted 'Daddy!' when I collected him from nursery...

At nearly 4 he's a bit confused with he/ she and her/him but otherwise has sorted everyone out.

Another one here saying not to worry - at least your DS calls you mummy, even if it's shared with everyone else. My 18mo DS calls me "Ger" and DH "Grandad" (he is looked after my grandparents twice a week and LOVES his Grandad)! He seems to call various other things mama but not me

Oh yes I hated the stage when my DS used to crawl up to random men and shout "Daddy!" at them! So embarrassing!

My ex husband was 'Aunty Jeremy' (and in fact still is as it caught on). I think all kids do similar things.

DS is also 18 months, he calls himself Daddy when he sees his reflection or a photo of himself. Daddy is also used for DH, and with any pictures of boys/men in books, though not other men/boys in real life....

really normal. My 2 year old knows I;m mummy, but has just started calling my friend mummy too as that's what her son calls her. Child development bods have a name for it, but can't remember what it is off the top of my head. He'll grow out of it in anycase.

My 2yo DD sometimes calls me "Daddy" and vice versa when she's excited. She does know I'm Mummy and if I say "who am I" she'll say Mummy but when she's excited she seems to pick the name of any significant adult i.e. Mummy, Daddy, Nanny to shout.
All fruit other than bananas are apples and all colours are currently blue (they have previously been all red and all pink :))

No advise but dd (20months) calls me mimi, mammy or mummy. Any lady under the age of 35ish is mimi, any lady over this age is manma (grandma) and any man including her dad, grandad and random old man walking his dog is dadeeee. He will grow out of it im sure.

My Ds is nearly 14yo and still calls me daddy!

Please Please dont worry about this. I have three children my eldest used to mix up mommy and daddy all the time. On purpose because she thought it was funny. My middle has speech problems and is in speech therapy he refused to speak till he was four ( trust me on refused - very intelligent not austistic, he would say a word a month - there was an initial diagnosis of selective mustism, then it was SLI, ermm now his fine.) Trust me any words that come out are all good. Don't worry too much know - my youngest I'm pretty sure will need some form of speech therapy - we are still waiting for a paeditrician appointment - only being 18 months now, Will only call me red. But anyway trust me your child is speaking and communicating - maybe not in the way as us adults would consider correctly. But this is great and good, its natural for any mother to worry. Every child works out at different rates - as Im sure youve being told. It could be worse - my friend is only called mom by her son when his hurt or upset - all the other times its Bob ( he likes Bob the builder alot ) He is four and can talk fine - he has just decided to call her Bob.

I've been living with DP and his 2 DSs for nearly 2 years & DSS2 has just turned 6. Before that, I was a friend of the family and had known the boys for 2 years, so they've known me for 4 years now.

About 5 months ago when I collected DSS2 from school, I was "Daddy, no, Mummy, no, Enfyshedd" (both boys call me by my first name).

About a month ago when I collected DSS2 from school, he turned to his teacher and said loudly "Bye Mum!".

I've been called Dad quite a few times.

Either just think of it as when you call someone by the wrong name by mistake or that he hasn't worked out that everyone/thing has a different name.

DD1 is 18 months. Everything is mama or baa baa. I'm not too worried as she still somehow communicates exactly what she wants!

Thank you for this thread, some stuff is plain hilarious. I look forward to when my DS is going to start coming out with these gems.

OP I hope you've been reassured by the replies.