Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Are you "mummy" no matter what the language?

16 replies

Bartimaeus · 23/11/2011 11:48

Ds is 8 weeks. I'm British living in France with a French DH. I speak to DS in English and in French to DH. DH talks to DS in French.

I've asked DH to call me "mummy" when talking to DS, and not "maman" so it's more my name rather than my role IYSWIM? Similarly he is "papa" not "daddy".

What do your children call you when not speaking the language you use with them? Can you influence it at all or might I end up being called "maman" anyway?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
TanteRose · 23/11/2011 11:53

we are in Japan - the DCs call me Mama, which is what a lot of Japanese children use, instead of the traditional "O-ka-san". They call DH "Dada", which is their name for him (it is not used commonly in Japan - Papa, or O-to-san is used)

I don't mind, its closer to Mummy than O-ka-san, and seemed more natural for us

and yes, they can be influenced by what you use (as my children have been, by using Dada)

fraktious · 23/11/2011 12:03

Well we're the same as you, except we speak English between us, and I call myself Mama/Mummy and DH calls me Maman, likewise he is Daddy in English and calls himself Papa. I don't see a problem with him having 2 names for us, in fact it makes more sense for us because our French friends, neighbours and relatives would never use Mummy anyway. The words are close enough for him to understand and when he talks I imagine he'll use the linguistically appropriate term for me, which is fine. I introduce myself using the 'correct' pronunction of my name (Cath-rin vs Cat-reen except I'm not called Catherine!) as does DH.

Bartimaeus · 23/11/2011 12:30

Very good point about friends/neighbours frak! Hadn't thought of that...

Maybe I should let DH call me maman...would stop him calling me mummy but his accent sometimes making it sound like mamie!!! (I feel very old when he does that!)

OP posts:

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Kveta · 23/11/2011 12:34

DS (2) uses both languages for me - I'm mummy 90% of the time, but 10% of the time he will call me Maminka, which is quite cute! DH is always daddy though, and as his is the foreign language (czech, we're in the UK, and I'm british), it is a bit of a shame DS never calls him Tatinek/Tata. It is probably my fault, as I never use the czech terms either.

fraktious · 23/11/2011 12:36

The mamie thing is another reason we don't tbh. I plan to be extremely vigilant and ensure DS develops the phoneme ^ correctly Grin

cory · 23/11/2011 12:59

mine use both languages for me- recently it has been moving more towards the long drawn out muuuuum (yes, teens...)

internationalbeeboo · 23/11/2011 15:07

I got pretty tangled up with this conundrum when DD was smaller; I tried to insist I be mummy, even when DH talked about me, but I kept getting myself confused by it all. So I just let her take the lead and she now refers to me as mummy in English and maman when she refers to me in French, DH also refers to me as maman and I to him as daddy.

A much harder situation came about when I dressed her as a "mummy" for the Halloween party last year; she later reported to her French granny that she'd gone dressed as a "maman"...

Portofino · 23/11/2011 15:10

Dd calls dh Papa - she started this independantly all of a sudden, though we refer to him as Dad/Daddy eg give your dad a kiss goodnight. Me on the other hand am MUUUMMMM, or Mummeeee when she wants biscuits or something Grin

HettyAmaretti · 23/11/2011 15:11

We went with mama / papa as per local language from the start. I didn't to cause confusion when DC are commuicting with non-english speakers

MIFLAW · 23/11/2011 15:27

I am Papa in French and Daddy in English - also acts as an early warning system as I can tell from th first word of the sentence what language she is about to use with me.

noramum · 23/11/2011 15:59

DH and I say Mama/Papa when talking about the other parent (we are both German).

But DD says Mummy and Papa. We somehow managed to get rid of Daddy at home but Mummy sticks :-(.

As long as she isn't calling me Mother or Mutti I can live with Mummy.

LoonyRationalist · 23/11/2011 16:18

My fil is Abuelo to my dd's as being Spanish that is always what he expected to be called. My dh calls him dad as my fil was not confident enough to insist on Papa when his sons were born.
My point is I guess that you tend to envisage your children referring to you in your mother tongue and it is important to insist on this if it is important to you.

Bonsoir · 23/11/2011 16:21

I am Mummy and DP is Papa; DP refers to me as maman as does DD when speaking French, but DD always calls me Mummy. However, we refer to DP as papa even when speaking English.

redexpat · 23/11/2011 18:02

Apologies to any Danes on here but the danish for mother is quite frankly the ugliest most annoying word in the whole danish language. Like the word more in english, but when danish kids say it it's more like mowaaaaar and it makes my teeth itch. They actually sound like cows.

We are Mummy and far and we try and refer to each other as such, although it can sometimes be a bit tricky when you're speaking english to slip in a danish word and vice versa.

cory · 24/11/2011 06:55

I also use the English version of dd's name when speaking to her in English; harder with ds as there isn't an English version, but we do have an English family nickname. Ds uses his own, standard Swedish, nickname for dd.

StoneBaby · 24/11/2011 14:46

I'm French and DH is English living in English speaking country.
I call myself maman and DH is daddy even when I speak French to DS.
DS will call me mummy omst of the time but if he sees a photo of me, he'll say maman. He calls DH daddy.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread