DOES YOUR CHILD call you by your FIRST NAME and if so WHAT do you do about it???

[drosophila]

DS used to call us by our first names and we never corrected him. We just used to call each other Mummy and Daddy when talking to him. Eventually he used Mummy and Dad more often. Then DD came along and he reverted to calling us by our first names again.

When asked by his gran why he calls us by our first names he says ' Because X is their name and Mummy is what they do'. I find it hard to argue with that logic. DD is now starting to use our first names. I just wondered if other had similar experience and do you think it is an important issue. DS is 6 and dd is 20 mths.

impersonal and odd, imo

I would be devastated if dd called me Cath. I love being Mummy.

I've never met anyone who calles their parents by name. Weird.

I'm mummy or mama, sometimes Mama [name], which I find rather sweet, and with DS1 I'm [name] when he's angry and calling for me and don't answer enough!

I would be devastated if dd called me Cath too
it s not my name
boom boom

don't answer quick enough, that is

my ds's call me carly or mummy, or mummy (surname), i dont mind, id rather they say mummy, but ultimatley they knwo who i am!

my dh gets bothered by it, but i think its funny.

they are nrly 2 and nrly 3.

cx

mine call me mommy but because my oldest calls my DP mark so do the ohers it upsets him sometimes though

I don't think I'd want mine to call me and DH by our names - it would just feel too distant and impersonal.

I still call my mum "Mum" and always will. My dad called my grandma "Mum" but I call my MIL by her name - although she and my FIL tend to refer to themselves as Mum and Dad when they speak to me.

The only time I've had to call my mum by her name was when we briefly worked together - it was really strange and I kept saying "Mum" then having to correct it to her name!

My LO is 2 and he has just started called dp 'daddy Chris' which we don't encourage but don't get upset about it.

We would rather the kid's call us mum and dad it just seems nicer somehow.

It's tricky though becuase ds calls his nanny's either nanny Jayne or nanny Lucy so he knows which one were talking about!

lol cod.

didn't realise I'd typed my actual name. must take more care.

But you are right though, I'd be even more upset if dd called me by a name that isn't mine! MIL sometimes calls me by dh's ex-fiancee's name. Drives me insane.

It's only an issue if you mind it. What other people think is irrelevant. When ds went through a similar phase I more-or-less ignored it, but when dd started picking up on it as she began talking, I decided to nip it in the bud because I didn't really like it. I explained that only two people in the whole wide world had the right to call me Mummy, and they were ds and dd. It was a very special word for them, and it made me very happy when they used it, because nobody else was allowed to. Ds rather liked this explaination, and reverted to Mummy, though he often slipped up in the early weeks, and all I had to do was look at him quizzically and he'd grin and correct himself.

After ds started school he occasionally got confused, as they do, and called me Miss Mummy - which I loved!

dd1 sometimes calls me by my first name, when we are playing a pretend game or when her friends are around ( they call me by my first name). It really doesnt' bother me at all.

Our dd1 went through a phase of calling us by our first names and it drove me mad - I'm sure there's a thread about it somewhere in MN oblivion! She got past it though as we pretty much ignored it. She still does it to me sometimes now and then when she's being cheeky but it goes over my head!

DS (2.4) calls us Mummy and Daddy half the time and by our names the rest of the time. Don't think we encouraged it, it just happened - and at the risk of being put in cod's poncy corner, I love it!
My big cringe is couples who call each other Mummy and Daddy like my parents do - well my parents are Sri Lankan so they call each other Amma and Appa but you get the point.

my dd does sometimes (4yo) I normally say " oi, It's mummy to you little miss" with a big grin on our face and she giggles. She gets it though, she understand why I call her nanne mum, and other people call their mums 'mummy' even though I call them by their name iykwim..

Mumby - FIL does that sometimes, says "shall we go out tonight mummy" to MIL - youngest child is nearly 17...yuk yuk yuk...In fairness though, MIL always pulls him up on it

Thinking about it, I have never once heard my parents call each other by their real names - so maybe that's one reason why I get such a kick out of ds calling us by our first names.

I called my mom on her first name for most of my life and only started calling her 'ma' about 2 years ago. I'm 26

Interesting how the smallest thing can draw accusations of 'very waitrose to me'. When DS first did it I treated it a bit like you are advised to treat swearing i.e. not making a fuss of it. After a while he changed how he addressed us. I am only slightly bothered by it and to be honest it's more to do with what others think. Do you think I am respected less by DS if he calls me by my first name?

DS has a very literal mind sometimes and his reasoning is difficult to challenge even his very traditional granny had to concede he had a point. When I think about it he says to others 'My Dad' or 'My Mum' but when addressing us it is about 60% our first names.

well dont ask me then.

I am more Morrisons than Waitrose! How funny that people think that, bwahahahaha

Agree with custy. My name is "Mummy" or "Mum" and I don't let me kids call me "Uwila" (or my RL equivalent).

I feel the same way about refering to my and DH's syblings as Aunt/Uncle . It is a mark of respect and it is not optional.

Our DS (3.7) sometimes called DH by his real name, but usually just after I've been calling out his name! We have taught him our full names in case he ever gets lost when we're out. He's definately starting to call us Mum/Dad far more than Mummy/Daddy already! Our twin DD's (15 months) just about manage Mamamama/Dadadada....!

heh...when i introduced my mother to my mother-in-law, i said,"and this is.....my mum." i'd never call my mum by her first name and i'm 24!! not sure i like mummy though. going to try for mumma with my one (currently 6 months pg, SO not an issue yet!)....i think DP quite likes the idea of his child calling him by his first name, but then this is our first. he might feel very different when it's actually out and about and the baby says "dadda" for the first time!

I'm glad I asked you and your response interested me custardo. I have had a suspicion that some people share your view in RL and I wanted to hear or see the words to express what I think people are thinking ifkwim.