How do I get my 3.5 year old to stop calling me mum?

[whistlers]

Started a couple of days ago and it's constant.

I would like to be called mummy again. Mum sounds dreadful.

@YesDisney

Lol what?

When is he allowed to stop calling you mummy? Will he be expected to at 10? 15? 20?

Mummy makes me cringe personally.

Yeah. Mummy is lovely but only up to about age 5 or 6. If I asked my teen ds to call me Mummy I think he'd think I'd lost the plot. I have a friend who still does it at 48 and it is cringey from an adult. It's natural for most children to drop the Mummy. I think Mum is lovely too.

Also why are people fixating on the one poster who said they would not answer to “Mum”? OP didn’t say she would do this, it was literally one random responder who said it!

I get you. There aren't many years where they can use mummy so you want to hear it as long as possible. Mine are 9 and 11 and use mum and mummy.

My sons are 26 and 30, they still call me "Mummy" I cannot abide "mum". My mother was "mummy" until she died at 92.

@inappropriateraspberry

Really? My daughter sometimes calls me by my first name or even calls me Dad! She might again, but she might not. Does it really matter? It will still be repeated all day, every day, whatever she calls you!

I am always being called Dad. Strangely Dad doesn't get called Mum

@ExConstance

My sons are 26 and 30, they still call me "Mummy" I cannot abide "mum". My mother was "mummy" until she died at 92.

I would run from a man I was dating if I discovered he called his mum “mummy”

It's a personal preference. It's not difficult though, just be persistent and consistent in correcting him before you respond to a request.

My sister's kids started calling their dad by his first name, they didn't like it so corrected the kids.

One warning though, when my son was younger he started calling me mum which i, like you didn't like, I corrected him to mummy which he accepted.

but now i have a 14 yo who calls me mummy and it's a bit odd tbh.

Just wait til your child starts calling you ‘bro’ like my 11 year old ds 😂

People forget you can correct in a smiling, lighthearted, kind way. Also, at preschool age it is as good a time as any to start teaching them that it is important to listen to other people when they tell you how they want to be addressed (eg don’t use a shortened form like Becky for Rebecca if they don’t like it). So why not start with yourself as an example of that concept.

I'd probably do the same at 3 keep repeating mummy to hold onto it a little longer. I can't stand it when adults call their parents Mummy and daddy, or what I've seen on Facebook, the mum of a woman in her 30s I went to school with..her mum comments on her photos 'looking lovely darling, mummy x x"

Ah I get it OP, he is still so little. My nearly 7yo still calls me mummy, which I like and will miss when he stops.

That said I will steer him towards stopping in due course to use a more mature name (mum). Not sure what age that will be, maybe junior school, so in around a year.

I remember when my eldest son was about two he had driven me mad one day with his constant questions and "Mummy.... Mummy... Mummy ...Mummy this Mummy that Mummy the other.

Finally I lost my patience and said, "Right that's it. I've had enough now I'm not Mummy any more. I've changed my name."

DS looked at me and thought for a bit. Then very seriously, he said, "Mummy, are you Mrs Surname?"

I like mummy too. Mum is my mum. I will accept Mums from my 6yo on occasion but correct Mum. Just makes me feel old.

My DS called me mum from 3, it never occurred to me to ask him to revert to mummy.

Box him round the ears!

I had no idea so many people have such strong views about what others call their parents. As long as a date didn't call his mum 'bitch', I really can't imagine caring. Ditto with what my kids call me.

What a weird thing to be unhappy about. Are you going to notify your child in writing when you decide the date on which it's appropriate for them to change how the address you? Do they get no choice in the matter?

Get over yourself. You are a mum. Just ask him to call you by your name if mum isn't good enough.

@historygeek love it 😀 Your 5 year old sounds great fun 😀

If this is the only problem you've got to worry about 😂😂😂

But also - poor child - if you're on their back about something so minor then god help them

@ExConstance

My sons are 26 and 30, they still call me "Mummy" I cannot abide "mum". My mother was "mummy" until she died at 92.

This... is weird. Sorry.

If I met a man and he called his mum 'Mummy' at the big age of 30, I would RUN AWAY. Suggests he hasn't really grown up.

She probably insists her grown-up sons call her mummy as it makes her feel posh.

You do realise the term mummy is infantile and stops right?

I would expect it transition to mum on starting school at the latest and likely before if they go to nursery and mix with others who have older siblings and have clued on it is a ‘word babies use’. No way I’d die on that hill with a 3yo knowing it would only have a year or so to go otherwise generally.

Imagine if they kept using it and you had older kids/teens/adults saying mummy! Has to end and generally it’s quite young in a society with tv, mixing with other kids etc.

I'd just go with it, if you try and force him back to Mummy he may feel awkward trying to switch to Mum when he's older and I too think its a total cringe from older DC/adults.

I called my mum her name from about 3 to 6, refused any attempts to call her mum, so at least it's not that OP!

But honestly - it's not like someone calling you the wrong given name. There are tons of different ways to describe this relationship - mum, mam, mummy, mother, ma, mama. It's a title to describe what you are to them - and surely if he sees you as 'mum' in his head, that's what you are now! I think it'd be weird to force 'mummy' and then suddenly in 18 months be like "okay, now it's fine for some abitrary reason".