Does anyone else call their parents by their real names? (husband, person)

[Jean-Francois]

My wife and her brother always called their parents Joan and Pete, as I called them, but it seemed a bit off to me, who’d always called my parents mum and dad, (you don’t hear mom over here, but in the Midlands, and Black Country, you’ll hear mam).
The Black Country by the way is the previously heavily industrialised area to the west of Birmingham.
What I can never fathom though, is that when my wife, now 58, and her brother, 60, talk to each other about their parents, they still refer to them as mummy and daddy, like toddlers would.
It’s kind of jarring to be in a bar with them, to hear her middle aged brother say to her, “What are you getting daddy for his birthday?”

[don1945]

I'm not sure if I can take any of the many threads you start seriously, you sound more like a bored kid, who just wants to post stuff, than someone who really is looking for serious answers.

You have started threads about you being 21 and having a friend who is way younger, also about calling your mom and dad by their real names, also about a cashier winking at your girlfriend, your friend wanting to date someone's parent, and numerous other subjects that sound more like they belong on the pages of the National Enquirer.

I don't know, call me suspicious, but it sure looks more like fantasy than reality.

[march2]

I was raised that calling elders Mom/Dad, Grandma/Grandpa, Uncle George/Aunt Martha, Mr. Smith/Mrs. Jones is a sign of respect. I see great value in those distinctions. It teaches kids that they are not on the same level as adults in authority, life experience, and maturity. In my 52 years of life, I've known 3 families where the parents allowed their kids to call them by their first names. Most of the kids were pretentious, arrogant, and could be disrespectful to other adults at times. Not to say that's true in 100% of cases, but I think it's true in most of those cases. It shows how those generational distinctions of respect and honor are important.

[VTsnowbird]

You mean their real names aren't Mom and Dad?


What gets me is people who refer to their parents as Mommy and Daddy when speaking to a third, unrelated party. As in "I had to take Mommy to the doctor." or "Daddy was always a great fisherman". Just stop. The person I knew who did this was herself old enough to be a grandparent.

[Humble and Kind]

Called them "Mom" and "Dad" until they lied and cheated me, big time lies and cheats.
Now I call them by name, makes them mad but they lost the respect of calling them Mom and Dad. I've forgiven them, but I won't ever forget.

[Mightyqueen801]

I still call my mother, "Ma" or "Mom", and she is 89.

My daughter calls me Mighty Queen. Well, when she wants something. Otherwise, I am Mama.

[city living]

I still use mom and dad. But I often call my mom a nickname, something like "JJ" just because.

My husband likes to joke around and calls my parents "maw" and "paw" usually when he sees them.

[arwenmark]

When my parents were alive I called them Mom or Mother and dad or even daddy occasionally, [I am a daughter].
after I had children and they were old enough to learn to speak my son called my Mother, Mona, because that was how he could say Mother, which I tended to call her the most, [it was a long standing joke thing] Well Mona stuck, her name was Dorothy by the way. Not only did the family then call her Mona but so did her work friends.
My dad, as he aged after mom's death we at some point did start to refer to as Bill but I don't remember actually calling him that to his face it was always dad or daddy.

[Lacerta]

I do, but that is because I've worked for them for more than 20 of my 40 years. It isn't really professional to call them mom or dad at work, so you get in the habit of calling them by their names, and it can be hard to switch back and forth. People question me on it often if they know they are my parents. I get "you call them by their names?!?" quite often, as if that was some terrible thing.

[dallasgoldrush]

My youngest daughter is super-charming. I came home from work one day and she was in a mood -- calling me by my name several times with the hugest grin on her face. I instinctively didn't like it, but I quickly recalled reading that page out of the Parenting 101 manual about reverse psychology.

I had no visible reaction to what she did. She didn't do it again.

But if she hadn't stopped?

The weird thing about it is even though I didn't like it, I wouldn't feel right making that a "punishable" offense. I mean, my name is what it is. And calling me by that is better than calling me a lot of other things I'm sure kids could think of.

So I wouldn't say my kids would be "wrong" for calling me by my name. I'd just be saddened to have the honor of the title "Papa" taken away from me. My kids are the only people in the world who get to call me that. I'm honored that they do it, and I would hope the honor extends to both sides.

From my background, I called my mom "Mama" until our relationship ended when I was in my early 20s.

My dad, who did not raise me and had minimal involvement in my life when I was young, became the doting dad and grandfather towards the very end of his life. I did not call him "Dad", because it didn't really feel accurate -- maybe it was too intimate for me in a way. Neither did I call him by his name, as that would have felt wrong also, like a disrespectful stunt. I settled on "Sir".