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And I have an Aunt Ann and Aunt JoAnn... my youngest calls the older one Aunt JoAnn and the other one Miss Aunt Ann..and she did that all on her own. My mother has been on her and says she needs to do one or the other but I don't care. Long as that Aunt is in there and it isn't offensive she is fine as far as I am concerned. Aunt Ann actually thinks it is funny. We discussed it one time because my first cousins have allowed their children (and they do themselves) call her Evelyn or Ann and call my mother Janie instead of Aunt Janie she commented on it to me that she thought it was rude. I said I have never allowed it because it is disrespectful and she agreed with me and THANKED me for teaching my children the proper behavior. In all reality I think it is partly a cultural thing (parts of the country are much more tied to this behavior than others) and partly a family tradition thing.
I am interested to know why it is disrespectful? how does it show disrespect?
I don't know anyone who calls their biological parents by their first names. Sometimes hear about people calling step-parents by their first names. I always called my aunts and uncles by first names, but with "Aunt" or "Uncle" before. My parents did not allow my sister and I to call other adults (neighbors, teachers, etc) by first names because they saw it as disrespectful.
Back in the 60's I had neighbors who called their parents by their first names and the mother explained she wanted it that way cause she did not want to be one of those women who calls her husband "Daddy". She had a terrible relationship with her father and just the name "Daddy" undid her.
I do call my husband "Daddy" when the youngest kids are around but to our adult kids i refer to him as Bob even tho they still call him "Daddy". Guess it is because I'm relating to them as adults.
My mother doesn't ever remember calling her parents by any other name except for their first names. She's 74 and her mother is 94 and she still calls her by her first name. She was always kind of embarrassed by it, but felt uncomfortable calling them anything else. It was not a respect issue, but due to the fact that they lived in the country in SE Missouri and had a large and extended family. She and everyone else called her grandparents Mom and Dad, and I grew up calling my great-grandparents that too. BTW, it is not a common practice in SE MO to call parents by their first names--just in our family, and I guess it's b/c Mom and Dad were larger than life people.
Okay...so here's a question for you guys. Growing up, I always called my parents "Mom" (well, technically "Mum") and "Dad," like most kids.
However, my husband and his brother always called his parents by their actual first names. Part of the reason why I think is that his parents owned a retail store, and thus he was always referring to his parents to other people--but still.
It got me thinking that, if I ever had kids, I think I'd leave it up to them to decide what to call me. Mom, Mother, Squid , whatever.
Anyhow, I'm curious if kids calling parents by their first name is common. Any of you have your kids do that? Did/do you refer to your parents by their first names?
My son calls me by my first name because my students did. He now calls me mom or mommy. But if He is trying to get my attention then he yells my name.
My son calls us Mom and Dad unless he is yelling to get our attention at the ballpark and we're in a crowd of people. Even then, I'm not wild about it.
My mother was an only child and my father had a brother and sister we rarely saw so they were always Aunt and Uncle since I didn't know them well. My wife was an aunt who is only ten years older than her so she usually calls her by her first name. But she has called all three of her husbands Uncle. The others she all uses titles for.
Our niecers and nephews all call us Aunt and Uncle.
My parents were both dead when we got married. I call my mother-in-law "Mother". I kind of did it on my own, she was always Mrs. before the wedding but she's never complained. My father-in-law is either Papa (the grandkids name for him) or his first name.
I had a friend in high school (I'm 22, so not long ago) who called her parents by their first names. She had 4 brothers and they all did too. I found it a little weird, but they all seemed to have very good relationships with their parents.
My son (14) calls me "Mom" or {geek} when he's joking around. He calls his Dad by his first name, because his Father has been absent from his life since he was just a few weeks old. His Dad is now remarried with other kids and doesn't have time in his life for my son anymore.
My kids (almost 15, 12, 10, 7 and 6) always refer to me as "mom" or "mommy" (yes, even my 12 year old still calls me mommy ) unless we're at a sporting event or somewhere where there's a lot of other moms there and they can't get my attention..then they'll yell out 'strawflower' instead of mom. They don't mean any disrespect by this, it's just hard to get your mother's attention when many other people there who go by mom.
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, whatever.
) unless we're at a sporting event or somewhere where there's a lot of other moms there and they can't get my attention..then they'll yell out 'strawflower' instead of mom. They don't mean any disrespect by this, it's just hard to get your mother's attention when many other people there who go by mom.
