More thoughts....

[conuly]

(Yes, I'm thinking, weird, huh?)

The other day, Ana and I are sitting outside on the boat on our way into the city. And you should know, sitting outside on the boat is the highlight of Ana's day, doubly so if we get to do it twice, or if we're on the cool new boats with elevators where you can sit outside sans roof. Okay, that's not really necessary, but I thought I'd mention it.

There's another girl there, about 8 - 11 years old, with her father. English-speaking, no accent. We're talking a bit, and at one point she turns to her father to point out something "Look, Papa!"

I've never heard that outside of older books. Never, ever.

My mother calls her mother Ma. I didn't find that out into fairly recently, because to us she refers to her mother as Bonne-Maman, which is what we call her. My sister and I have called our parents Mommy and Daddy since we were talking. Sometime after my father died, my mother suggested that we didn't *have* to call her Mommy, we could say Mom instead, and Jenn just kinda gaped at her as though this was the most absurd thing she'd ever heard in her life. It would be kinda silly, to change our mother's nickname for the sake of conformity.

Now we call her Nanen, though, if we're around Ana, because otherwise Ana gets a bit confused. We don't mind calling Jenn Jenn around Ana, but we try to call Mommy Nanen.

So... what do you call your parents? Bonus points if what you call them is a term from somebody else's language/dialect. Half bonus points if it's a private term, or one from a language/dialect you have, but nobody else (or at least, very few people)in your area has.

Comments

[xmorningxrosex.livejournal.com]

My mom didn't like that we called her "mama" so it's always been "mom." And "dad." I refer to my mom's ex-husband as "step-dad" when I'm talking about him because it's just easier, or his first name when talking to him. My boyfriend's family refers to grandpas as "papas" and he sometimes calls his dad "pops." My friend always called her grandma "nanna." Hmm...nothing too interesting.

[kayt-arminta.livejournal.com]

annem=my mother

babacik=my father. keyboard dosn't have the proper characters though. the c should have a little hook thingy underneathe it, and no dot over the i.

though i only call my father that when i'm trying to suck up to my mother. we don't get along. usually i just call him baba.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Um, I don't know how to make an i without a dot, but ç makes ç – at least according to the World Wide Web Consortium page (http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/sgml/entities.html).

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

When I was little, I called my parents Maman and Daddy. (My mother being French-Canadian and my father Anglo.) Then when I was school-aged, I conformed to Mom and Dad. When I became estranged from my mother, she became just that: "My mother." And now that my father is getting older, has step-grandchildren and a towncar, I call him Pepere (acute accent on the first 'e' and grave on the second.)

I've never met anyone outside of my family who uses the word, which means more literally 'little old man' (my grandmother being 'Memere' - 'little old woman') and I don't know if the tradition comes from my grandfather's Belgian family or my grandmother's Metis one, but we use it both as the proper name and as a common one for any cute or stubborn little old man, the kind who drives too slow on his Sunday drives in his big old Chrysler.

My dad, despite being Anglo, spent enough time with my mother's family to appreciate the name, especially since his step-grandkids call him by his first name. It's prompted him to start calling me Grasshopper. Go figure. :-P

[rachelkachel]

Mom and Dad; Mama and Daddy when I was younger. I never used Mommy and only ever saw it in books, so it seems weird to me. My dad calls my grandmother Mother and so do all his brothers. My mom called her grandmother Nano, I think, and my dad called his grandfather Papaw (I'm not sure how you would spell that, the first a is short like in hat). I bet there's more that I just don't know about.

[chem-nerd.livejournal.com]

Mom and Dad, unless I'm trying to be funny or a suck up, in which case I'll revert to Daddy, or, more rarely, Mommy. My grandparents were always Grammy and Grandpa on Mom's side, and Nana and Papa on Dad's side. I call my step-grandmother Mimi, mostly because that's what her grandkids call her.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Ma and Dad now, Mommy and Daddy when younger. Dad signs his emails DoD (dear old dad).

I call my parents Nana and Grandpa in front of the kids.

My inlaws are Dan and Marilyn and Kathleen.

[pottyringer.livejournal.com]

does fathead get bonus points?

[strangelette.livejournal.com]

Huh, the little guy who lives next door to my parents uses 'papa' but seems to default to 'mom' over 'mama'.

My sister and I used mom and dad until - and I continue to swear it was a natural progression - we wore them out and started calling both parents by their first names. I think that was around 8th grade for me, and then sis followed suit a bit later (5th or 6th grade for her). A friend of mine here keeps quizzing me about the first name thing. We lived in a pretty chill neighborhood too, so all other adults were first name only rather than Mrs/Mr/Ms LastName. I do remember kids on a first name basis with their parents are sounding odd before I started doing it. It didn't stop me from doing it though :)

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

I only talk to my parents a couple of times a year. I rarely call them anything. When I talk to them, I guess I address my mother as "Mum" and my father as "Father."

[peaseblossom03.livejournal.com]

I call my mother "Mom" or "Ma" sometimes in more light-hearted moments.

My stepfather, I call Dad.

My biological father (deceased 25+ years) I refer to as Michael.

I figure that "father" is a biological relationship; "Dad" is an earned title.

[padawank.livejournal.com]

I call my mom Mumalite-- it's latvian and is deemed respectful in the langueage. It translates as 'dear mother'. Sometimes it's just Muma, which is just 'mother'. She can be, on occasion, Mommy, like I used to call her when I was little.

I'll call my dad either Teti (father in Latvian) or Daddy/Dad. Daddy's most common, Teti is usually when we're at a formal Latvian event or the like.


Bonus points for meeeee.

[deceptica]

Mama and Papa, default for where I live. No bonus points for me!

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

My parents are Nana and Pawpaw to my children, Mom and Dad usually to me and Steve, rarely Mumsie and Papa-san.

My in-laws are Oma and Opa to my children, Mom and Dad to me.

My ex-husband is "your father", "your biological father", or "your sperm donor" when I'm talking about him to my son, although the latter is VERY rare and only when I'm feeling particularly vengeful. My ex-husband's parents were grandmother and grandfather until they died, and were infrequently referred to or communicated with.

Steve and I, referring to ourselves or each other when talking to the children (or occasionally each other) are Mommy and Daddy. My son Colin has never called Steve "step-father" or any variant, and I'm not really sure he understands that Carrie is actually his half-sister ("But she's a whole person!"). I don't think that explaining Carrie is his half-sister is important enough to belabor: the sister is the important part.

And as kind of an aside, custom in my family growing up was that close friends of my parents were "aunt" or "uncle", occasionally "grandparent" if the generational gap was suitable for it. I've continued that habit with my children. Does anyone else do that?

[deceptica]

Yes! When I was little I had dozens of uncles and aunts. I sort of wish I hadn't though, because it became rather confusing to me once I actually asked about who was related to me and who wasn't. (Mostly because some people were related but weren't actually uncles or aunts... so what were they then?)

[forestdweller.livejournal.com]

Oh i made mine up when I got older.

When I was little it was Mommy and Daddy, then Mom and Dad, but now? Mummle and Daddoo.

[aquamizuko.livejournal.com]

My parents have been Mom and Dad for as long as I can remember. My grandmothers were Nanny and Granny. Don't know about my grandfathers.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

I call my parents by their names and have done so since I was four-years-old. This started when I went through my Princess Phase. I wouldn't respond to anyone unless I was referred to as Princess Claire, and I took to calling my parents King R. and Queen F. The formal titles got dropped, the names stayed.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Though they say before that I called them Mama and Papa. I don't remember, though! When I am talking about them I tend to call them "my mom" and "my dad," but in the same way as I would say "my friend," "my professor," or "my boss." That's the role in my life that they occupy, not who they are.

[xiggaroo.livejournal.com]

Until Ally was born (I was 4), they were daddy-Pete and mama-Nancy. After that, mom and dad.

[adina77.livejournal.com]

I cam my mom mommy, mom, ma, or ima (hebrew for mom). It depends on my mood. I mostly call her ima though

[pornography.livejournal.com]

My parents have always just been "Gillian" and "Paul" to me.

[azarias.livejournal.com]

My paternal grandparents, who raised me for the saner bits of my childhood, were Nanny and Pawpaw. My mother's parents, whom I never knew well, were Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Brantley, which was cordial enough and still somewhat affection.

You should note that part of this is a Southern thing: the way I was raised, a younger person never calls an older person by one name, unless it's a family nickname. You always use a title and their first name. A Pennsylvanian friend of mine is still amused that I call her mom Miss Carol. Since I wasn't close enough to my maternal set to have nicknames for them, a title and the first name worked fine.

[precia.livejournal.com]

I've got a lot for my mother. I called her Mama for most of my younger childhood, with a short phase in the middle where I called her Mommy. When I got slightly older, I switched to plain old Mom. Sometime in my teenage years, I changed that to Mum, with a Ma occasionally thrown in for flavour.
If I'm talking about her, I'll only rarely say "my mother" (or, sometimes, "my mum"). Most of the time I just refer to her as Mum.

My dad has always been Deeda. My older sister couldn't get "Daddy" quite right and ended up reversing the syllables. So Da-Dee became Dee-Da.
If I'm talking about him, I'll generally call him "my father" or "my dad". The exception is if I'm talking to my sister or my mum, where I'll use his "proper" name of Deeda. This is because I've never heard of anyone else using this name for their father, and it's easier to not have to explain it every time I want to mention my dad.

[xmorningxrosex.livejournal.com]

My mom didn't like that we called her "mama" so it's always been "mom." And "dad." I refer to my mom's ex-husband as "step-dad" when I'm talking about him because it's just easier, or his first name when talking to him. My boyfriend's family refers to grandpas as "papas" and he sometimes calls his dad "pops." My friend always called her grandma "nanna." Hmm...nothing too interesting.

[kayt-arminta.livejournal.com]

annem=my mother

babacik=my father. keyboard dosn't have the proper characters though. the c should have a little hook thingy underneathe it, and no dot over the i.

though i only call my father that when i'm trying to suck up to my mother. we don't get along. usually i just call him baba.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Um, I don't know how to make an i without a dot, but ç makes ç – at least according to the World Wide Web Consortium page (http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/sgml/entities.html).

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

When I was little, I called my parents Maman and Daddy. (My mother being French-Canadian and my father Anglo.) Then when I was school-aged, I conformed to Mom and Dad. When I became estranged from my mother, she became just that: "My mother." And now that my father is getting older, has step-grandchildren and a towncar, I call him Pepere (acute accent on the first 'e' and grave on the second.)

I've never met anyone outside of my family who uses the word, which means more literally 'little old man' (my grandmother being 'Memere' - 'little old woman') and I don't know if the tradition comes from my grandfather's Belgian family or my grandmother's Metis one, but we use it both as the proper name and as a common one for any cute or stubborn little old man, the kind who drives too slow on his Sunday drives in his big old Chrysler.

My dad, despite being Anglo, spent enough time with my mother's family to appreciate the name, especially since his step-grandkids call him by his first name. It's prompted him to start calling me Grasshopper. Go figure. :-P

[rachelkachel]

Mom and Dad; Mama and Daddy when I was younger. I never used Mommy and only ever saw it in books, so it seems weird to me. My dad calls my grandmother Mother and so do all his brothers. My mom called her grandmother Nano, I think, and my dad called his grandfather Papaw (I'm not sure how you would spell that, the first a is short like in hat). I bet there's more that I just don't know about.

[chem-nerd.livejournal.com]

Mom and Dad, unless I'm trying to be funny or a suck up, in which case I'll revert to Daddy, or, more rarely, Mommy. My grandparents were always Grammy and Grandpa on Mom's side, and Nana and Papa on Dad's side. I call my step-grandmother Mimi, mostly because that's what her grandkids call her.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Ma and Dad now, Mommy and Daddy when younger. Dad signs his emails DoD (dear old dad).

I call my parents Nana and Grandpa in front of the kids.

My inlaws are Dan and Marilyn and Kathleen.

[pottyringer.livejournal.com]

does fathead get bonus points?

[strangelette.livejournal.com]

Huh, the little guy who lives next door to my parents uses 'papa' but seems to default to 'mom' over 'mama'.

My sister and I used mom and dad until - and I continue to swear it was a natural progression - we wore them out and started calling both parents by their first names. I think that was around 8th grade for me, and then sis followed suit a bit later (5th or 6th grade for her). A friend of mine here keeps quizzing me about the first name thing. We lived in a pretty chill neighborhood too, so all other adults were first name only rather than Mrs/Mr/Ms LastName. I do remember kids on a first name basis with their parents are sounding odd before I started doing it. It didn't stop me from doing it though :)

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

I only talk to my parents a couple of times a year. I rarely call them anything. When I talk to them, I guess I address my mother as "Mum" and my father as "Father."

[peaseblossom03.livejournal.com]

I call my mother "Mom" or "Ma" sometimes in more light-hearted moments.

My stepfather, I call Dad.

My biological father (deceased 25+ years) I refer to as Michael.

I figure that "father" is a biological relationship; "Dad" is an earned title.

[padawank.livejournal.com]

I call my mom Mumalite-- it's latvian and is deemed respectful in the langueage. It translates as 'dear mother'. Sometimes it's just Muma, which is just 'mother'. She can be, on occasion, Mommy, like I used to call her when I was little.

I'll call my dad either Teti (father in Latvian) or Daddy/Dad. Daddy's most common, Teti is usually when we're at a formal Latvian event or the like.


Bonus points for meeeee.

[deceptica]

Mama and Papa, default for where I live. No bonus points for me!

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

My parents are Nana and Pawpaw to my children, Mom and Dad usually to me and Steve, rarely Mumsie and Papa-san.

My in-laws are Oma and Opa to my children, Mom and Dad to me.

My ex-husband is "your father", "your biological father", or "your sperm donor" when I'm talking about him to my son, although the latter is VERY rare and only when I'm feeling particularly vengeful. My ex-husband's parents were grandmother and grandfather until they died, and were infrequently referred to or communicated with.

Steve and I, referring to ourselves or each other when talking to the children (or occasionally each other) are Mommy and Daddy. My son Colin has never called Steve "step-father" or any variant, and I'm not really sure he understands that Carrie is actually his half-sister ("But she's a whole person!"). I don't think that explaining Carrie is his half-sister is important enough to belabor: the sister is the important part.

And as kind of an aside, custom in my family growing up was that close friends of my parents were "aunt" or "uncle", occasionally "grandparent" if the generational gap was suitable for it. I've continued that habit with my children. Does anyone else do that?

[deceptica]

Yes! When I was little I had dozens of uncles and aunts. I sort of wish I hadn't though, because it became rather confusing to me once I actually asked about who was related to me and who wasn't. (Mostly because some people were related but weren't actually uncles or aunts... so what were they then?)

[forestdweller.livejournal.com]

Oh i made mine up when I got older.

When I was little it was Mommy and Daddy, then Mom and Dad, but now? Mummle and Daddoo.

[aquamizuko.livejournal.com]

My parents have been Mom and Dad for as long as I can remember. My grandmothers were Nanny and Granny. Don't know about my grandfathers.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

I call my parents by their names and have done so since I was four-years-old. This started when I went through my Princess Phase. I wouldn't respond to anyone unless I was referred to as Princess Claire, and I took to calling my parents King R. and Queen F. The formal titles got dropped, the names stayed.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Though they say before that I called them Mama and Papa. I don't remember, though! When I am talking about them I tend to call them "my mom" and "my dad," but in the same way as I would say "my friend," "my professor," or "my boss." That's the role in my life that they occupy, not who they are.

[xiggaroo.livejournal.com]

Until Ally was born (I was 4), they were daddy-Pete and mama-Nancy. After that, mom and dad.

[adina77.livejournal.com]

I cam my mom mommy, mom, ma, or ima (hebrew for mom). It depends on my mood. I mostly call her ima though

[pornography.livejournal.com]

My parents have always just been "Gillian" and "Paul" to me.

[azarias.livejournal.com]

My paternal grandparents, who raised me for the saner bits of my childhood, were Nanny and Pawpaw. My mother's parents, whom I never knew well, were Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Brantley, which was cordial enough and still somewhat affection.

You should note that part of this is a Southern thing: the way I was raised, a younger person never calls an older person by one name, unless it's a family nickname. You always use a title and their first name. A Pennsylvanian friend of mine is still amused that I call her mom Miss Carol. Since I wasn't close enough to my maternal set to have nicknames for them, a title and the first name worked fine.

[precia.livejournal.com]

I've got a lot for my mother. I called her Mama for most of my younger childhood, with a short phase in the middle where I called her Mommy. When I got slightly older, I switched to plain old Mom. Sometime in my teenage years, I changed that to Mum, with a Ma occasionally thrown in for flavour.
If I'm talking about her, I'll only rarely say "my mother" (or, sometimes, "my mum"). Most of the time I just refer to her as Mum.

My dad has always been Deeda. My older sister couldn't get "Daddy" quite right and ended up reversing the syllables. So Da-Dee became Dee-Da.
If I'm talking about him, I'll generally call him "my father" or "my dad". The exception is if I'm talking to my sister or my mum, where I'll use his "proper" name of Deeda. This is because I've never heard of anyone else using this name for their father, and it's easier to not have to explain it every time I want to mention my dad.