It's dawning more on me that my dad and his sisters called their Mother, Mum...she came from the Old Country, Italy, and Mum stayed with her when she lived here. Our generation called that woman, Mom. For the most part I believe so. Some called that woman, by their first name. I did when I was joking around with her.....her name was Ann and I often called her Annie Bananie... When I was pertubed with her, she got MOTHER!!!! I believe the Old Country still calls that woman, Mum. I would think too, she would get Mother... You, what did you call her????
I always called my mother, “Mom”, and I called my father, “Daddy” and sometimes just “Dad”. My mother-in-law was English, but her kids all called her Mom and not Mum, either. They each had special names for me, too. My mom called me “Yvonne” and my dad called me “Bonnie”. My school friends called me a variety of those names, plus “Vonnie”, and “Von”. I was an only child , and my dad’s favorite thing was to tell me that “You’re more trouble than all my kids”, which always made me laugh.
Big family, 7 kids. It was always Ma and Dad, I'm not sure any of us ever addressed her any other way. Lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, parent's cousins, and of course grandparents. I even had 3 "double cousins."
Oh that's interesting, first thing that came to mind "that is Southern talk"...did you call them that when you were older?
Mine were Mama and Daddy always. My kids started calling me "Ma" when they were teenagers, as did all their friends. So that stuck and I'm still Ma.
I want to say something about the north and south differences but gotta think of the fitting words...
To some degree it may even be ethnic, at least as far as those of us of European descent go. Probably even varying by class and background: parent's education level, urban vs. rural, blue collar vs. white collar, etc. And kids and their friends all have a large influence on each others' speech.
My mother was British. We called her "Mom," but she signed cars & such "Mum." Dad was just "dad." I've rarely encountered those who refer to their parents by their first names (mid-to-late teens.) It seems disrespectful.
mama and daddy - even grown Elon Musk makes is kids call their mother by her first name. Given the name of his children does not surprise me.
Mama when I was little and Mom when I started high school. My oldest son calls me Mom, middle son calls me Ma, and my youngest son calls me Mom and then Mother, in a voice like Daffy Duck when he is joking around.
All right, and I know that this is sort of off topic here; but since we ARE talking about names we call each other, it is not too far off topic maybe. I would have never considered calling my parents by their name, or even by a nickname, although mom called me by a nickname a lot of the time, and i did the same with my kids. I called my daughter “Robin-a-Bobbin”, and my son got called “Ant-Tony” (still does), and we all enjoyed it a lot. (There used to be an old nursery rhyme about Robin-a-bobbin bent his bow, shot at a pigeon and killed a crow) Even now, Bobby and I seldom call each other by name. I call him Sweetie-Pie and he calls me Baby-Doll, and I just love that after all this time, he still calls me that !
I know that a lot of women don't want to be called "grandma", but I couldn't wait. My first little grandson called me "gwannie" and that pretty much stuck as each one came along. Now they are teenagers and young adults and they still call me Grannie. (I'm just happy that they call me.) So we are Grannie and Grandpa.
I just don't know w hat I called my Father when I was a little one but it was probably Dad, he was not a Daddy type, he was TOO FIRM and I said for a lot of yrs, he should have NOT been married...he was not the man I wanted to grow and learn with. Alcohol was an issue. Come to think of it, Dad was not a home body, worked all day at his job, came home, ate and took a nap and then went to work in his parent's Beer Garden and closed it up....so I didn't see him much and didn't like what I saw when I did.....sad but the truth. It's said that girls often marry men like t heir fathers, I ca n say that one....Firm, drinker, controlling BUT highly degreeded was my ex and I was impressed..... What did I know in my 20's...