# Anyone address their parents as "Father" and "Mother"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461 "2006-06-12T19:07:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/1 "2006-06-12T19:07:31Z")
I’m kind of curious about this since reading _Into The Forest_, a mostly depressing apocalyptic novel about two orphaned daughters who try to survive in their parents’ house after the end of civilization. In the novel, the father was an elementary school principal, and the mother a former ballet dancer, and the daughters are homeschooled due to the remote location of their home. The family’s heritage isn’t specified, but they seem likely to be just average, Anglo, native Americans, if anything can be concluded from the author’s name. The book’s in the form of a diary kept by one of the sisters, and throughout she refers to her parents as Mother and Father. I have never, ever addressed my parents as Mother and Father, nor have I ever referred to them as such, except in phrases like “my mother” or “our father”. I’ve never heard anyone do this. Is always “Mom/Dad”, “Mom/Pop”, “Ma/Pa”, or some other colloquial expression. Does anyone here use “Mother/Father”? I should retract part of what I just said: more than once, I’ve heard mothers get “Mother!-ed” by their annoyed teenage offspring. But not in casual usage. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/2 "2006-06-12T19:16:00Z")
My dad is…well…“dad”. The female birth giver is just that. I usually call her by her first name or “female birth giver”. I use “mother” when I have to explain who “Deborah” is to some new third party. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/3 "2006-06-12T19:18:23Z")
I do, almost exclusively when referring to her as third person (“Mother says we should be at Uncle John’s at 2 for Easter”) and about 75/25 when speaking to her directly (“Hi Mother!” “Mom, where’s the can opener?”). Pretty much the same for my dad, before he died (and it’s usually “my mom” and “my dad” not “my father/mother”). It started I think with my brother calling her “mother” in his early teens; before then it was mom or mommy. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/4 "2006-06-12T19:21:05Z")
My niece addresses my dad as Grandfather. She got it from some 1st grade Dick, Jane, and Sally-type reading assignment and kept it. It cracks me up. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/5 "2006-06-12T19:26:50Z")
I always called my female parent “Mama”. I remember this guy she was dating about the time I was 11 or so that had a fit because I called her “Mama” and said “Yes, ma’am” or No, ma’am" to her. According to this jerk, I should call her “Mother” and say “Yes, Mother” and “No, Mother”. Fortunately, Mama didn’t put up with anyone telling her how to raise her child, so jerk didn’t last long. After he was no longer around, Mama told me his idea of disciplining his daughters (he was divorced - imagine that 🙂 ) if their rooms weren’t cleaned to his satisfaction was to strip all the bedding off the bed and throw it out the window, and knock everything off their dressers, desks, bookshelves, etc… What a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/6 "2006-06-12T19:33:00Z")
My dad calls his mother “mother”, but only in a certain register that I can’t quite describe. It’s mostly when he’s either joking around with her or irritated with her. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/7 "2006-06-12T19:40:27Z")
I addressed my late mother as ‘Mom’, but I once had a girlfriend the same age as me (born in 1959) who addressed hers as ‘Mother’. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/8 "2006-06-12T19:43:39Z")
Only when I’m impatient with her. “Yes, Mother, as I’ve already told you four times, I have the tickets right here.” ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/9 "2006-06-12T19:47:39Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] I’m kind of curious about this since reading _Into The Forest_, a mostly depressing apocalyptic novel about two orphaned daughters who try to survive in their parents’ house after the end of civilization. In the novel, the father was an elementary school principal, and the mother a former ballet dancer, and the daughters are homeschooled due to the remote location of their home. The family’s heritage isn’t specified, but they seem likely to be just average, Anglo, native Americans, if anything can be concluded from the author’s name. The book’s in the form of a diary kept by one of the sisters, and throughout she refers to her parents as Mother and Father. I have never, ever addressed my parents as Mother and Father, nor have I ever referred to them as such, except in phrases like “my mother” or “our father”. I’ve never heard anyone do this. Is always “Mom/Dad”, “Mom/Pop”, “Ma/Pa”, or some other colloquial expression. Does anyone here use “Mother/Father”? I should retract part of what I just said: more than once, I’ve heard mothers get “Mother!-ed” by their annoyed teenage offspring. But not in casual usage. [/QUOTE] My mother is always “Mother” to me, has been since I was 12 or so. My father is “Dad” to his face, sometimes “Asshole” under my breath. I’m unique among my siblings in this regard; the other six, ranging in age from nearly 32 to just over 47, call our parents “Mama” and "Daddy.’ ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/10 "2006-06-12T19:58:56Z")
My mom calls her mother, my grandmother, “Mother”. When my grandfather was alive, she called him “Dad”. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/11 "2006-06-12T20:04:50Z")
Sometimes I do, but usually it’s mom and dad. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/12 "2006-06-12T21:33:07Z")
My father and mother refer to his mother (the only living grandparent) as Mother. She also signs her cards to them that way. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/13 "2006-06-12T22:01:03Z")
I do. “Mom” and “Dad” just sounds utterly childish to me. It also just sounds way too lovy-dovy, and frankly, I’m not all that crazy about my parents, for reasons I won’t get into here. Therefore, it’s strictly “Mother” and “Father”. It does the job, and allows me to keep a reasonable formal distance. Actually, in private, I usually tend to think about them as Mr. and Mrs. Asshole, but I don’t think it would go down well if I were to refer to them as such to their faces. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/14 "2006-06-12T23:24:19Z")
They’re always Mom and Dad to me, although I’ll sometimes address the female one as Mother when she treats me like a kid. As for Dad, I can’t imagine any situation which might prompt me to call him Father. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/15 "2006-06-13T00:21:44Z")
One of my aunts always addressed and referred to her mom, my grandmother, as “Mother”. She was the only one in the fam to do this and it always struck me as a bit odd. ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/16 "2006-06-13T00:56:33Z")
My father is “Dad”. Never anything else. When we were younger, my sisters called him “daddy” and my youngest sister still occasionally does, but I never have. My mum is “mum”, “mummy”, “mother dearest”, “mother”, and sometimes “mumsy”. There’s no rhyme or reason to how I use them, either. Sometimes when I’m pissed off at her, I’ll call her mummy, yet sometimes when we’re having a great conversation, I’ll call her mother without even thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/17 "2006-06-13T01:00:06Z")
My mother is Mother. My father is Dad. Mother and Dad. Sometimes it’s Mom, especially if I’m talking about her to someone else, since it seems to be the norm. But if I’m not thinking about it, it’s Mother. Dad’s just Dad, because he’s such a _dude_\*. - - Not a noun. _Adjective_. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/18 "2006-06-13T01:58:26Z")
Never my dad. He’s always “Dad”, or on rare occassions, “Daddy”. But I WILL call my mother “Mother” when I’m annoyed with her, as in, “Oh Moth-er!” Any other time, it’s “Mom”. “Father” to me is for priests, not parents. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/19 "2006-06-13T02:25:09Z")
My parents are just Mum and Dad, but my Grandfather was always Grandfather. It wasn’t that we had a distant or formal relationship, we adored each other and were as close as any grandparent and child have ever been, but that was the name he went by and I always thought of and referred to him by it. Grandma, on the other hand, was always Grandma. One of my aunts hated that as she thought they should be uniformly Grandma and Grandpa or Grandmother and Grandmother; she opted to teach her kids the former. Ironically, the children who used the less formal name had the most distant relationship of all the grandchildren. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461/20 "2006-06-13T02:29:53Z")
Mom is Mom. Oddly, I pronounce it “mum” in usual conversation, but I pronounce it “mom” in the vocative - “Mo-o-o-o-o-m!” In a jocular mood I call her Momma. I called Dad Dad. I never had the nerve to use the sarcastic “Father” with him, though he definitely deserved it from time to time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-address-their-parents-as-father-and-mother/360461.md?page=2)