I always called my father “Dad” or “Da”. My sisters sometimes called him “Daddy”. Most of us called our mother “Mother”. I’d guess we made the switch from Mom to Mother when we were around 10 or so.
When writing about him, I’ll usually refer to him as “my father”. When calling him by name I’d say Dad. For example: “My father died of lung cancer. Dad was 67 when he died.”
StG
My first word was Da. Daddy is not at all a pet name. It symbolizes a person of honor in my life. I usually will change a word if it offends someone. Not this one. It is what it is.
In my (Mexican) experience, just as how the trail can go - Father - Dad - Daddy, in Spanish, it goes Padre - Papa - Papi. The middle term being relatively neutral. Is it different in Spain?
I’m in southeast Texas and have yet to hear anyone say “Daddy” here in anything but a mocking context. My two closest friends (both adults, one from Houston, one from way up in the panhandle) use “Dad” in their paternal references. On the other hand, they hardly ever say “shucks” or “y’all” so it might just be a bad sample.
Where I grew up in northeast Kansas, “Mom” and “Dad” were the norm. It also seems we tended to further qualify these terms when speaking to anyone outside the family. For example, I would never have said to my high-school girlfriend “Dad said if I wasn’t in bed by 10 I should go home” without prefacing it with “My” (or on rare occasions “Your”). Growing up I never even heard any of the “Ma/Mama”, “Pa/Papa” variants outside of movies or novels. Certainly if anyone there over 10 years old referred to their parents as “Mommy” or “Daddy” they’d get some odd reactions.
Interestingly, my young nieces distinguish their two grandfathers by using “granddad” for the paternal and “grandpa” for the maternal (eliding the first “d” in both cases, of course… we’re all from Kansas). I once made the mistake of referring to the former (my own dad) as their “gran{d}pa” (the term I always used for my own paternal grandfather*) and was verbally chastised by all three of the little nippers.
(*My maternal grandfather died ten years before I was born, so I never developed a familiar term for him. In all my life I think I’ve only ever spoken of him with my mom, and always as “your dad”.)
thanks for all the replies, everyone. very interesting.
I’m sort of in the same school of thought as sailor - not so much that it’s too personal, but that it just seems very odd to me, since I personally associate “daddy” with what small children call their father. There appears to be considerable regional variance on this usage.
Though I’ve not been raised in the South, my parents are both Southerners. Going to family reunions, I’d not be the least bit surprised to hear any of my cousins – male or female – referring to their respective fathers as “daddy”.
Within my immediate family, however, the standards are a bit different. One of my two sisters says “daddy”, but she also calls me “Davy”, whereas to everyone else I am Dave. My brother and I would never address our father as “daddy”. Father, yes. Dad, yes. Great and glorious almighty Lord Attila, oh hell yes.
But his son said ‘Daddy’ with clear disrespect, so that’s not quite the same thing.
22-year-old native Arkansan - They are both “Mom” and “Dad”. I use “Mama” occasionally when I affect a Southern accent while speaking with her. “Mommy and Daddy” are never used to these people, but ironically in discussions with other people.
(Now, there is a Daddy in my life, but that’s another story… :p)
Very interesting thread.
Growing up in SW Washigton state it was simply (from the youngest age, I recall my mom telling my younger sister to not call her mommy) Mom and Dad when talking to them (and “my mom” and “my dad” when referencing them to others).
All grandparents regardless of level (I grew up to adulthood with many great-grandparents still alive) were just grandma and grandpa with the appropriate surname added when referencing them to others who know them and need differentiation (so I might have said to my mom that “Grandma Neilor called earlier and wants you to call back” but wouldn’t have said "Your mom called and wants you to call back.
All other family members (aunts, uncles, cousins) were simply referred to by their first name, both when talking to to them or about them.
So yeah, when I moved out into the wider world after high school it took me a while to stop viewing as infantile people who said mommy, daddy, Aunt Sally, Cousin Itt, etc. Getting used to everybody being an “auntie” when I lived in Hawai’i helped a lot with that. I must admit that I still haven’t quite made it to such acceptance with “momma.”
So I take it that most of y’all’s skins would crawl if you heard a wife addressing her husband as “daddy”? 
When I am referring to my parents, I say “My Mom or my Dad”, but when I address them directly it’s “Mommy or Daddy”. I’s what I’ve always called them. My grandmother is Granny and my grandfather was Granddaddy. My ex called his dad “Pop”. To my southern ears, Pop sounds disrespectful. (I know it’s not, it’s regional and no one means it disrespectfully, but it sounds that way to me so I won’t use it.) Current boyfriend calls his dad “Pop” too.
Not necessarily. This is common also, for husbands and wives to call each other “momma” and “daddy”.
Nor is it peculiar to the American “provincials.” In one of his routines, Eddie Izzard talks about being very confused as a child when his grandparents referred to one another as “grandmum” and “grandad”.
I’m a native New Yorker. We have no Southern in our background (3 of 4 of my grandparents were immigrants). My two sisters and I have always called our parents “mommy” and “daddy” (I’m the oldest, at 44). When I refer to them to outsiders, it’s usually “my mom” or “my dad,” although sometimes I’m more formal–depends on whom I’m talking to. When I talk to my sisters, it’s always “daddy” and “mommy.”
My dad is always “dad”, no matter who I’m talking to. My mom is “momma” when I’m addressing her, but that’s just me. My mom addressed her mom as “mother” until my grandmom died, (but that sounds odd to me.) I guess that’s why, when talking about one of my grandparents, it was “Grandmother R----” or “Grandmother B----”, but I addressed them as “gran(d)mom”.
Were those rare occasions when you dated your sister? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
It seems to me that whatever you grew up with is what you find normal so I understand that for some people talking about “my dad” might seem normal but to me it just sounds strange only because I grew up differently, not because anyone is right or wrong. Just like on Spanish TV these days all language is acceptable and freely used. Words like “joder” (fuck) , “coño” (cunt) and others like that are used freely, at all times, by TV presenters, by people being interviewed, by everybody. I can realize they are just interjections and have lost their literal meaning but, fuck, I don’t like it. I grew up differently. I neve heard my parents swear in any language.
Especially if they have kids. It’s a term of endearment, that’s all. I used to call my ex-wife “Dinky”.
I call Bert, my cat, “Baby”
There. It’s out in the open.
God, I feel so much better now.
I’m out of the closet as far as terms of endearment are concerned.
Y’all are my “Kids” my “Little Shits”, and , if I can work it out, I have my own abbreviated nick for a lot of you, and that just brings you a little closer to me.
None of it is meant to offend. ALL of it is meant as friendship.
Q
Thanks NinetyWt
When talking to her children about their father it is OK. Just like depending on who she is talking to she can refer to him as “my husband” or “Mr. Spent” or whatever. But I really dislike couples who routinely call each others by cute pet names, including “daddy”, use baby talk, say “I love you” all the time… I find it just tacky.
Then you probably wouldn’t have wanted to watch me around my infant/toddler patients. I did it all, including that Howie Mandel rubber glove on top of the head bit. Had 'em rub my head while I kicked my right leg up and down. Did the magic coloring book trick for them.,
Dr. Bob, the puppet the little ones always wanted to take home…
Whatever it took, I did it.
Including “baby-talk”
God, I miss it so much.
Your world doesn’t sound like much fun.