# Do you call your wife, mother? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 20, 2004, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065 "2004-07-20T20:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![START](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@START](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/START)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/1 "2004-07-20T20:49:12Z")
I met a couple the other day and they were both in their 60’s I guess and the wife kept calling her husband “Daddy” and I said “That’s your dad!!??” and everybody started laughing, then I was pretty embarassed, but I got over it. Nobody ever explained why…and I have heard other couples, mostly older ones, do this before but I still blurted out that stupid question. Any married dopers call each other “Mom and Dad”? ---
**Author:** ![My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Darn_Snake_Legs)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/2 "2004-07-20T21:03:11Z")
My parents never did. My girlfriend’s parents call each other Mom and Dad accordingly. I always thought of it as a title thing and not a “Call me Daddy!” type of thing. \ ---
**Author:** ![mlerose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@mlerose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlerose)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/3 "2004-07-20T21:08:10Z")
Even weirder: I know a man who calls his wife “Mother” or “Momma” and they don’t even have any kids! ---
**Author:** ![Padmaraga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Padmaraga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padmaraga)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/4 "2004-07-20T21:10:05Z")
I don’t have kids, so I don’t call my husband “Dad” (or “Mom”, which would be even worse) - though sometimes I’m tempted to call him mother\*\*\*\*\*\* 😃 (I used to have a boyfriend who was fond of saying “mother’s only half a word.”) My parents used to call each other “Mom” and “Dad”, and sometimes they still do. Mostly they “slip” in the opposite direction, though, now that their kids are adults - referring to each other by their first names when talking to us, instead of saying “your mother” or “your father”. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/5 "2004-07-20T21:15:30Z")
Nope, we don’t do that except when refering to each other when speaking to our son. ex. Go ask Daddy vs. Go ask your father. I don’t think I know any couples of any age who do that, although I have heard it on TV. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/6 "2004-07-20T21:15:42Z")
No way! That’s just _icky!_ I call her babykins, my sweetie, my love, angel food, and a bunch of other nauseating stuff, but I’d never call her mother. ICK!! And if she ever calls me daddy, I’ll smack her with a newspaper. Actually, there was this one time before we were married, when she did that to me. On the way out of a sex toy store. :o (I’m older than her. I made it clear to her that she should never do that again. She hasn’t done it since.) ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/7 "2004-07-20T21:18:53Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > Nope, we don’t do that except when refering to each other when speaking to our son. ex. Go ask Daddy vs. Go ask your father. > > I don’t think I know any couples of any age who do that, although I have heard it on TV. Ha, I have some relatives in your neck of the woods who do exactly that. At first I thought it was weird, now I’ve grown to think of it as sweet. My wife and I have also fallen into a similar pattern, except that I call her “Mama” and usually with a Johnny Bravo style accent: _Yo, Ma-ma, what are we having for dinner tonight_? ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/8 "2004-07-20T21:29:16Z")
I once dated a man much older than me. I was 30, he was 55. He suggested that we call each other mom and dad and I started laughing hysterically, much the same as I am right now just thinking about it. My grandparents called each other that! ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/9 "2004-07-20T21:48:45Z")
Do “Daddio” and “Mamasita” count? Because, then, yeah, we do that. But otherwise, no. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/10 "2004-07-20T23:36:54Z")
Nuh-uh. She doesn’t call me “father”, either. The only ones who call us Mom and Dad are our kids. the only ones the wife calls Mom and Dad are her parents. Since my parents shuffled off this mortal coil, I don’t call anyone Mom and Dad. Tho I may have referred to my wife as “hot mama” at one time. I don’t think that counts as the same thing tho. Probably because I never called my mother “mama”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/11 "2004-07-20T23:49:18Z")
With the onset of parenthood my wife has become “Mom,” “Mum” or “Mammy” when the kids are the subject–even if theyr’e not present. I’m “Pappa.” I guess we do that to get the other person in the right frame of mind: this is going to be about kid stuff vs this is going to be about grown up stuff. Vastly different worlds–neither of us make the jump between the two very easily. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/12 "2004-07-21T00:29:21Z")
Absolutely, and we don’t have any kids. However, we do have two dogs, and it’s always in the context of speaking with them, i.e. ‘Show Mommy your treat’ and ‘Get Daddy the leash’. Of course, that might also be because we have absolutely no intention of having children, and so we really do treat the dogs as ‘children.’ They even send and receive presents from the rest of the family at Xmas. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/13 "2004-07-21T00:37:41Z")
Only when talking with the kids: “Go tell Daddy about that,” sort of thing. Not directly to each other when they’re not included. But I suppose a lot of people get into the habit, and it just stays with them; people a few generations ago don’t seem to have thought of it as ‘icky’ the way we do. I think that might be a new cultural shift. And a long time ago, in many countries, anyone elderly could be addressed as ‘mother’ or ‘father’ in recognition of their age (and, I suppose, their more-than-likely parenthood). ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/14 "2004-07-21T00:38:40Z")
My sister and bil call each other mommy and daddy. They have since the birth of their first child 20 some odd years ago. ---
**Author:** ![luluBahrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e5b9ba/32.png) [@luluBahrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luluBahrain)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/15 "2004-07-21T00:49:31Z")
When I was going out with a guy about 15 years older than me I would call him daddy in the bedroom and he started calling me mamacita there too. Never in regular conversation though. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/16 "2004-07-21T02:42:21Z")
Didn’t Ronald Reagan call Nancy “Mommy”? ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/17 "2004-07-21T03:18:24Z")
Didn’t Ronald Reagan call Nancy “Mommy” in public? ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/18 "2004-07-21T03:19:55Z")
Ooops… thought I caught it in time. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/19 "2004-07-21T07:40:19Z")
> [@mlerose](#): > > Even weirder: I know a man who calls his wife “Mother” or “Momma” and they don’t even have any kids! When we were first married, and before we had spawned, my husband tried to get me to respond to “Mommy”. I responded with a slap upside his head. I told him that I’m NOT his mommy, not to call me that, and not to expect me to act like his mommy. Nowadays, we will refer to each other as Mama and Daddy, but only when talking to our daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065/20 "2004-07-21T07:53:48Z")
My grandparents call each other grandma and grandpa around us. It’s funny because my grandpa will be telling a story about when they were teenagers and he’ll say “So I said to her ‘Grandma…’” 😃 I know they call each other by their first names when we’re not around but they like the joke that they’ve _always_ called each other grandma and grandpa. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-wife-mother/256065.md?page=2)