# How Do Kids of Gay Parents Address Them? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 29, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819 "2013-07-29T15:28:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/21 "2013-07-31T01:11:36Z")
I had a friend with a gay dad and his partner was her godfather. She called her bio dad “Dad” and her godfather by his given name. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/22 "2013-07-31T02:55:57Z")
Extremely bad taste snipped. Even I have some standards. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/23 "2013-07-31T15:26:17Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > I don’t mean to alarm you, but your child might be a kitten. That would explain a lot, like the fur. More seriously, I’m really not sure. I never thought much about it but I don’t know any gay couples that are raising kids. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/24 "2013-07-31T18:05:36Z")
A girl I used to date had two dads. She just called them by their first names. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/25 "2013-07-31T18:12:57Z")
I know of an all-male threesome who are raising children born to them through surrogacy. The biomoms are in the picture, and the kids simply call them all by their first names. I read in today’s paper that the 2014-15 FAFSA will, instead of “mother” and “father”, have “parent 1” and “parent 2”. Some people are not happy about this, but I remember when my sister was in high school in the late 1980s, and school forms had “Mother’s address” and “Father’s address” and THAT was controversial. I mean, don’t you know that only the mother should ever be contacted by the school, and if she’s deceased, the school’s hands are tied? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/26 "2013-08-02T01:21:18Z")
I assume Dan Savage’s kid says, “Hey Faggot!” ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/27 "2013-08-02T10:57:37Z")
He hasn’t used that in the column for, what, ten years? And he’s on record that they’re a “Dad - no, not you, other Dad” - family. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/28 "2013-08-02T19:07:45Z")
I just always assumed the kids would naturally pick different terms, the same way they tend to do for grandparents. Sometimes it’s lastnames, sometimes it’s a different form. I had Papaw Jones and Grampa Lastname–although the names could switch-- and Mema(w) and Nana (nah-nah)–who never switched. ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/29 "2013-08-02T20:54:43Z")
My sister’s kids call her Mama and her partner Mommy. (I would assume when they become teens it will be Ma and Mom) The adults picked out the terms just like my father is Pop Pop and her father is Grandpa. A conversation did take place between them regarding this. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/30 "2013-08-02T21:30:24Z")
\*\*BigT-\*\*Did your mortal enemy ever play the “memaw” card? ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/31 "2013-08-02T22:03:25Z")
Maybe I’ll go with Dadtwo. 😛 _not entirely joking_ ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819/32 "2013-08-03T15:13:44Z")
In her book _Family Values_, Phyllis Burke describes how, when her partner Cheryl got pregnant by artificial insemination, they decided the baby would call Cheryl “Mommy” and Phyllis “Auntie.” When the boy Jesse was 14 months old, he looked at Phyllis and said “Mommy” for the first time. When she tried to correct him, he insisted on “Mommy,” and later dubbed Cheryl “Mudder.” Phyllis called her parents and told them “He calls me Mommy,” to which they responded “We knew you were his mother. We’re grandparents.” Cheryl said she knew Phyllis would be her child’s mother. As Phyllis wrote “Jesse knew. Cheryl knew. My parents knew. I was the only one who had to be told I was his mother.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-kids-of-gay-parents-address-them/664819.md?page=1)