# How do you address your mother & father? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328 "2018-06-02T19:27:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/61 "2018-06-05T02:38:13Z")
Mom died when I was a teen. I do recall maw got me a backhand. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/62 "2018-06-05T02:38:55Z")
I call them **Maa** and **Paa** with a Latino accent. (I’m American with Latino background.) When I talk about them to JpnGal or the in-laws, I say **Mom** and **Dad** (or Ha-ha and Chi-chi, respectively in Japanese). I call my Japanese in-laws, **o-kaa-san** (mother) and **o-toh-san** (father). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/63 "2018-06-05T14:48:09Z")
Mom and Dad. ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/64 "2018-06-05T15:18:34Z")
Pre-kids, Mum and Muti for my mother. Dad for my father. Post-kids, Wee Waa for my Mum (my oldest trying to say ‘Grandma’ as an infant turned it into that and she ran with it) and Papa for my Dad. Although I still call her Mum on the phone when it’s just us talking. My Dad has passed. ---
**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:** [June 5, 2018, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/65 "2018-06-05T15:35:15Z")
Doesn’t come up, we don’t speak. In an email the greeting is, “Hey,” As a kid it was “Mom” or “Ma” and “Dad” My kids call us all kinds of things. In the past month I’ve been Father, Dad, Padre, Papi, Pops, Male Parental Unit, and HeyBrad. (the kids are on a first-name basis with their step parents) Think I’m gonna insist on Pops from any grandbabbys. I’m needing some formality. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/66 "2018-06-05T15:41:10Z")
“Mama” and “Daddy”, unchanged since childhood. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/67 "2018-06-05T16:28:53Z")
> [@](#): > > By their first names. I get most people regard that as pretty fucking weird, My siblings and I call our parents by their first names too. I have no earthly idea why, we just always have. My kids call me “Dad”, not by first name. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/68 "2018-06-05T18:45:50Z")
Mama & Daddy. My eldest sister refers to them (they’re both dead) as Mom and Dad now and it’s just wrong. None of us EVER called them that. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/69 "2018-06-05T21:53:02Z")
When I am talking directly to them, it’s “Mom” and “Dad.” Sometimes, though, I address them when my kids are around (or on the phone with me while I talk to them), so I sometimes address them as “Grandma” and “Grandpa.” And my kids call us “Mom” and either “Da” or “Dad.” (The toddler says “Da;” the kindergartener says “Dad.”) ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/70 "2018-06-06T10:35:06Z")
Mom and Dad. If I’m speaking to both of them at once, usually it’s “guys.” When referring to them, I sometimes use “the PU’s,” short for “Parental Units.” Makes it easier to distinguish my parents as opposed to my in-laws. ---
**Author:** ![PlumBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@PlumBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlumBob)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/71 "2018-06-06T17:06:19Z")
Always been Mom & Dad here. I once had a guy call me out on calling my Dad… “dad”. If I was six it would be somewhat understandable but I was in my twenty’s. I had said something like “I’ll see if my Dad’s home”. He said “Do you mean your father?”. I said “what?”. He said “It’s your father, not your dad”. I laughed and said “If I started calling my Dad, father, he’d smack me upside my head”. I should’ve told the guy to mind his own business. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/72 "2018-06-06T19:31:31Z")
I have called my father “Daddy” my entire life. Everyone else has varied a bit. ---
**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:** [June 7, 2018, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/73 "2018-06-07T03:23:08Z")
I call my mother “Mom” and I called my father “Daddy”, except sometimes when joking around and I called him “Pops”. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/74 "2018-06-08T04:18:43Z")
Mom and Dad, unless I’m trying to get their attention in public, and then it’s their first names. I found that once I hit about 40, I started calling my aunts and uncles by their first names. Before that it had always been Aunt XXX and Uncle XXX. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/75 "2018-06-08T11:00:09Z")
Mummy. I am over 50 and still call her that, and start letters to her with Dear Mummy. When he was alive, Dad, though if my brother and I talk about him, we usually refer to him by his first name. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/76 "2018-06-08T21:42:36Z")
Privately en famille mom and dad, in public sir and ma’am. If i were getting his attention for an introduction it would be “Sir, then turn to the person, this is my father “insert real name”, and then sir, this is scald.” Formal, but there you go. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328/77 "2018-06-08T21:57:37Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > “Mama” and “Daddy”, unchanged since childhood. Same here. Quite common forms of address for parents where I live. Except Daddy is often pronounced more like “Deddy” - but we’d never spell it that way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-address-your-mother-father/815328.md?page=3)