I used my spellcheck when I emailed someone tonight and in my letter I mentioned my parents. I called them “Mom” and “dad”. I didn’t capitalize either word but my spellcheck told me to capitalize “Mom” but not “dad”.
Why would “Mom” be capitalized and not “dad”?
MaryAnn
No, stupid, it’s a boat!
My spell check must suck. I tried it a bunch of ways caps,no caps, all caps…Everytime said “no errors.”
It’s because your machine, being stupid, was stupid. I think that Mom and Dad should probably be considered titles of a sort, and thus capitalized.
Just so you know, this is my bullshit answer, nothing official.
My spell checker could not care less. Mom, Dad, mom, dad, no big deal.
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. That is the difference between dog and man.
– **Mark Twain **
Capitalization of “mom” and “dad” depend on the usage. The way I think of it is like this: capitalize it when I use it like a name, otherwise don’t.
Thus:
Mom said to take out the garbage.
My mom always says things like that.
This usage is supported by the capitalization section in the back of my dictionary, as well as in Essentials of English by Hopper, Gale, Foote, and Griffith.
Mr. K’s Link of the Month: Why Plastic Grocery Bags Are Better Than God
“Nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humor.” - Peter Tork
I think it’s cause mom always comes first in the phrase mom and dad. Also, moms are female and more sensitive to status issues, whereas dad’s are usually the quiet providers.<~~~Heh, heh, just kidding!
Seriously, I really do think it’s for three reasons:
“I was being honest, @$$hole, I would expect YOU to know the difference.”
~~John Bender in The Breakfast Club.
Talk to me, baby! mcdsanti@hotmail.com
Oh yeah, and Mary ann…
A schooner is a boat!!!
Did I get that one or am I dumb?
“I was being honest, @$$hole, I would expect YOU to know the difference.”
~~John Bender in The Breakfast Club.
Talk to me, baby! mcdsanti@hotmail.com
MaryAnneQ probably just forgot to tell you she used the two words to start a sentence in the sequence she mentioned them. The spell check merely said to capitalize ‘mom’ because it was the first word in the sentence. (Of course, that’s more than spelling checking.)
Ray (. . .or else the checker is a female sexist.)
MrKnowItAll hit it right on the nose. If you are using mom or dad in place of their names you need to use the caps. If you are saying my mom/my dad - nope, just lower case.
Maybe Mom and Dad are considered proper nouns when used in place of their names.
Oh, I’m gonna keep using these #%@&* codes 'til I get 'em right.
Inquisitive cuss that I am, I had to try it out on my software.
It replaced the nouns with mother and father, and a dialogue appeared, informing me that I had to sit in the corner for an hour.
Go figure.
–Kalél
Common ¢ for all ages…
“Well, there was that thing with the Cheese-Wiz…but I’m feeling much better now!” – John Astin, Night Court
Funny, I was just going to say that using mom or dad as a general noun (rather than a proper noun) is a bit slangy. “Mom, would you like some cake?” “My mother and I are excited.” This seems a bit better, though I can hear my kids in my head saying to their friends, “My mom is better than YOUR mom!” 
When I tried my spell checker on mom and dad, it told me to substitute eye of newt with spider webs woven under a full moon in order to mind control them into extending my curfew.
My spelling checker didn’t care about the capitalizations.
Peace.
Where I work, we had a spell check on one system, that–when a person writing a document spelled “workorder” instead of “work order”–the two “choices” that it recommended changing it to were “warehouse” and “whorehouse.” Seriously.
And, there used to be a person where I work named “Felita.” Her name also gave an interesting recommendation for change.
No, Nanobyte…both words were part of a sentence, not the beginning of one (I thought of that, too.). 
MaryAnn
No, stupid, it’s a boat!
A couple of years ago my spell check (Word Prefect? 5.0? That’s a guess.) changed:
Towed Howitzer to
Toad Howitzer
about 20 times, just before the document went out the door. God bless proofreaders.
Oh, I’m gonna keep using these #%@&* codes 'til I get 'em right.