# When growing up, what did you call your father?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 15, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200 "2010-04-15T13:02:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/81 "2010-04-16T20:35:21Z")

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“Absent”, mostly.

I did spend two weeks with him when I was eleven years old. I recall avoiding addressing him directly simply because I didn’t know what to call him. “Father” seemed to formal, and I didn’t really think of him as “Dad”.

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**Author:** ![JohnnyMac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@JohnnyMac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyMac)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/82 "2010-04-16T20:39:45Z")

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“Daddy”. My mother “Mama”. Until I hit my teens (14? 15?). Then their given names: “Chris” and “Irene”. Their given names to this day.

ETA: Oh, and I’m from New Zealand.

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