There are lots of monikers that your child could call you by as a parent, from simply using mum or dad, to mother and father, mama and papa, mummy and daddy and so on.
Some little ones might also come up with more creative nicknames for family members, like how Prince William used to refer to The Queen as ‘Gary’ when he was a child as he couldn’t quite get the hang of ‘Granny’.
And then there are those who might not wish to call you by any of the above and instead could refer to you the same way as everyone else – by your first name.
How would you feel if your child did this?
This is a topic of conversation that’s recently been discussed by hundreds of parents online after an anonymous mum took to Reddit to share how “strange” they found it when kids did this.
In a post on Reddit’s Parenting forum, the mum wrote: “How do you feel about kids calling their parents by their first names?
“My five-year-old has called me by my name when he’s being cheeky and I correct him cheerfully ‘you can call me mummy’.
“My friend’s seven-year-old calls her by her first name. I don’t know, it feels strange to me, but maybe that’s just me?”
More than 300 people from all over the world responded to the Reddit post, with many sharing their own experiences.
One person said: “I think they should know your name because it helps if they get lost or separated, but yeah, I go by dad.”
Another posted: “My toddler recently realised I have a name and definitely got a kick of calling me it and telling me what letter it starts with, but the novelty has faded quickly and I just say ‘but you can call me dad’ and she does. It was a cute little discovery.”
A third replied: “Mine went through a phase around three where she referred to both of us by name almost exclusively, it didn’t bother us at all.
“She went through another phase recently of calling me ‘mother’ rather than ‘mama’ and I don’t quite know why but that bothered me a lot more, though I didn’t do anything about it and it thankfully passed.”
“Mother would be a tough one,” proclaimed someone else. “It’s so… Victorian? Like, buttoned up or something.
“I think we don’t see someone who wants to be called ‘mother’ as warm and cuddly.”
