Monday 17 March 2014

Dad, Daddy, Dada or Bob, Fred, George

Inevitably our 14/15 month old daughter finds Dada a much easier sound to make than Mama. She doesn't make the sound in relation to her Dad yet but I think that is because we haven't jumped on her with encouragement and reinforcement. My husband doesn't want our daughter to call him Dad, Daddy or Dada. He'd like her to use his name and although she has a lot of opinions about how many spoons she needs to be holding she has yet to form an opinion about how she refers to her father - who knows what she'll chose to call him. I just hope it is polite at least until she is a teenager. He, and his siblings, have always called their parents by their first names. I think his older sister started it and then never went back to Mum and Dad, I'm led to believe that a lot of children go through a phase of calling their parent's by their first names. My first reaction I suppose was to worry that people might not realise that he is her Dad - I really need to stop worrying about what people think.  My family although respectful of the decision don't seem to be able to get used to it. We've just spent a weekend correcting my Mum and her constant dadadadadada noises. Unfortunately his name is going to be quite a challenge for a babbling baby as it isn't as simple as dada but that is a wait he is prepared for. I'm desperate to be Mama/Mum but it appears I'm going to have to wait for that too. Friends have also found it quite difficult to get used to it. I guess common practice is that we call our own parent's Mum and Dad and therefore we become Mum and Dad when we become parents. I was interested that his sister, who allegedly started the whole thing, is called Mum by her own children.

Where do you stand? Do you call your parent's Mum and Dad or by their first names? What would you want your child to call you?