So, when I was about 12 or so, my mother more or less went on a crusade, the ‘Robyn is too old to call me Mommy crusade.” Every time I called her Mommy, she would tell me I was too old to call her that.
I hated that crusade. And to this day? I still call her Mommy on occasion. Because even at 39? Sometimes you still need your mommy.
And as for Dad versus Daddy? No matter how old I get, I’ll call him Daddy.
I don’t see anything wrong with calling my Mom Mommy or my Dad Daddy. What does age have to do with it? Is it childish? Perhaps. Is that automatically a bad thing? I don’t think so.
Interestingly, my 68 year old Mother still calls her dad, (who passed away about, gosh, 30 years ago?) Daddy when she is talking to her sisters about him. So I guess it is okay in her head for girls to call their fathers daddy until the end of time.
But not okay for boys to do so, as she also had a crusade against one of my brothers who still called my step-father daddy. (BTW, I am going to get a verbal spanking for calling these crusades. Mom’s gonna hate that word. Just so you know).
But they were crusades, nay obsessions, to stop myself and my brother from using Mommy and Daddy because we were too old. I still think its bullshit.
Of course, she has always called her mother Mother. Well, that’s not true. Because once my cousins and sibs started having children, my grandmother started to be called Grannie Annie by one and all. And we still call her this, years after her passing.
So, he will always be Daddy to me. And on occasion? She’ll still be Mommy.
Sorry…Mommy.
i don’t remember the “crusade” but I admit that I’m guilty of sexism. “Daddy” sounds okay for a girl/woman no matter how old she is but it sounds infantile to me for a boy/man over 12 and Mommy does sound infantile to me also over 12 and/but I agree sometimes no matter how old, a “child” does need his/her “Mommy”.
I think my boys stopped calling my husband Daddy when they were 7 or 8 years old, and I became Mom about 9 or 10 – but every now and then – I get that Mommy from my oldest – when he wants something! ha!
i miss the “daddy-days.” i didn’t have to retrain my three kids to stop calling me daddy. as they are all teenagers, they have recently chosen on their own to call me butthead and moron.