Mommy or mama? What do you want to be called and why?

[Anonymous]

I can't stand to be called "mama." To me it sounds like it ought to have "Big" before it.

I am fine with either mom or mommy, but prefer mom.

[Anonymous]

A bit off-topic, but this thread made me think of a funny game we played at a BBQ this past weekend - the Mom Game.

They blindfolded on all the moms, scattered the kids around the yard & told them to start calling for their moms. No "real" names allowed. Imagine about 25 kids shouting "Mom, Mommy, Mama" at the same time and trying to find yours while blindfolded, esp. if you have 3 kids (which most of us did).

Like most moms, I answer to just about any variant - mom, mommy, mama, ma.
But my kids mostly use mama, which is my favorite.

[Anonymous]

I love "mama" mostly because I never used it with my mother and I hate "mom."

[Anonymous]

My mom, was/is "Mom" and I don't ever remember calling her anything more affectionate than that. Eveyone else I knew growing up in New England had a Mommy or Mom; I never heard "mama." Ever since my son said "mama" though, that is my favorite term! Unlike many of you, though, I think first of "Hip Mama" (zine/book by Ariel Gore), or "Hot Mama" (a silly book a friend got me when I was pregnant.) To me it sounds modern and retro at the same time.

[zumbamama]

I used to be Mommy, but it has gradually changed to Mom. I miss the last syllable now...oh they grow too fast.

[Anonymous]

I'm Mama. It has stuck even at 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm Mama. It has stuck even at 7.

...also, for the record, my teeth are fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love you 17:26. Just gotta shove in some controversy.

Anyhow, my 4.5 yr old alternates b/t Mom and Mama. My 1 yr old says "Muh."

I'm the PP and I agree it was totally a case of kettle-stirring. But I do actually feel this way. I'm a Black Southerner and almost everybody says Mama where Ise frum. I've always thought it sounded old-fashioned and yucky. Mother sounds so honorable and loving to me.

[Anonymous]

My 3.5 yo DS calls me Mama even though all his friends use Mommy and my DH even refers to me as "mommy" when talking to him. I think its sweet. But i haven't done anything to encourage it one way or another. He just seems to prefer it. Mom just sounds like a middle aged woman to me. I am trying to put that off as long as possible.

[Anonymous]

I used to be Mommy, but it has gradually changed to Mom. I miss the last syllable now...oh they grow too fast.

I think I'll cry when DD drops the last syllable.

[Anonymous]

I slightly prefer mommy over mama. When I hear mama, I think "yo mama!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mom works for me. I call my own mother Ma and have for as long as I can remember.

Are you from NY? We are Italian-American New Yorkers and call ours that, too! I NEVER hear people down here call their moms "Ma." Though I have heard it in the South some, now that I think of it. Anyway, my DS calls me both mommy and mama, and I love hearing both.

[Anonymous]

I'm all three: mama, mommy and mom. It was all mama until my son hit preschool and he picked up mommy and, worse, mom, at school. My 2 year old still sometimes uses mama, but unfortunately hears her brother and so mostly uses mommy too. I prefer mama at this young age -- am also Italian American and so to me it's familiar. We pronounced it like "ma-ma" and less like "momma."

[Anonymous]

My children picked Mama (mah-mah) as little ones all by themselves and have stuck with it. I dont know why. They always pronounce it Mah-mah, too, never "Momma." The way they say it sounds very lyrical to me and they are musical children, both sing all the time. Once in a while they switch to Mommy, which I called my mother. Even though I now call my Mother "Mom" I really dont like it. They are now 8 and 5.5 and Mah-mah seems to have stuck. They also often call DH Da-da instead of Daddy. I refer to him as Daddy, never Da-da. I actually love the way they call my "name" and thinks its just beautiful.

Funniest part is... I always thought Mama was so "hick" as I grew up in Atlanta with a tranplanted NE elitist mother who's black sheep younger sister married a small town southern and my red neck counsins called her Mama, but it was with a serious accent kind of like "Maaaamaa." I have never been a fan of "Mom" but loved hearing my British friends say Mum and thought Mummy was so sweet. A few NE friends from school used it too. Sadly, I think its pretentious coming from an American these days.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone else have a hard time getting your caregiver or in-laws to use the right one? It took me a while to get my nanny to refer to me as mama instead of mommy to DD, and my MIL seems simply to refuse to switch over. I think it is particularly weird w/MIL bc she is southern (like me-I call my own mother mama). Anyway, I find it pretty annoying to have her refer to me as mommy ten thousand times a day to DD whenever she visits even after I have explained that DD knows me as mama. Ah, in-laws...