The word Mom...

[Tortilla]

Not me. I'm not calling anyone else mum or dad. I even call my step-family by their first names. For example, I've never called my stepmother's mum 'grandma.' I call her Linda. I dunno, personally I think I'd be uncomfortable referring to other people as mum or dad or grandma or whatever.

[Red.Apricot]

I've had friends call my mom 'mom,' but there's something about her that people respond to in that way. People want to tell her their secrets, and the apologize to her about stuff she wouldn't care about. She's had cashiers confess stuff to her in stores. It's a weird vibe. No one but my sister and me call my dad 'dad,' though. He's kind of gruff and scary.

I wouldn't call anyone but my mom and dad 'mom and dad.' I call my boyfriend's dad and stepmom by their first names, and I don't really speak to his mom. He calls my parents Mr. and Mrs. lastnames--probably because my parents are a little older, and that's what they're more comfortable with. His dad and stepmom insisted I call them by their first names, and I resisted it for years.

[Kat09Tails]

I think it really depends on your culture. Similar to referring to someone else's grandpa or grandma by that title - in some places it's a term of respect, in others a term of ridicule.

Anyways, most little kids around here refer to someone else's parent as Sam's Mom or Mommy. After grade school it becomes Mr or Ms.

I didn't make that "rule" but it seems to be how it roles here.

[sparks19]

Originally Posted by ACooper

I keep seeing FB posts which say things like:

Friends call your mom Mrs ------
REAL friends just call her mom

I don't agree. I have a mom. Your mom is your mom. I might love you like a sister and love your mom like an aunt..........but I will not and cannot call her mom. Further more, I do not want my kids' friends to call me mom either. Mrs. Cooper will do.........Angie to their very close friends is fine after they've been given leave to do so.

I have a mother in law, I do not call her mom either and won't as long as my mother still breathes. To me, in my heart, it feels like disrespect to my own mother and I can't do it.

How do you feel about this issue? *poll coming*

I feel exactly the way you do. I do NOT call anyone mom that isn't the woman who birthed and raised me lol

[eddieq]

I called my best friend's mom, "Mom" when growing up. It was a sign of familiarity and respect for her. She came to my wedding. I cried at her funeral. She was very special to me and she accepted the title without issue. It didn't diminish my feelings toward my own mom. I even called her that around my own mom. They got along great and nobody had an issue with it.

I also refer to my MIL/FIL as "mom and dad". I will call my FIL by his first name, but MIL is always "mom".

Growing up, my grandmother was "Nana". To everybody. Even people from the neighborhood and people near her own age.

It's an honorific. A title. Not given lightly, but certainly not exclusive to my birth parents (or in the case of adoption - parents who raised you).

[JacksonsMom]

My aunt's husband calls my grandma (his mother in law) 'Mom'. I don't think it's weird, I mean we're all family, he married into the family... she's technically kind of his mom now too, in a way. Mother-in-law, whatever.

But for me, I can't call anyone else mom... I have two people in my life who are very much like second parents, helped raise me, and I am closer to them than my real grandparents... but I still just call them "Bill and Pat". It's just... what they are to me. Doesn't make me any less close, but it's what I always have just known them by.

My stepdad is also still Tom and stepmom is Christy, even though they've both been in my life since I was 9/10.

[Red.Apricot]

Originally Posted by eddieq

It's an honorific. A title. Not given lightly, but certainly not exclusive to my birth parents (or in the case of adoption - parents who raised you).

I think for me, that's a big part of it. Other than my parents, I've never been close enough to another person with that kind of relationship to want to use those words for them.

[Sweet72947]

My friends always called my mom "Cristy's Mom". One friend will say "hi mom!" if my mom happens to call me when I'm around that friend. She's the only friend who does, and it doesn't bother us.

I don't call anyone mom but my mom. I voted for hershey bars.

[JustaLilBitaLuck]

Growing up, all of my friends called my mother by her first name (she hates being called Ms. ______), and I called my friends mothers by their first names or by Ms/Mrs. ______. It would have felt weird to call them "mom".

I don't even know if I could call a SO's parents "mom"/"dad" - I think it would still feel weird to me.

[thehoundgirl]

Yeah, I don't call anyone else mom besides MY mom. My best friend's mom is like a 2nd mom to me, but I do not call her mom. My grandpa's wife, we do not call grandma because my grandma who died when I was 5, who was my dad's mom. My dad doesn't even call her his step-mom. We just call her Sharon, and she is fine with that. It doesn't hurt her feelings but she has no blood relation to any of us. I don't think that makes her less of a family member, she is a kind person.