Parents of adult children

[AndreaDM]

As parents of adult children, do you call them solely by their names or do you still call them honey, sweetie, etc.? Or if you are an adult (married with children of your own) do your parents still use terms of endearment?

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

As parents of adult children, do you call them solely by their names or do you still call them honey, sweetie, etc.? Or if you are an adult (married with children of your own) do your parents still use terms of endearment?

My parents still call me honey, sweetie and another nick-name. I'm adult, married with a 12 yo DD. I don't mind. And I'm sure I'll do it to my DD when she's an adult.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

I am an adult. I'm married with a child of my own and my parents and grandparents will still call me honey, sweetie, sugar, etc. from time to time.

 

[Robbi]

Yes, I call my sons "babes"- not like hottie babes though! crazy2
I call my daughter sweetie.

 

[sksjasams]

Yes in both cases.

 

[kimblebee]

I am an adult with a child and my mom still calls me pet. My dads nickname for me is my user name : )

 

[Pakey]

I have 3 adult sons and 4 grandchildren. I do not call my sons by anything other than their names. I don't think I never did.

My parents call me by my first name. I know my dad has never called me anything but that. My mom may have used endearments but if she has, it's not been on a regular basis.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

My MIL still calls DH "Sport". It is very embarrassing for him and everyone around him......except for her.

 

[tvguy]

About the time they hit high school both mine made it clear they only wanted to be called by their given name. Not a big deal because that pretty much was what we called them anyway.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I don't have kids but I am 44. My mother still calls me by my pet name.

My dad calls me my niece's name. She's 23. He also calls my niece MY name. He's not old or anything, he just uses the first name that comes to him. We tease him to the ends of the earth about it but he's done it every since she was born.

 

[PigletsPal2]

I have two adult daughters and I still use pet names or terms of endearment for them, unless they're in trouble. Then it's "FIRST NAME MIDDLE NAME!"

Queen Colleen

 

[Sheree Bobbins]

I only call my sons by their real names. My girlfriend calls her 3 daughters age 22 to 30 "darling." I know this because when I am with her, if she gets a phone call from one of them, she calls them "darling." I was slightly taken aback at first, having never used terms of endearment myself.

 

[AndreaDM]

It seems like it's more common and also maybe more acceptable (??) to call adult daughters names like sweetie, etc. MIL keeps calling DH sweetie and honey (he's almost 40) and it makes us both uncomfortable. She's always called him by his childhood nickname (for example Johnny for John) which is annoying but tolerable. My name for him has always been hon, so just since we've been married she started calling him honey all.the.time. For example last night I said something funny to him and he laughed and she leaned across the table and said "what are you laughing at honey?". Just weird, but then again, it's just one of the many things that bug me about her, and yes, it's very minor so I was just curious about other families. My parents call me and my siblings only by our names and I call my 2 older daughters by their names unless they're sick or upset about something, then I might say "O I'm sorry you don't feel good sweetie".

 

[NMAmy]

DD is 22 and I still call her sweet pea, kiddo or by the nickname she's had since she was a toddler. I've never thought about stopping it--she likes it. My dad called me by a childhood nickname until he died when I was in my 40's. I don't think it's weird at all. Heck, I call dd's fiance "honey" and "sweets."

 

[minkydog]

My parents never called me anything other than my name. DH & I have several pet names for our kids: DD19 is "Pretty Girl". DS26 is "Buddy" or "Big Boy". Christian is "Sweetie Boy", "Little Buddy" and "Mama's Baby."

 

[avgeek81]

My mom has only ever called me by my first name. My dad used to call me sweetie and it made me uncomfortable. He is passed away now.

My friend is 27 and both her parents still call her peanut. Dont know how she feels about it. Dont think it bothers her.

 

[mamacatnv]

Peanut will always be peanut even if he is 6'4", 240#'s and getting ready to graduate from college.
Thrown in with Peanut are other terms of endearment along with his first name.

If he asked me to stop, I would, but he has never had an issue with it nor has he had a negative reaction that I have ever seen, I think he likes it.

I try to be mindful of the surroundings. Once in 6th grade I slipped and used Peanut in his classroom, one of his classmates questioned it and he said "that is just what my Mom calls me, you got a problem with it?" ummmm No.....

Same goes for my DD who has a wide range of pet names depending on her mood.

My son is a Jr and out of self preservation we created nicknames when he was younger. I usually refer to him by his first name and my DH as Sr. This has worked pretty well, unless my FIL also of the same name is in the house. Then I just give up and laugh when all 3 say "what?" at the same time.

 

[JVL1018]

My parents mostly called me by name, but my Dad would still call me Tootsie Bell, honey, pumpkin, and my Mom called me honey or hon.
Loved it!

My FIL is an 85 year old Italian guy, he calls me sweetheart, darling, honey and while he doesn't call him pet names, he still pinches my (44 year old)husbands cheeks. LOL I think it is all VERY sweet and wouldn't have it any other way.

As for the childhood nickname like Johnny vs John, my husband is Jim to a lot of people, but most people still call him Jimmy.
My brother is Dan to most of the rest of the world, but will always be Danny to me.
I don't think that's odd at all to call someone by a "kid" nickname.

 

[PeterPanic]

99.9% of the time I call them by their names and have since they were little. Both my children were girls so for a brief period of time back then and on occasion now, when I'm feeling sentimental, I refer to them as baby girl! They've never complained about it.

My oldest girl was named Amy and I would occasionally call her Am (pronounced aim). My youngest was named Julie and again I had shortened that to Jules (pronounced jewels). She didn't like that one much and when anyone called her by that name she always told them that the only person that was allowed to call her Jules was her dad. No one else! Kinda sweet, I thought! They are both in their late 30's now and nothing much has changed.

 

[Becky2005]

I guess it all depends on the situation. We never really used other names than our own growing up...except for my brother was "Kenny" and is now Ken but at family gatherings he gets called Kenny a lot, etc...

About the only term I can think of me being called is "The baby" but that is because I'm the youngest and in every generation that I know of....the youngest does have a tendency to get introduced as "and this is the baby, insert name"....I have heard my aunt be introduced that way too. So it isn't just me.

Now my siblings & I do have a tendency to call each other weird names but that is usually one of us harrassing the other one for doing something weird. LOL!