Strange question for all you italians!!

[patrizella]

I have only lived here for 2 years. I live in Giugliano, which is not far from Naples. Never been to Mugnano because from Naples, it is in the opposite direction from where I live. Most towns look the same. Lots of farmland and a central piazza/shopping area with small food stores, hardware stores, etc. Very much like a small town in America where everything is on Main Street and every store is a specialized store. No all in one shopping, but the Wal-Mart concept of one stop shopping is slowly creeping in.

Everyone is either called bella (beautiful) or bello (handsome). Even men call each other bello, which can also have a similar meaning to "my friend"...not handsome in an attraction sense.

I was thinking about the use of "Mommy" to refer to children. I remember my mother getting so tired of hearing us call her mommy a hunderd times a day, that often, she would just respond with "Yes, Mommy" (robotic repeat response) as a way of letting us know we have been saying mommy so much. Definitely NOT a term of endearment

That's funny about the robotic Mommy response.

I have never been to Italy-my family came by boat and will never fly. As an adult I have only flown to WDW and Vegas. I think I've been on a plane a total of 10 times. I may now finally be ready for the long flight over the ocean- I really want to see where my family is from and I want my daughter to get this important piece of her heritage. Enjoy the time you are spending there. Ciao

 

[Sleepy]

I think everyone should have the opportunity to visit a place where their ancestors once lived. I know a friend of mine is from Palermo, Sicily. I visited there last summer and I DEFINITELY know why he left. It's far worse than Naples!

Flying really is not that bad. I only flew once before moving here. Now, the only way for me to see my family is for me to fly. Would take alot of money to take a boat cruise. I just don't have that amount of time either. Our flights are non-stop and at night. It's kinda cool though. You can leave at 10pm and get to America at 1am (well, after adding in the time difference). It's like time warping, but kicks you in the rear because that first day feels like the longest day of your life.

 

[Goobergal99]

Well it seems like a mixed bag here and a very predominately NE U.S. thing. It's just funny because I am always like come on "mom" or "it's ok mommy" to my DD and my DH just skakes his head and says " she's not your mom, your her mom" but yea it's definently a term of endearment.

However, I found that irish ppl (like my hubby) call all their sons "bub" My FIL always says "bub" when referring to my DH and DBIL's, I thought it was just them until I met other irish families that do the same. Thats what I love about this country, so many different cultural influences.

 

[Fan2CSkr]

My DH's family and mine are Italian and I never heard any of them say this. My GF is from Cuba and her Mom calls her Mommy and she calls her kids the same.

 

[disneynutt1225]

I've never heard anyone in my family do this either. We're mostly from Sicily (generations ago) and NY. I've never known any Italian friends to do it either.

 

[thelionqueen]

never heard of it, although there are some other colorful names that come up..you know what I'm talking about right??

 

[RitaZ.]

Yes, I think the Olive Garden is crap.

Oh, sorry, that was not the questions was it?

OMG! When I read the title that's exactly what came to mind. I hate their "food".

I've never heard that in DH's family. Yes, there are a lot of hispanics that use mami, mamita, papi & papito when referring to their kids. My family never did though.

 

[Goobergal99]

never heard of it, although there are some other colorful names that come up..you know what I'm talking about right??

Lol such as dego, irish grease ball and some things I can't say here

I have a funny story actually, I got into trouble once at school for saying "dego" and I couldn't understand why because in my house it was sort of a joke. My GM went into school and kindly explained that it is more a term of endearment then an insult to italians and the teacher wasn't very understanding so my GM told her (in italian of course...) to get the stick out of her a##.

 

[MickiMouth]

I'm Italian from South Jersey and yes my family does that. I thought it was just us.

 

[Lanshark]

I'm Greek/Italian from around Chicago and have never heard this.

 

[SamRoc]

Brooklyn Italian here, my family never did this. My friend here in Bklyn who is puerto rican calls everbody mommy, her daughters, her granddaughter, and even me!