No diary entry today. Aunt Marjorie wrote:
"My brothers always called Mother "mama". When I was young (probably in school by then) my playmate next door, Joann Fries, told me her mother said that calling my mother 'mama' was babyish. That embarrassed me very much, and I started consciously calling my mother 'Mother'.
It was difficult for a while but I became able to easily call mother 'Mother', always. Eleanor started using 'Mother', too. Mother never made any comment. I suspect she knew what was going on. I think one of her powers was in not telling everything she knew. The boys called her 'mama' the rest of her or their lives."
(I don't recall what my mom (Eleanor) called Grandma, but I know my Dad always called her 'Mother Smith'.)
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My son has called me "mother" since he was fairly little. I'm not sure where it came from, but he has never called me anything else. He's 17 now.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember when I started calling her Mother. Maybe about the time Marjorie started. I have a college-age granddaughter who calls her mother "Mommie' and I love it. Her 'Mommie' looks young for her age, which somehow makes it more special.
ReplyDeleteMy siblings and I have always referred to our mother as "momma". Possibly because she died when we were children, and we hadn't progressed to the "mother" stage.
ReplyDeleteI've always been "Mommy" and there is nothing remotely "Mommyish" about me. I think what I love about this diary, is I see a lot of personality in Ruth.
ReplyDeleteMost people think I'm very formal, aloof and somewhat cold, so hearing a very happy and vibrant child run up to me yelling "Mommy!" always makes them look twice.