Thread: When do children start calling their mothers "Mom"?

About what would be the youngest age when they clip "Mommy" to "Mom," and would you say it is about the same or different between sexes?

When they hear older children doing it.
When Mom stop calling herself "Mommy" and refers to herself as "I".

Mine started with "momomomom" at about 4mos. Somewhere around 2-3, I became "Mommy". My oldest is 7 but she hasn't taken to calling me "Mom" yet.

My daughter is nearly three, she calls me Mummy, Mum or Maaaaaaaaa! She always said mummy up until about 30 months. Now she probably says Mum more.
I think it's because both my husband and I see our mothers a lot, and we always refer to them as Mum not Mummy, I think thats were she picked it up.

Would a four or five year-old ever use "Mom?"

I think so, like I said, mine is three and she says it.

I can't help you with the mommy business. Research is ongoing about the dada transition.

Originally Posted by mgencleyn

Would a four or five year-old ever use "Mom?"

Sure. Like Seig said -- depends on when they hear other kids saying it. I had 5 older brothers and sisters -- I never said mommy.

My wife is very southern, so my kids call her mamma. However, when my 7-seven year-old is talking to people outside the family, she says, "my mom."

I think you have a lot of leeway.

Cool. Thanks everyone.

Originally Posted by alanmt

I can't help you with the mommy business. Research is ongoing about the dada transition.

The closest I ever got was when I was born. I recall looking around the room at all the tired faces and saying: "tada!" They never got over the shock... and nor did I.

I never used mommy or mom. It was always mama for my mother, madam for my maternal grandmother (there's a rather long story behind that), and bubi for my paternal grandmother.

On the other hand I know a few guys at highschool who still used mummy.

I've actually called my mother mommy recently. "I love you mommy." And for some reason in that sentence it never got shortened to Mom.

My children generally started referring to me as mom at about 18 months. Sapphire is the oldest and she stopped calling me mommy about Kindergarten, so 6 ish. The boys followed her and rarely ever called me mommy. It was usually whining when they said mommy instead of mom.

None of our three kids have ever used "mommy", the youngest is 18 months, so it's "MA!", middle child is speech impaired, so same as the 18 month. My 7 year old daughter stopped calling me daddy at about 5, never called her mom "mommy"

I can tell you that my son who is currently days away from his 5th birthday called me "Mom" about a year ago (he'd just turned 4) and I quickly corrected him that I was "Mama" so he doesn't call me "Mom" when addressing me anymore, but when he talks about me to others (kids & adults) he says "This is my mom." and has said that for at least a year now, which I don't mind.

It depends on what other kids call their parents and if the mother wants her child to call her mom or if she encourages the mommy and such as the child develops.