[w8ting4Thomas]

I have posted about this before but it continues to worry me. Thomas calls me Alie (sounds like owie from him!) a lot of the time instead of mommy or mama. I posted before that I have 3 stepchildren so he hears them call me Alie.
My DH keeps telling me that he will figure it out when he is older and we can explain that I am not mama to the other 3, only to him. But I am so scared he will call me Alie forever. He does say mama sometimes and will repeat it if I ask him to say it. But then the next word out of his mouth is Alie. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Please tell me I am worrying for nothing!

[crayolamom]

I would imagine this is something he'll grow out of. Owen does not have step children running around calling me Mama, but he doesn't really call me Mama to my face either. Of course he says Mama and DaDa, but has not quite figured everything out yet? I think at some point all children call their parentsby their first names because so many people do. Keep correcting him, and it will all be fine.
Carolyn

[kerriv]

If all he ever hears anyone call you is Alie, even if he knows you're his mom, he doesn't know to call you mama. Maybe have your DH and (if you can) your stepkids call you mama so he'll hear that as your name.

Ruby called my mom mama for a long time not because she thought her grandmother was her mom but because that's all she ever heard me call her. After I made a conscious effort to refer to her as nana for a while, Ruby finally got it.

[connorsmommy1999]

our youngest bio son did the same thing...

I have an older son from a previous marriage and he always called my DH by name so when our son was born he never called DH 'dad'. It took a long time...I remember being worried about it but at some point he figured it out - he was a little older but not yet kindergarten age.

He'll figure it out

[DFNY]

I think it's b/c others refer to you as Alie, not b/c he doesn't know that you're his mommy. Though I can understand why you'd like it to change.

For the last 3 months or so, our son (3.5 yrs old) calls DH by his first name, Eddie, though he'll also say Daddy some of the time. We'll be in the supermarket or at the park, and DS will call out "Eddie, Eddie come here," or "pick me up, Eddie". DH has no problem with it b/c he knows DS knows he's daddy. However, since DH is Irish-American & DS doesn't resemble him, I don't like it. When I speak to DS, I'll refer to my husband as "Daddy" so that he will too but it doesn't usually work. I think it's a phase.

Damaris

[grumpyskirtgirl]

I have a couple of friends who's daughter called her mom "honey" because that is what her husband always called her. My friends had her husband start calling her "mom" and the little girl got it after a while.

[SKL]

My kids didn't call me anything for the longest time, but of course I wanted them to call me Mama. Since I'm nobody else's Mama around here, I had to do the whole "Mama is doing this and that" thing to teach them. They finally started calling me "Mama" regularly in the past several months (well, when they call me anything). Now they are around 2 and I feel a little foolish calling myself Mama instead of I, me, etc., so I don't do much of that any more. Well, in the past few weeks, my older daughter has occasionally called me by my first name. I think it's kinda funny at this point but we'll see where it goes from here.

[whereintheworld]

My 3 year old calls daddy by his first name a lot lately. It all started because a friends son uses DH's first name (we have agreed with our friends that this is acceptable to all 4 adults for the kids to use our first names). Since my DS knows that it bothers daddy a bit, he now does this to tease daddy. I'm sure it is a phase that we will outgrow. Your situation probably is too.

[susy...patience]

I used the method mentioned by SKL....since I'm a single mom & usually just us around I incessantly referred to myself in the 3rd person as MAMA..

I also made up a song about: Where is mama? Where is Jackie? to the tune of Fera (sp?) Jacques......

[hbrown22]

I think it may be something he'll grow out of. My brother's son (bio) is 4 and has always called him by his first name,Devin, not Daddy. He calls his mom, Mommy, so they are not sure why he calls his dad by his first name. My brother doesn't mind it, he thinks it is funny! I think it's funny too! I know where you are coming from, I would want to be called Mommy! Hopefully it is something he'll grow out of.

[IH8MEAT]

I have dskids also, and once we knew that we would be bringing an angel home, I requested that they pick a "nickname" for me that I would be comfortable with Xan calling me. I offered up Ommay (pig-latin for mom) and a few other nicknames. The kids agreed to stick with MaMa'.

Now Xan calls me MaMa' along with ALL of the kids in the house!!

PM me anytime you want to chat about steplife!!