You call me mommy

When I was younger, I always wondered why my parents didn’t ever call one another by their first names.  For as far back as I can remember, my parents always called each other “Mommy” and “Daddy” or some version of that.  My mom sometimes called my dad his real name but that was really only when he was in trouble for something.  I don’t really ever remember my dad calling my mom her real name but like a handful of times before I was 12 or so.  I knew her name because other people called her that name, of course, but there was never a question that her name to us was “Mommy”.  

 

Once I got older I started to realize that calling her by her real name would elicit a quick response when I felt like she wasn’t listening.  I would use that name in public if I needed to get her attention.  You try to say “Hey Mom” in public and see how many people turn around!  But I still would have never thought about calling her by her first name without the fear the punishment.  I had some friends when I was in high school who called their parents by their first names and that always seemed so odd to me.  That was before I had learned the adult’s habit to be judgmental towards other’s parenting habits, so I didn’t think anything about the parent’s decision to let this happen, etc.  It just seemed odd because we did not do that in our household. 

Now that I have young children, I know why my parents always called themselves and each other “Mommy” and “Daddy”.  If you don’t want your children calling you by your first names then you have to train them to call you something.  I didn’t even realize how that happened and didn’t think about it before I had children at all.  Until one day when my daughter comes into my room and says “Sara – more milk please.” Uhh no ma’am.  It was from that moment on that I realized how much Isabella truly does listen and pick things up from what she hears every day.  Of course we don’t punish for things like that but we were really quick to clear up the air with “You call me ‘mommy’ and not ‘Sara’”.

 

Unfortunately I just didn’t even think ahead of time to realize that she wouldn’t inherently know that she was to call me mommy.  Luckily, now she rarely calls me ‘Sara’ and usually only does it if we have friends over who are saying my name regularly.  

 

Does your child call you by your first name or something different from the norm?    

 

If a mom was President...

Let's all take a break from our current reality with our jobs and stress and think about the major differences in our world if a Mom were President of the United States. 

       There would be a balanced budget and no more debt.  Can't you just hear the 'mom voice' - "Do you think money grows on trees?"  We would all have hand me down clothes and would save money for things that we wanted instead of just charging it.  Moms are a master at being able to stretch a dollar, and I don't know many economic majors that could balance a budget like a Mom can.  Once you are a mom, or a parent in general, you suddenly have to think about 900 moving pieces all simultaneously and to get all of those perfectly in line and manage to do it under a certain amount of money a year taking a certifiable genius. 

       There wouldn't be terrorists because right before anyone was setting off bombs or meeting to discuss any kind of terroristic activity, she would show up and say something like "I've got eyes in the back of my head and I have been watching you this whole time."  How do moms have this ability?  I have noticed that since my child has been I have been using a similar line more and more.  My kids can be in the toy room and I can just sense that they are doing something that I would prefer that they not be doing.

 



    There wouldn't be any wars because we all know how moms are about fighting.  We would have one big world-sized 'get along shirt' that we all would have to wear in order to stop killing one another, fighting in wars, etc.  The US would be in one gigantic never-ending timeout because there isn't a switch big enough to teach us all a lesson at the same time.  

 

 

In all fairness, I don't speak negatively about the President or any other elected official because I don't vote.  It's a personal choice for me that I probably will touch on in a later blog.  This is strictly meant to be as a joke and just something humorous to think about. 

 

What other things do you think would be different if a mom was the President? 

 

-Sara