Mommy, Daddy or Amma, Appa?

[Cyann]

My seventeen-month-old son just recently starting calling my husband and me by "name", and I was completely surprised that he decided we're called "Amma" and "Appa" rather than "Mommy" and "Daddy". He's heard a fair amount of Tamil around the house, especially recently (we had my husband's brother and sister-in-law staying with us for six weeks), but my husband and I ourselves have almost never used Appa and Amma. It's always been Daddy and Mommy. But I guess I'm Amma now! It's sort of cool -- I guess my son has a mind of his own. :)

For those of you who use two (or more!) languages in your household, I was curious in which language your child addresses you, and whether it was a deliberate thing on your part, or not. Any interesting stories out there?

[seoul_mama]

interesting... in korean, it's Oma and Apa - very similiar to tamil :)

my ds (21mo) blends korean & English calling me mommiyah and ds daddiyah. it wasn't intentional on my part - i actually wanted him to call me "oma"

[EVC]

Interesting...However this might not be a bi-lingual issue per se. Dd also went through an "amma" and "appa" phase around that age--and those aren't words in either of the languages we use. So it could just be a normal toddler struggling with sound articulation thing: amma and appa are just easier to say :)

[Ahava]

I go by Ima (hebrew for mama) and DH goes by Daddy(dada)...DS seems to have picked those up. And Ima makes for a nice whiny noise too when he's upset (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ma!):lol
He also calls my father baba (for Saba - hebrew for grandpa) but has yet to pick up on Savta for gram...

Amma and Appa sound cool and easy to say...so it could be a phase, or maybe he genuinely picked up on that and likes to use it! :thumb

[emmasmommy]

DD1 (almost 6) calls dh and I Mamma and Pappa (Swedish), but when talking about us she says "my mom and dad"
DD2 (2.5) started out calling us Mamma and Pappa, but has recenting started calling my Mommy, but still calls dh Pappa, and probably always will since that is what we all refer to him as at home.

[Mosaic]

We speak to DD in Spanish, so we encouraged her to use the Spanish names. Of course, mamá y papá aren't THAT dissimilar to English, but it's a marked improvement over "dada" for both of us. :D She sometimes breaks out with "mommy" after being at daycare all day, but I think Spanish is her default. :)

[joanq]

We always called ourselves Mama and Papa (in line with my husband's Spanish language) and that is how he calls us 90% of the time. Lately he has said Mommy or Daddy occasionally, and heck, he says "Hey JOAN!" to me quite often these days too LOL.
But I make a point to go to Mama and Papa. I just like the way it sounds better :)

[umsami]

My kids use Baba for their Dad, and Mommy for me. DH's family (Egyptian) use Mama for his Mom, so it's not that different.

We live in an area with a big Chinese population, and Baba is also the Chinese word for Daddy... so I guess it seems normal to their peers as well.

[Turkish Kate]

DS calls me "Anne" (ah-nay), Turkish for mother, despite me trying to get him to call me "Mama," but in Turkish mama means "food." Since he's still breastfeeding, I suppose I am both his Anne and his mama. :lol He calls DH "Baba" and DD "Adda" ("abla" for older sister in Turkish). Sometimes he calls MIL "Nena," but mostly it's just lots of squealing 'cause he :love her so much.