Mommy Dearest

[Phil]

How do you address your mother? (in a one-to-one conversation?)

[The Waiting Hurts]

What about Mummy? Guess that's an other.

[Cirroc]

i call my mom Kenny.

[Wannabe Actuary]

Mum, Mummy, Mummy Dearest....all things I hear in old movies set in Europe
I stick with Mom

[Gal Friday]

I call my mom “mom”, but she and my dad have insisted on referring to each other as “grandma” and “grandpa” for years now. At the time it started, I had siblings with kids, but I myself had no children. So it was weird to be talking to my mom about my dad and have her refer to him as “grandpa” even though whatever story she was telling had nothing to do with any of their grandkids. (For instance I’d call and ask if dad was home, and she’d answer “No, grandpa went for a walk… ” ) I guess they find it too confusing to be “mom and dad” sometimes and “grandma and grandpa” other times. I think it’s weird and I refuse to refer to them as grandma and grandpa unless I’m talking to my daughter or her cousins.

[Loner]

In my family, we always addressed her as "Ma" but referred to her in conversation as "Mommy." I guess because there was a spread in ages and for a long time there was a toddler in the house.

I called my father "Da" until I was about 10 or so when I started calling him Dad. I think it's an Irish thing. Likewise, we all referred to him as "Daddy" in conversation.

As for the grandma/grandpa thing - they probably did that so the in-laws had something to call them. My mother had felt uncomfortable addressing her mother-in-law as Mom or by her first name, so was thrilled to be able to call her "grandma" once she had a kid. My brother's mother-in-law is called "granny" by everyone.