Sunday, February 28, 2010

Okay, Sweetheart.

PART 1:

Lara-boo. Lara-chka. Wawa. Boo boo. Wawa de Hut.

My parents had all sorts of terms of endearment for us kids, and though I may have occasionally protested using my pet names in public I always secretly enjoyed it.

Now as a wife and mother I'm usually just called Honey or Mom, which I adore of course.  Glen is  Hunny (yes we spell our versions differently to differentiate) or occasionally Glenny-Boo which inexplicably always sends the entire house into hysterical peals of laughter,  but over the years I find myself subconsciously lavishing more and more pet names on the kids.

Buster Brown, Ems, Ellie Bellie, Camikins, SpenceBence, M & M, CamCam, Elles Bells, Sweety Petey.  

Some of them may be indecipherable to non-family members, but they all know who I'm referring to when I use them and I like to think they secretly like it too.

PART 2:

  Although the Washington DC area is a pretty cosmopolitan place itself, you don't have to look far to realize that we live squarely in Dixie territory.  Confederate monuments and battlefields and sweet old ladies that call everyone, "Hun," dot the landscape and remind us that we are, indeed, officially southerners.

At first I thought the whole southern tradition of calling people you didn't know by a nickname like, Honey,  to be a little too familial for me, but then the other day I overheard Cami and her friends talking:

"It's so cute.  Your mom always calls me sweetheart or sweetie."  
" I noticed that too.  I think it's kind of weird."  
"Oh I never noticed, but I guess you're right.  She calls everyone that, even Spencer's friends. "  
"Ew, now that's really weird." 

CONCLUSION:  

 A)  Being called a sweetie is better than being called weird.

B)  When you stop eating sweets, then everyone and everything turns to sweeties before your eyes.

C)  I have every intention to continue to refer to all of my children's friends as sweeties until they're 87 years old.

D)  If I ever happen to call you sweetie, please don't slap me.



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7 comments:

  1. You don't call me sweetie. I am offended. (o: Am I not special enough?

    I call everyone dear. Andrew hates it. He always responds, "Mom, I am not a deer!"

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  2. hehehe funny! What do you call your hubby? I call him hun, or honey..and I only seem to say his name when I am stressed or under pressure! hehehehe

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  3. I love reason "B." I just can't help but envision all of your kids' friends as giant cupcakes, candy bars, ice cream cones, etc.

    Oh, I probably should have waited until next Sunday to post this comment.

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  4. lol! i was just thinking how southern it is living here...even more so where we are.

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  5. Great post Wawa boo!

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  6. Wow, I meant to say when I was born, not when I was bored.

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  7. My brother came up with a song revolving around my name when I was bored. The nickname stuck and to this day my mom still calls me Roonie; even though it has nothing to do with my name.

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