Alt names for "mom"

MyColonyNJ

We are going through the foster care system to adopt.  We are doing fost/adopt which means that children placed with us may or may not be returned to bio parents.

that said, it could be a while before finalization is done. 

I was thinking that any kids in our home would call us something other than mom and dad.  I guess to avoid confusion since there will more than likely be visitation with bios.

Any suggestions??  I don't want to do nanny - sounds grandmotherly.

Maybe something in another language that means mom/dad?

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Why not Mama "Your First Name" and Daddy "His First Name"

come*on*baby

MrsB2007:

Why not Mama "Your First Name" and Daddy "His First Name"

 

perfect. but i'll tell you - they're going to call you mama/daddy and dada/daddy if they are young. and in that case, the caseworker just needs to explain to their BioParents that sometimes it just happens. My little A has been calling me mama and mommy for a week now, and called DH daddy from day 3. The oldest calls us by our names.

our last little boy called us mommy and daddy and his bio-dad had absolutely no problem with it. 

BurkeJax

What about Miss (insert name). Living in the south its common to hear down here. Ms. Amie...Mr. Bob... Just a thought.

Dr.Loretta

You know, I was wondering how you were going to handle this.

I like the idea of "mom" and "dad" in another language, if you have a strong heritage to pull from.

rottimom

I like  Meme (May May) and Pop.  It's affectionate but not exactly mom and dad.  Easy enough to change it up to them when/if the adoption becomes final.

sunnybrook.

We refer to ourselves by our first names. Our 3 year old foster daughter called me "tee tee" - Spanish term of endearment for auntie. SO cute!

jacksjerseygirl

I wonder if this depends on the age of the child. If they are older they may feel most comfortable calling you by your first names or mrs 'first name' and mr 'first name'. For a younger child I like the 'mama x' and 'papa x'. So this way they don't lose the mama/papa connection with their biological parents.

If you use a term from a different language for mom/dad - it might be confusing -especially if neither you nor the child share in that culture. For a young chilld psychologically and cognitively they have enough difficulty learning the basic titles in a family (mom, dad, grandma, aunt, uncle, etc). Adding a term that they have never heard before would be just the same as them calling you by your first name.

 Good luck!

 

Erin Mary Ackerman

Amma is Hindi for mother.  It is also very close to Alma, which is Spanish for soul.  I like the connection...

ShaMcKoy

Ummi is arabic for mother or you can always make up a name you always wanted to call yourself and use that.

MyColonyNJ

Thanks!  These will be pretty young - I like the ethnic suggestions

Mrs. TLC

just happened to wander over to this board --- eema (mom) and ahba (dad) are hebrew options....

Stefanimazer

I know you don't like "nanny" and it may sound too close to it but you can use "Nana" and "Pop pop" or "papa"

 

EmmaRain

In French, mother is mere and father is pere. These are pretty easy for American kids to pronounce because it sounds like "mare" and "pear."

My friend speaks Tamil (a south Indian language) and calls his parents Amma and Appa.

 

 

 

EmmaRain

Also, in Turkish it is Anne (mother) and Baba (father). Hungarian for mother is Anya and father is Apa. I think Anya and Apa are such cool names!

2bWednDec

My two year old called us mommy and dada from the begining, even though we tried to train her differently.  Even though she was reunified many months ago, she still calls me mama but occasionally mama first name, and very occasionally just my first name.  It's hard to control.  Thank the lord we are so lucky that her bio's don't seem to mind too much, and allow us to continue to visit.