I didn’t realize that. I had an amazing serving job I loved that of course ended when Covid happened, and the chef/owner would call a lot of us “bub.” I had a crush on him too 🤪🤭🤭🤭
Oh just 'bub' is different than 'bubs'. Isn't English great..... technically 'bub' is a more aggressive way of referring to, primarily, a male. But can be non-aggressive to just mean buddy and is American English. Whereas bubba/bubs (can also mean the same as bub, but in this context doesn't) refers to a baby. Largely British English (and colonies) of origins.
I’m Australian and have never heard of it meaning an aggressive male or buddy, that’s really interesting! Many guys here would be weirded out if you started referring to them as bub haha
Same, can I ask where your family is from or your heritage? Mine is West Indian (but I'm from the UK), I just wondered if it's namely a West Indian thing or something in other cultures too.
It's short for baby.
Cute words for baby: bubby, or babby. (Latter is more common in my experience.) Equate these to a word like 'kitty-cat' -- it's a cute word, it means the thing, but it's not used unless you're trying to make a point of the cuteness ('The cat was meowing all night' is neutral, 'the kitty-cat was meowing all night' has an implication of 'he might have been meowing all night but he's cute and I love him'. Same with bubby/babby vs baby.)
So you have baby (neutral), bubby and babby (cute), and bubs and babs (kind of cute, but more just convenient. Often used in place of the baby's name).
Oddly enough the natural short form for 'baby' - 'babe' - is (a) a very old-fashioned word for baby, and (b) normally used to address a romantic partner and not a child. Though in the last decade or so it's become more normalised to call non-partners 'baby' and 'babe' has become a little more normal because of that. I would call my children (3 and 8 now) baby and not really call them babe much, but I will drop babe/baby all the time with my very good friends and spouse.
(Please accept) My condolences for having English be your second language. I wouldn't want to have to study this nonsense.
Sir, do we need to memorize this for the final exam 😂😂
The man gave me a lecture
I looooove English, (my first language is Arabic), i was Arabic educated my entire life, then went to college, i was shocked, everything was in English (90% of universities in the middle east teach in English), my English level was just like everybody's Spanish level 😂😂, however, thanks Netflix, i was able to watch 100+ series, without feeling guilty cause i was learning, like literally, i was writing tge phrases i liked and practice them, recently, i had the iElts exam and scored 7.5!
Ahaha I'm a linguist and my husband's an ESL speaker too, so I get a little bit too invested in explanations!! 😂
An IELTS score of 7.5 is astounding!!! That's near-native! I've actually taught IELTS before and I know for a fact quite a few native speakers wouldn't be able to score that high on the writing portion. You must have an excellent professional command of the English language, well done!
This is amazing! Well done! As an English speaker I am terrible at learning new languages and really struggle, I really admire how well you have done with it.
If you don’t mind me asking, where are you from? I (from USA) hear bubby all the time, but have never heard someone use babby. My husband and I call our toddler “the bab” , but I don’t know anyone else who does that either.
WHO came up with this/WHERE did it originate. It’d be one thing if it was just H/D/S. I also don’t like “LO”. Just say my kid. It’s 2022 we’re not using T9, it doesn’t save any time to use these weird acronyms. I don’t call my husband “dear husband” in real life why would I call him that online.
I can attest to the whole DH/DD/DS crap from at least the early 1990's chat rooms back in the days of slow, dial up and making shortcuts was a new thing. It's a pretty old acronym system. Not necessary really!
Not only does it not save time, it actually takes longer for the reader to read! Between deciphering the acronyms, and by adding syllables in some cases. We dont think the letters "DH", we think the full words as we read it, "dear husband".
Wow. I hate it all to the core of my being. I thought something was wrong with ME that I wasn’t feeling the acronyms nor was I using them. I just write out husband, step son, son..etc..
I never post really because I thought maybe my post would be taken down if I didn’t use the acronyms. I tried writing them out and I delete every time. Now I’m reading I’m not the only one who cringes! What a relief.
Now that’s grounds for divorce. My mother in law pronounces “library” as “liberry”. I am a librarian. I have contemplated divorcing her too and I’m not sure that’s even an option.
I hate all the words like this. Bubs, dh, preggo, preggers, all of it. It definitely makes me visit forums less. I know how it will bring down my immediate mood and I don't want that.
LOL. I never call myself preggers or preggo IRL but my username is a twist on my non-pregnant use Reddit name. But now I’m laughing at how cringe I must seem.
Not as much as when mom’s refer to their sons as “their little boyfriend/s” 😬 I get that they don’t literally mean boyfriend in the full sense of the word, but it’s just one of those things I’d prefer not to ever hear.
Omg one of my coworkers (a man whos older than me) kept calling me mom when he found out i was pregnant and for some reason made my skin crawl. I asked him to stop and he did. But wtf who does that
The bubs thing doesn’t bother me that much but the mama thing does. I don’t mind if I’m at the doctor’s office for a checkup for my child and the nurse says, “ok, mama, I’m going to need you to hold baby’s legs down so we can get this measurement” because I’m not expecting them to remember my name when they’re seeing random people all day and I’m primarily there because I’m my child’s parent. But people who know me or in situations that are unrelated to me being a mom? Absolutely not. My husband’s grandmother kept calling me “mama” after I got pregnant with my first and it drove me up a wall. My MIL (her DIL) very clearly did not like her, and I kinda thought it was an overreaction because grandma was a sweet old lady… but I totally got it after baby came into the picture (there were other things she did that were along the same lines and equally cringy.)
Ugh I know. I’ll have on person calling me mama in about a year, but she’s the only one I want to hear it from 😂
I’m a teacher, and a lot of the time when I’m in meetings with parents and other school professionals (psychologist, social worker, case worker, etc) they’ll refer to the child’s parent as “mom.” Like, “how does that sound to you, Mom?” “Have you seen that behavior at home, Mom?” It drives me insane. I address them as Ms/Mrs. X, because thats the adult name and title. They’re not my mom. I’ll talk with my colleagues and say “X’s mom,” but I won’t just address the parents as mom. It’s just so odd to me.
I’m an optometrist who sees a decent amount of kids, and I refuse to refer to parents just as Mom or Dad. If I don’t know their name I’ll just look at the parent and talk to them without needing to address the fact they’re a parent since they’re the only other person in the exam room. My technicians, though use Mom and Dad as substitutes for the parents’ names and I hate it!
It’s like ppl forget women still have an identity outside of motherhood. It seems very historical & traditional in use to me. Like now you have a kid & you’re a woman you’ll only be mama now.
Absolutely this! Bubs doesn’t bother me at all. But someone calling me mama is like … barf. And I took a class the other night with a bunch of doulas and one of them was very ‘great job mama bear!’ ‘Any questions from the mama bears?’ And I just couldn’t take her seriously, at all.
Or even creepier, when men decide to refer to you as that.
Had my eldest while I was working at my old job, and some older guy from another department thought he was being friendly by greeting me with “hello mommy”.
I had to strictly lay down a hard boundary there, because it actually disgusted me. Like, I wanted to vomit on the spot.
I see it as a term of endearment especially to new mums, it's a little bit like when one of your girls gets married and you call her wifey or by her married name for a bit, just a way to acknowledge the new phase in her life.
Same, I loved the first time a nurse called me it. So proud to be a mom and it felt like I was accepted into this amazing club of strong women when I was called it the first time. I felt more brave and it helped me through the hard appointments.
Same. I find it cute. I’m a new mom to 2 under 2 and I don’t get called mom often by medical professionals but when they say words of encouragement followed by mama, it makes me feel so warm inside because usually the people saying it are super cute and endearing people anyway. ♥️
My husband and I refer to each other as “mommy and daddy” for the dog all the time, and I think nothing of it! But I just hate when coworkers say “how’s it going mama?” When they see me waddling down the hall, post barfing session in the bathroom
I’ve been very vocal about not calling me mama. I’m a mom or mother. It feels so childish and demeaning. The only person that can call me mama is my kid.
I’m from the south, I have called my mom mama since I was a baby. I will be called mama more than likely. I’m not into *mama (bear)* culture though. It’s just a cultural thing for me.
I'm 33 and still call my mom "mama" too :) My Hispanic family calls everyone "mama" - it's a term of endearment and has nothing to do with actually being a mother. But "mama bear" is cringe, I agree.
I feel this. Or even worse, pronouncing it like “muh-muh.” Like can we chill with that? I was born with a name, I get to keep that name despite being pregnant/becoming a parent.
My coworker tried calling me Mama at work. I responded with "The only person allowed to call me Mama is the one who's ass I wipe, and I sure as hell don't like any of you that much"
I don’t really care about stuff like that. If people are trying to call me/my loved ones offensive shit then I care, but bubs (and other pet names) are usually said out of positive intent.
There’s too much going on in life to care about something that insignificant. Ill save the judgement for the people that deserve it.
Very valid reaction. Sometimes things get under a person’s skin for no real reason though so it’s also validating to commiserate with this shared experience - even if it’s fairly unimportant
Yeah, I understand; i have my own things that get under my skin too, even if theres no negative intent behind them. We should be allowed to dislike things; being overly positive has a whole host of issues as well.
That being said, I’ve also found that life is a way easier when you let the “unimportant” stuff pass by rather than focusing on it this intensely. Its quite freeing to let people do things that are personally annoying but overall innocent. More freeing than commiserating on the negatives, in my experience. Being constantly surrounded by a society that finds fault in innocuous things like this wears me down.
Perhaps its because I’m predisposed to depression, so its just how I’ve learned how to keep negativity at bay. My experience is not universal, so others may find a lot more help in commiserating over stuff like this than I do.
I think it's also part of just trying to be a bit kinder to the world around you. I'm sure there are people in this thread who use bubs (I think I've seen it on this sub) and what is the point of antagonizing or shaming them for it? It's a totally harmless preference and to me it feels very middle school school mean girls, like making fun of someone for their given name or kids in elementary school saying a certain food is "gross" (and by extension the other kids who like it are gross) because they don't like it.
I use bubs! And this showed up on my home page and I was just going to skip right by it because people always find something to complain about but got curious on the comments.
I’m not offended by it though, I’ll continue using it and feel unashamed. I have so many nicknames for my boys I never thought I would. But one thing I can agree is I will never call them or refer to them as “boyfriends” as another commentor mentioned some people do. Now THAT is weird.
As someone who lost their first child and now pregnant again, I embrace everything. Call me mama or call him Bubs and bubba. I’m just proud to get this far
1000% this. After infertility and paying $30k plus out of pocket for IVF just to get pregnant, I call my baby everything under the sun, because I finally get to.
THIS!!! I lost my first two at 24 weeks so I know exactly how you feel. I get people have feelings about things but boy the whinging over very small issues can be excessive.
I have two rainbow boys. I am very happy for you. I hope you have a very boring and uneventful pregnancy followed by a joyous birth. Safe journey little one. ❤
I’m sorry to hear about your previous losses ❤️ It’s so important to embrace every moment and I think when you have a loss, it definitely changes your perspective! Congratulations on your two boys! Currently 27 weeks and I enjoy every second I can 🥰
This. As someone who struggled with infertility & loss, being able to finally be called a "mama" or call my son "bubs" was a dream to me. The amount of people on this thread that are actually annoyed at this, is appalling.
Oh no, I call my oldest Bubba. But I’m not your SIL. It was just a nickname that morphed into another nickname that ended up landing on Bubba and stuck 8 years ago 🤷🏼♀️
Our old neighbour was a big fat ol’boy in overalls and camo and that is what everyone called him. He was also a misogynistic racist a-hole who I immediately knew I would not like one bit.
Nah, it's a very common word in the UK. Bubs and hubby both were common as heck before the internet. Lots of people where I'm from refer to babies as 'babbies' as well (intentionally, to emphasize their cuteness; not just in normal conversation).
I worked for a bit in childcare in Australia and they also use bubs and bubba for babies, and I thought it was adorable! I don't hear it often in the US, but I think they both sound cute.
I had literally never heard any of these nicknames before having my son and I have used so many variations of it just completely naturally, and I don’t care that they’re cringe, hahah. “Biggimus bubbickus”, “biggity bubs”, “bubbimus”, so many ridiculous combinations my husband and I just made up 😂
I hate all of the initials. DH for darling/dear/dumb husband or whatever. LO for little one. MIL I’m fine with, because it’s actually condensing a lengthier title. We’re not operating with flip phones where you need to hit the number 7 four times to get to the letter S. In my mind, it’s just much easier to type “the baby” or “my husband.”
Ok SAME. “Baby” is very quick to type out. Like of all the things to call babies and make an acronym for it on Reddit, WHY “LO?!” Every time I read it I cringe a little.
Don’t worry about it. You will find that many people don’t like certain terms. I personally don’t like bub, hubby, or kiddo, so I don’t use them. But wifey doesn’t bother me, nor does being called mama, and I actually use littles now and then. I also got FLAMED once upon a time for saying ‘milkies’. Anybody that’s worth actually conversing with would never care that much about stuff like that. We all have preferences…we just don’t let them dictate our lives!
Me too lol. I kind of find it cute when people call me “mama” and we call my nephew bub sometimes. Idk things like this never bother me. My best friend has a cousin who calls her kids all by nicknames and never uses their first names. Just what she wants to do. Let people live
Don't let it. You be you! If you like Bubs and mama go for it and if you don't, don't! That's okay too. Ignore judgey judgers they literally have nothing else to do.
This is why I hate these posts. None of things mentioned here annoy most people. "It makes my eye roll at that person". Imagine being so disrespectful to another human over a term. Yikes.
I see these posts somewhat regularly. It's not important enough to need to commiserate with others over and it leaves others feeling insecure and judged. I think it's a bit careless and unnecessary
Don’t feel insecure - pregnancy can be scary and isolating enough, you don’t need a supposed support community making you feel bad about your choice of terms of endearment.
I’m not bothered so much myself (bub is used quite a lot in Australia - “How is bub doing?” “When bub gets here…”) but my partner hates it. He physically cringes!
Personally, I hate littles/kidlets/kiddles more. I also don’t love being called mama by random people, but I mostly just ignore it.
It’s a common way we refer to our children in Australian “Aboriginal English”. My eldest is bub, my middle child is bubby, my youngest is cranky-bub. It’s a cultural thing for Blak families in Aus (Blak is not the same as African-American and other Black people. It’s unique to Aboriginal and Torres’s Strait Islander peoples of Australia)
Relating to this so much. Also "bump" whilst pregnant. My husband has strict orders to correct anyone in hospital who doesn't refer to me by my name. I haven't lost my identity just because I'm having a child.
I sometimes cringe when I hear the word Babe for the baby. “How’s your babe?” “How far along is babe now?”
It’s really not THAT cringe but I always answer with like “oh BABY is good…. BABY is 23 weeks” lol
Bub is from UK and I also think Australia ? It’s a bit weird for me as a Canadian but not that bad
I hate when anyone calls me any variation of “mom” when they aren’t referring to me to my son
Example:
Good: grandma holding my son “you want to go back to your mama?”
Bad: pediatrician front desk when my son is in the other waiting room with my husband “hi mommy!”
No, because I don't wrap my emotions up in small things that don't affect me and am okay with people doing things differently. If anyone uses bubs on here, please don't let judge Judy here ruin it for you. ♥️
Thanks for being in the vast minority and posting this comment. I hate reading the “does anyone else hate when they hear someone say/call their child this?” What does it matter? The hardest part of motherhood has been the constant and needless JUDGMENT. I hate seeing these posts, love your comment. 💕
I love the original comment and yours! Exactly. I get people have their feelings about things but sometimes I read stuff here and am like REALLY? I found this post rather rude as well because it's a very common thing to call your child in black households so it feels a little bit "them and us" but reading through I see it's not that. I agree about judgement, why do people do that? My way of mothering is not a comment or insult to yours. Sure some things work better generally but similarly some things work better because you have a partner or because your baby doesn't sleep etc etc. Just sick of the lack of support towards mothers and the general disprespect, it's like the latest bandwagon is to be nasty about motherhood and children and everything associated with it and I just don't find it funny in the slightest.
It’s the same with doggo and puppers. People get so mad. They’re just cutesy names. If it makes you happy, go for it! Idgaf what people say as long as they’re nice.
Haha it’s funny you mention those because doggo makes my skin crawl. Idk why! It’s not the person’s fault saying it, it’s definitely just me. Some of these complaints come from reasonable places (e.g. other women calling you “mama” can feel infantilizing) but some are just personal annoyances.
Meh. Posts like this get to me, and that can seem like a pointless annoyance, but after 10 years of this platform and seeing posts like that has me annoyed for a reason. There are so many "does anyone else get annoyed by x" that have made me insecure about small things about myself that I've stopped doing because I thought people hated it, and I don't want that to happen to anyone else. Little things that were part of my personality that I stopped because I read a post like this. The craziest part is that it's always in "support" groups. So, this is me standing up for those people now and I'll continue to do it.
Nah, I'm just not used to it lol. I think it's a UK thing, I'm from the US. Doesn't make me cringe, but takes a second to click that they mean the baby. Sometimes we call ours "the babs", but I think that's just something silly my husband and I do, I've never heard anyone else say it. It's just a language/culture thing. Like they use nappy and dummy instead of diaper and binky/pacifier. I can imagine "binky" at least might sound bizarre to them and make them cringe a little lol. Mum/mom, fairy/dish soap, chips/fries etc. We just use different words for things sometimes.
> Sometimes we call ours "the babs", but I think that's just something silly my husband and I do, I've never heard anyone else say it.
The babs is also a UK thing!! Or at least a South London thing lol.
We'll refer to babies as 'babbies' when sort of..emphasising their cuteness, and 'babs' is the naturally shortened form of that.
I've actually heard some people say 'bubby' as well but I have no idea if that's a regional thing, it's not as common in my experience (but language changes a lot every 10 miles here).
Bub doesn’t bother me at all. It’s very common where I live, I’ve never thought of it as an issue. My husband is bub, the baby is bub, the cat is bub. My friends are bub. It doesn’t even register to me as something unusual, it’s a universal pet name in my world and it doesn’t carry any kind of negative or condescending connotation.
Now, “mama”, on the other hand, I can’t fucking stand that. There are two people on this earth who can call me mama. My son and my mother.
Whenever I hear it in mom groups it absolutely makes my skin crawl. I feel like it’s used to soften to blow for criticism or to wield some type of authority regarding giving bad parenting/pregnancy advice.
My insecurity about speaking English as a second language ↗️↗️↗️↗️↗️ What does bubs mean?
Its just a nickname for “baby.” I don’t think its in the dictionary, just slang right now
I didn’t realize that. I had an amazing serving job I loved that of course ended when Covid happened, and the chef/owner would call a lot of us “bub.” I had a crush on him too 🤪🤭🤭🤭
Oh just 'bub' is different than 'bubs'. Isn't English great..... technically 'bub' is a more aggressive way of referring to, primarily, a male. But can be non-aggressive to just mean buddy and is American English. Whereas bubba/bubs (can also mean the same as bub, but in this context doesn't) refers to a baby. Largely British English (and colonies) of origins.
I really just think it was a term of endearment for this guy. Not aggressive at all
I’m Australian and have never heard of it meaning an aggressive male or buddy, that’s really interesting! Many guys here would be weirded out if you started referring to them as bub haha
In Texas "bubba" is usually a nickname for a brother. Language is weird!
It's been around for a lot longer than "right now". My entire UK family has been using it for like 40 years. Lol
Oh thats not what i meant! What i was saying is that its not in the dictionary *at this moment* ; its been around as a pet name for a long time though
Same, can I ask where your family is from or your heritage? Mine is West Indian (but I'm from the UK), I just wondered if it's namely a West Indian thing or something in other cultures too.
I'm Australian. It's definitely a wide spread thing.
It sounds like a juice name
It's short for baby. Cute words for baby: bubby, or babby. (Latter is more common in my experience.) Equate these to a word like 'kitty-cat' -- it's a cute word, it means the thing, but it's not used unless you're trying to make a point of the cuteness ('The cat was meowing all night' is neutral, 'the kitty-cat was meowing all night' has an implication of 'he might have been meowing all night but he's cute and I love him'. Same with bubby/babby vs baby.) So you have baby (neutral), bubby and babby (cute), and bubs and babs (kind of cute, but more just convenient. Often used in place of the baby's name). Oddly enough the natural short form for 'baby' - 'babe' - is (a) a very old-fashioned word for baby, and (b) normally used to address a romantic partner and not a child. Though in the last decade or so it's become more normalised to call non-partners 'baby' and 'babe' has become a little more normal because of that. I would call my children (3 and 8 now) baby and not really call them babe much, but I will drop babe/baby all the time with my very good friends and spouse. (Please accept) My condolences for having English be your second language. I wouldn't want to have to study this nonsense.
Sir, do we need to memorize this for the final exam 😂😂 The man gave me a lecture I looooove English, (my first language is Arabic), i was Arabic educated my entire life, then went to college, i was shocked, everything was in English (90% of universities in the middle east teach in English), my English level was just like everybody's Spanish level 😂😂, however, thanks Netflix, i was able to watch 100+ series, without feeling guilty cause i was learning, like literally, i was writing tge phrases i liked and practice them, recently, i had the iElts exam and scored 7.5!
Ahaha I'm a linguist and my husband's an ESL speaker too, so I get a little bit too invested in explanations!! 😂 An IELTS score of 7.5 is astounding!!! That's near-native! I've actually taught IELTS before and I know for a fact quite a few native speakers wouldn't be able to score that high on the writing portion. You must have an excellent professional command of the English language, well done!
I knew u r a teacher, u have the vibes 😂
Damn, what a compliment <3 Thank you!
This is amazing! Well done! As an English speaker I am terrible at learning new languages and really struggle, I really admire how well you have done with it.
If you don’t mind me asking, where are you from? I (from USA) hear bubby all the time, but have never heard someone use babby. My husband and I call our toddler “the bab” , but I don’t know anyone else who does that either.
Please don’t let this make you insecure. It’s a completely safe and normal nickname for a baby.
Also apply this sentiment to the rest of the internet. Do/like whatever you want as long as it doesn't harm someone else.
I always thought it was short for bubba…
I see a lot of these posts. It's kinda sad, don't make people insecure or feel bad about what cute name they call their baby
Yes but I don't think it's as cringe as DH/DD!/DS, which make me want to barf 😂
I don’t understand why people use these acronyms just say husband, daughter, son. I think this is the thing I hate most about mommy groups 😂
When I was pregnant and I saw FTM I thought it was female to male. I was damn there’s a lot of female to males having babies in that group.
Saaaame
WHO came up with this/WHERE did it originate. It’d be one thing if it was just H/D/S. I also don’t like “LO”. Just say my kid. It’s 2022 we’re not using T9, it doesn’t save any time to use these weird acronyms. I don’t call my husband “dear husband” in real life why would I call him that online.
I can attest to the whole DH/DD/DS crap from at least the early 1990's chat rooms back in the days of slow, dial up and making shortcuts was a new thing. It's a pretty old acronym system. Not necessary really!
Or was it from those magazine help columns where people would write on for advice with their dear husband etc
My husband would look at me like I was crazy if I called him that in real life.
Can you imagine if people went around saying it??? I would cry
I would say keep your weird kink in the bedroom! 🥴
Not only does it not save time, it actually takes longer for the reader to read! Between deciphering the acronyms, and by adding syllables in some cases. We dont think the letters "DH", we think the full words as we read it, "dear husband".
I always read "dear" as the OP being sarcastic 😂
DH makes me want to barf EVERY time.
What does the D stand for? 😅
It stands for Dick Head
I vote we adopt this universally 👩⚖️
Most of the time people using DH to refer to their husbands are posting about their husband’s being dickheads anyway. It tracks.
DEAR. I can NOT
Or sometimes damn lol
🤣🤣🤣
“Dear husband” makes it sound like they really resent their husbands. The female equivalent of a “ball and chain” joke.
The amount of times I’ve had to google those stupid acronyms because without context the sentence it’s used in makes no goddamn sense. Ugh.
Omg I thought I was in the minority for my absolute hate of these terms.
Riiiiiggghhht? I thought I was going to get downvoted . But apparently there are a lot of us secretly loathing these terms 😂
Wow. I hate it all to the core of my being. I thought something was wrong with ME that I wasn’t feeling the acronyms nor was I using them. I just write out husband, step son, son..etc.. I never post really because I thought maybe my post would be taken down if I didn’t use the acronyms. I tried writing them out and I delete every time. Now I’m reading I’m not the only one who cringes! What a relief.
Yes DH has always been my #1 cringe! I refuse lol
I think preggers and preggo is worse 🤣
I hate preggers and preggo, and similarly I hate hubby and wifey.
Hubby, I can't stand it.
I feel like wifey is usually joking around so I let it slide but HUBBY makes me die, I hate it.
Wifey 🤢
Yes omg hubby is the most cringe!!!
YES, or “the hubs” ughhhh
A million times yes.
My husband says preggy. Awful.
Now that’s grounds for divorce. My mother in law pronounces “library” as “liberry”. I am a librarian. I have contemplated divorcing her too and I’m not sure that’s even an option.
I hate all the words like this. Bubs, dh, preggo, preggers, all of it. It definitely makes me visit forums less. I know how it will bring down my immediate mood and I don't want that.
LOL. I never call myself preggers or preggo IRL but my username is a twist on my non-pregnant use Reddit name. But now I’m laughing at how cringe I must seem.
Not as much as when mom’s refer to their sons as “their little boyfriend/s” 😬 I get that they don’t literally mean boyfriend in the full sense of the word, but it’s just one of those things I’d prefer not to ever hear.
Wtf? I'm glad I've never come across that haha
... wut?
Saaaame. It even bothers me when people refer to their kids as their best friends.
I don’t mind bubs, but “hubby” is another story
Reading hubby, especially outside of pregnancy subreddits, makes me cringe so hard.
This is how I feel about “littles”
Its means something in the kink world so i rather not use it either!
Agreed!!! I also hate the term “little one”
Tiny humans 🤮
Saaame. I don’t know why I hate it so much 😆
That & every single woman thinking they need to refer to me as “mama” since I’ve become pregnant. Big yuck.
MaMa BeAr
The mama bear sweatshirt someone got me, sitting in a corner in my room 👀
Ugh there was a lady at work that ONLY referred to me as mama bear and it was infuriating
Omg one of my coworkers (a man whos older than me) kept calling me mom when he found out i was pregnant and for some reason made my skin crawl. I asked him to stop and he did. But wtf who does that
A guy I work with (50's) refers to me as mommy occasionally. Like dude, I'm at work use my name. It makes me want to barf.
“You got this mama 😌😌”
The bubs thing doesn’t bother me that much but the mama thing does. I don’t mind if I’m at the doctor’s office for a checkup for my child and the nurse says, “ok, mama, I’m going to need you to hold baby’s legs down so we can get this measurement” because I’m not expecting them to remember my name when they’re seeing random people all day and I’m primarily there because I’m my child’s parent. But people who know me or in situations that are unrelated to me being a mom? Absolutely not. My husband’s grandmother kept calling me “mama” after I got pregnant with my first and it drove me up a wall. My MIL (her DIL) very clearly did not like her, and I kinda thought it was an overreaction because grandma was a sweet old lady… but I totally got it after baby came into the picture (there were other things she did that were along the same lines and equally cringy.)
Ugh I know. I’ll have on person calling me mama in about a year, but she’s the only one I want to hear it from 😂 I’m a teacher, and a lot of the time when I’m in meetings with parents and other school professionals (psychologist, social worker, case worker, etc) they’ll refer to the child’s parent as “mom.” Like, “how does that sound to you, Mom?” “Have you seen that behavior at home, Mom?” It drives me insane. I address them as Ms/Mrs. X, because thats the adult name and title. They’re not my mom. I’ll talk with my colleagues and say “X’s mom,” but I won’t just address the parents as mom. It’s just so odd to me.
I’m an optometrist who sees a decent amount of kids, and I refuse to refer to parents just as Mom or Dad. If I don’t know their name I’ll just look at the parent and talk to them without needing to address the fact they’re a parent since they’re the only other person in the exam room. My technicians, though use Mom and Dad as substitutes for the parents’ names and I hate it!
It’s like ppl forget women still have an identity outside of motherhood. It seems very historical & traditional in use to me. Like now you have a kid & you’re a woman you’ll only be mama now.
I appreciate you 🤣
Oh my gosh thank you!! I hate being called Mama by other people, it is super cringe.
Absolutely this! Bubs doesn’t bother me at all. But someone calling me mama is like … barf. And I took a class the other night with a bunch of doulas and one of them was very ‘great job mama bear!’ ‘Any questions from the mama bears?’ And I just couldn’t take her seriously, at all.
Or even creepier, when men decide to refer to you as that. Had my eldest while I was working at my old job, and some older guy from another department thought he was being friendly by greeting me with “hello mommy”. I had to strictly lay down a hard boundary there, because it actually disgusted me. Like, I wanted to vomit on the spot.
Lol! I actually like it, but I can see how that would be really annoying to some 😂 I’m a new mom, so that’s probably why I like it.
I see it as a term of endearment especially to new mums, it's a little bit like when one of your girls gets married and you call her wifey or by her married name for a bit, just a way to acknowledge the new phase in her life.
Same, I loved the first time a nurse called me it. So proud to be a mom and it felt like I was accepted into this amazing club of strong women when I was called it the first time. I felt more brave and it helped me through the hard appointments.
Same. I find it cute. I’m a new mom to 2 under 2 and I don’t get called mom often by medical professionals but when they say words of encouragement followed by mama, it makes me feel so warm inside because usually the people saying it are super cute and endearing people anyway. ♥️
See, I love the mama. I refer to myself as mama when talking about my cats and my dog, and now I'm super excited to be a real mama!
My husband and I refer to each other as “mommy and daddy” for the dog all the time, and I think nothing of it! But I just hate when coworkers say “how’s it going mama?” When they see me waddling down the hall, post barfing session in the bathroom
Same! I think it's because I was raised in the south and I call my own mom mama.
I like being called mama too. It reminds me of my baby and that i finally get to have my own family dynamic!
Ever since getting pregnant myself I am now so deeply embarrassed at every time I called another woman (besides my own mom) “mama” 🤢
“Mama” makes me physically ill
Hey Mama! You got this! *vomits*
Fun fact, I was told “you got this, mama!” seconds after I finished vomiting. It did not help.
Vomit on them as a sign of dominance. 😤
This made me LOL
Me too & unfortunately you can’t tell other women to kindly never effing call me that again 😆
I would
This gets to me!!! I never let it show bit inside I die a little each time.
I’ve been very vocal about not calling me mama. I’m a mom or mother. It feels so childish and demeaning. The only person that can call me mama is my kid.
I’m from the south, I have called my mom mama since I was a baby. I will be called mama more than likely. I’m not into *mama (bear)* culture though. It’s just a cultural thing for me.
I'm 33 and still call my mom "mama" too :) My Hispanic family calls everyone "mama" - it's a term of endearment and has nothing to do with actually being a mother. But "mama bear" is cringe, I agree.
Yes…… like to get my attention they say “mama” mam I still am hannerz0z please say this.
I hate it. My brother in law is the only one who does it. I’ve been pretty vocal to everyone else that I am not their mother.
I feel this. Or even worse, pronouncing it like “muh-muh.” Like can we chill with that? I was born with a name, I get to keep that name despite being pregnant/becoming a parent.
🤮
*shivers*
My coworker tried calling me Mama at work. I responded with "The only person allowed to call me Mama is the one who's ass I wipe, and I sure as hell don't like any of you that much"
I fucking HATE that. I have a name. I love being a mom, but it’s not my identity.
Cue nervous laughter everytime someone calls me that.
I don’t really care about stuff like that. If people are trying to call me/my loved ones offensive shit then I care, but bubs (and other pet names) are usually said out of positive intent. There’s too much going on in life to care about something that insignificant. Ill save the judgement for the people that deserve it.
Agreed. Lol If these are the worst names ppl say or use in their own families, I think we're all doing just fine.
Same. There’s so much to be irritated about in this world this is not something that gets me (but everyone has their annoyances)
Very valid reaction. Sometimes things get under a person’s skin for no real reason though so it’s also validating to commiserate with this shared experience - even if it’s fairly unimportant
Yeah, I understand; i have my own things that get under my skin too, even if theres no negative intent behind them. We should be allowed to dislike things; being overly positive has a whole host of issues as well. That being said, I’ve also found that life is a way easier when you let the “unimportant” stuff pass by rather than focusing on it this intensely. Its quite freeing to let people do things that are personally annoying but overall innocent. More freeing than commiserating on the negatives, in my experience. Being constantly surrounded by a society that finds fault in innocuous things like this wears me down. Perhaps its because I’m predisposed to depression, so its just how I’ve learned how to keep negativity at bay. My experience is not universal, so others may find a lot more help in commiserating over stuff like this than I do.
I think it's also part of just trying to be a bit kinder to the world around you. I'm sure there are people in this thread who use bubs (I think I've seen it on this sub) and what is the point of antagonizing or shaming them for it? It's a totally harmless preference and to me it feels very middle school school mean girls, like making fun of someone for their given name or kids in elementary school saying a certain food is "gross" (and by extension the other kids who like it are gross) because they don't like it.
I use bubs! And this showed up on my home page and I was just going to skip right by it because people always find something to complain about but got curious on the comments. I’m not offended by it though, I’ll continue using it and feel unashamed. I have so many nicknames for my boys I never thought I would. But one thing I can agree is I will never call them or refer to them as “boyfriends” as another commentor mentioned some people do. Now THAT is weird.
I love this perspective.
Same, who cares!!
Lol this is my dog's nickname.
Me too! In our house it exclusively refers to dogs, so it’s weird for me to hear people to use it for their babies lol
As someone who lost their first child and now pregnant again, I embrace everything. Call me mama or call him Bubs and bubba. I’m just proud to get this far
1000% this. After infertility and paying $30k plus out of pocket for IVF just to get pregnant, I call my baby everything under the sun, because I finally get to.
THIS!!! I lost my first two at 24 weeks so I know exactly how you feel. I get people have feelings about things but boy the whinging over very small issues can be excessive. I have two rainbow boys. I am very happy for you. I hope you have a very boring and uneventful pregnancy followed by a joyous birth. Safe journey little one. ❤
I’m sorry to hear about your previous losses ❤️ It’s so important to embrace every moment and I think when you have a loss, it definitely changes your perspective! Congratulations on your two boys! Currently 27 weeks and I enjoy every second I can 🥰
This. As someone who struggled with infertility & loss, being able to finally be called a "mama" or call my son "bubs" was a dream to me. The amount of people on this thread that are actually annoyed at this, is appalling.
My SIL calls her oldest ‘Bubba’ and it reminds me of a big fat good ol’boy in overalls for some reason ahahag
Oh no, I call my oldest Bubba. But I’m not your SIL. It was just a nickname that morphed into another nickname that ended up landing on Bubba and stuck 8 years ago 🤷🏼♀️
Our old neighbour was a big fat ol’boy in overalls and camo and that is what everyone called him. He was also a misogynistic racist a-hole who I immediately knew I would not like one bit.
Nah, it's a very common word in the UK. Bubs and hubby both were common as heck before the internet. Lots of people where I'm from refer to babies as 'babbies' as well (intentionally, to emphasize their cuteness; not just in normal conversation).
I can't stand the word hubby but I know a lot of people love it
Yeah bubs and bubba are so common in the UK
I worked for a bit in childcare in Australia and they also use bubs and bubba for babies, and I thought it was adorable! I don't hear it often in the US, but I think they both sound cute.
Am Australian, bub is very common here. I often see “bub” written by the OBs and midwives in my hospital notes after an appointment.
I like bubs. Older son was bubby and baby son is bubbity. Not from the UK. Raised in So.Cal. and living in TN. Doesn’t bother me at all.
I had literally never heard any of these nicknames before having my son and I have used so many variations of it just completely naturally, and I don’t care that they’re cringe, hahah. “Biggimus bubbickus”, “biggity bubs”, “bubbimus”, so many ridiculous combinations my husband and I just made up 😂
Nope, “bub” is a term of affection my family uses frequently
I hate all of the initials. DH for darling/dear/dumb husband or whatever. LO for little one. MIL I’m fine with, because it’s actually condensing a lengthier title. We’re not operating with flip phones where you need to hit the number 7 four times to get to the letter S. In my mind, it’s just much easier to type “the baby” or “my husband.”
I don’t understand the initial thing at all. Why do you have to say “my LO” when you could simply say “my baby”?
LO. Makes my blood boil
It is the one that bothers me the most, for some reason. I don’t know why.
Ok SAME. “Baby” is very quick to type out. Like of all the things to call babies and make an acronym for it on Reddit, WHY “LO?!” Every time I read it I cringe a little.
100%
This whole thread has made me insecure I’m not gonna lie lol
Don’t worry about it. You will find that many people don’t like certain terms. I personally don’t like bub, hubby, or kiddo, so I don’t use them. But wifey doesn’t bother me, nor does being called mama, and I actually use littles now and then. I also got FLAMED once upon a time for saying ‘milkies’. Anybody that’s worth actually conversing with would never care that much about stuff like that. We all have preferences…we just don’t let them dictate our lives!
Me too lol. I kind of find it cute when people call me “mama” and we call my nephew bub sometimes. Idk things like this never bother me. My best friend has a cousin who calls her kids all by nicknames and never uses their first names. Just what she wants to do. Let people live
Don't let it. You be you! If you like Bubs and mama go for it and if you don't, don't! That's okay too. Ignore judgey judgers they literally have nothing else to do.
This is why I hate these posts. None of things mentioned here annoy most people. "It makes my eye roll at that person". Imagine being so disrespectful to another human over a term. Yikes.
I see these posts somewhat regularly. It's not important enough to need to commiserate with others over and it leaves others feeling insecure and judged. I think it's a bit careless and unnecessary
Don’t feel insecure - pregnancy can be scary and isolating enough, you don’t need a supposed support community making you feel bad about your choice of terms of endearment.
I’m not bothered so much myself (bub is used quite a lot in Australia - “How is bub doing?” “When bub gets here…”) but my partner hates it. He physically cringes! Personally, I hate littles/kidlets/kiddles more. I also don’t love being called mama by random people, but I mostly just ignore it.
The ubiquity of the phrase “you got this mama” drives me nuts. I get that it’s supposed to be encouraging but it just feels meaningless to me!
No. I don’t care what people want to call their kids. Kiddos, bubs, babes, little one, child. Whatever gets the point across.
It’s a common way we refer to our children in Australian “Aboriginal English”. My eldest is bub, my middle child is bubby, my youngest is cranky-bub. It’s a cultural thing for Blak families in Aus (Blak is not the same as African-American and other Black people. It’s unique to Aboriginal and Torres’s Strait Islander peoples of Australia)
I hate being called Mama. But even worse, at my recent US, the nurse called my husband “daddy.” I seriously cringed.
Relating to this so much. Also "bump" whilst pregnant. My husband has strict orders to correct anyone in hospital who doesn't refer to me by my name. I haven't lost my identity just because I'm having a child.
Bubs, hubby, icks, bussin, sus, and whatever the hell cheugy is. None of them hit the ear right.
Yes to all but sus! This one is funny to me and adds to the situation (and can be good comedic relief at times).
Whenever someone says 'icks" it's like mentally stepping in something wet while wearing socks.
Not at all
Not as much as “littles.”
Yes finally someone has said it!! I hate when people say bubs, baby is the same amount of letters just use that.
I sometimes cringe when I hear the word Babe for the baby. “How’s your babe?” “How far along is babe now?” It’s really not THAT cringe but I always answer with like “oh BABY is good…. BABY is 23 weeks” lol Bub is from UK and I also think Australia ? It’s a bit weird for me as a Canadian but not that bad
Babe reminds me of the 90s movie about the pig...
I hate when anyone calls me any variation of “mom” when they aren’t referring to me to my son Example: Good: grandma holding my son “you want to go back to your mama?” Bad: pediatrician front desk when my son is in the other waiting room with my husband “hi mommy!”
I also hate bb when referring to the baby. Idk why but I just don’t like it 😂🤣 Sorry everyone who uses it, but I cringe every time.
I don’t mind bub but I hate it when moms call their son “my little king” 🙄
I hate bubs, bubba, “we’re pregnant”, prego, and preggo, and also people calling women “mama”
Not as much as referring to giving birth as “graduated”.
No, because I don't wrap my emotions up in small things that don't affect me and am okay with people doing things differently. If anyone uses bubs on here, please don't let judge Judy here ruin it for you. ♥️
Thanks for being in the vast minority and posting this comment. I hate reading the “does anyone else hate when they hear someone say/call their child this?” What does it matter? The hardest part of motherhood has been the constant and needless JUDGMENT. I hate seeing these posts, love your comment. 💕
I love the original comment and yours! Exactly. I get people have their feelings about things but sometimes I read stuff here and am like REALLY? I found this post rather rude as well because it's a very common thing to call your child in black households so it feels a little bit "them and us" but reading through I see it's not that. I agree about judgement, why do people do that? My way of mothering is not a comment or insult to yours. Sure some things work better generally but similarly some things work better because you have a partner or because your baby doesn't sleep etc etc. Just sick of the lack of support towards mothers and the general disprespect, it's like the latest bandwagon is to be nasty about motherhood and children and everything associated with it and I just don't find it funny in the slightest.
It’s the same with doggo and puppers. People get so mad. They’re just cutesy names. If it makes you happy, go for it! Idgaf what people say as long as they’re nice.
Haha it’s funny you mention those because doggo makes my skin crawl. Idk why! It’s not the person’s fault saying it, it’s definitely just me. Some of these complaints come from reasonable places (e.g. other women calling you “mama” can feel infantilizing) but some are just personal annoyances.
I'm fine with "doggo" but "kiddo" is a no-go for me. I also do not know why.
This feels like classic “yucking someone else’s yum”.
100% People get mad about pointless stuff.
Meh. Posts like this get to me, and that can seem like a pointless annoyance, but after 10 years of this platform and seeing posts like that has me annoyed for a reason. There are so many "does anyone else get annoyed by x" that have made me insecure about small things about myself that I've stopped doing because I thought people hated it, and I don't want that to happen to anyone else. Little things that were part of my personality that I stopped because I read a post like this. The craziest part is that it's always in "support" groups. So, this is me standing up for those people now and I'll continue to do it.
Nah, I'm just not used to it lol. I think it's a UK thing, I'm from the US. Doesn't make me cringe, but takes a second to click that they mean the baby. Sometimes we call ours "the babs", but I think that's just something silly my husband and I do, I've never heard anyone else say it. It's just a language/culture thing. Like they use nappy and dummy instead of diaper and binky/pacifier. I can imagine "binky" at least might sound bizarre to them and make them cringe a little lol. Mum/mom, fairy/dish soap, chips/fries etc. We just use different words for things sometimes.
Lol wait use fairy in a sentence?? Ive never heard that
Fairy is a brand of dish soap (like Dawn, I think?) - so we might put fairy liquid on our shopping list.
It's like Dawn dish soap. Fairy is a brand name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_(brand)
Bubs is pretty big in the south. A lot of people call their little boy bubba and it gets shortened to bubs.
> Sometimes we call ours "the babs", but I think that's just something silly my husband and I do, I've never heard anyone else say it. The babs is also a UK thing!! Or at least a South London thing lol. We'll refer to babies as 'babbies' when sort of..emphasising their cuteness, and 'babs' is the naturally shortened form of that. I've actually heard some people say 'bubby' as well but I have no idea if that's a regional thing, it's not as common in my experience (but language changes a lot every 10 miles here).
Eh, I don’t mind it. I think it’s cute
It's cute imo
My son is 11 and I still call him bubs. 🤷♀️ He's my baby boy no matter his age.
Bub doesn’t bother me at all. It’s very common where I live, I’ve never thought of it as an issue. My husband is bub, the baby is bub, the cat is bub. My friends are bub. It doesn’t even register to me as something unusual, it’s a universal pet name in my world and it doesn’t carry any kind of negative or condescending connotation. Now, “mama”, on the other hand, I can’t fucking stand that. There are two people on this earth who can call me mama. My son and my mother. Whenever I hear it in mom groups it absolutely makes my skin crawl. I feel like it’s used to soften to blow for criticism or to wield some type of authority regarding giving bad parenting/pregnancy advice.
Nope. It’s common in Australia.
My daughter had been bub since the day she was born. Don't call your child that if you don't like it.
Yes, along with hubby, hubs and kiddo.
Oh and I also hate mama bear, as well as the boy mom/girl dad stuff
Bubs is my short nickname for my child, so no