Mum, mom, mam, or ma.
Which do you prefer to be called?
Well, some women don’t want to be called any of them.
Take for example former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman. In a recent interview, her 22-year-old son Sam called her by her first name the entire time.
Or writer Kal Ross, who doesn’t mind when her children call her ‘Mom’ but hates it when she hears it from: “You, the person reading this. You, the lady at the grocery store. You, the teachers at the school.”
There are plenty of reasons as to why a woman wouldn’t want to be called ‘mum’ by a stranger.
It might be seen as too personal, or reduce the person’s identity to one associated with parenthood.
As it turns out, there are also reasons as to why some women don’t want to be called ‘mum’ by their children.
One woman, Irene Bard, has said that it makes her feel old.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, the 70-year-old said that she banned her three children from calling her The M-word many years ago.
“People who didn’t know me were surprised I was a mother. Everyone assumes you’re rather strait-laced when they hear that word. And I didn’t want that.”
Some women online have expressed similar sentiments.
However, rather than feeling old, they have said that they don’t want to be reminded of their own mothers.
One user posted on parenting forum What To Expect, saying that her own mother caused her “non-stop stress” for her entire life.
She said that she worried about becoming a mum for that reason, because she dreads hearing the word.
However, after receiving feedback from other forum users, she concluded that associating the word with more positive things would help her make the transition into motherhood.
So, are you happy with being called a ‘mum’?
