Do you address your in-laws as "Mom" and "Dad"?

Question

How does your spouse feel about it? How do your parents feel about it? Did it take awhile to get used to? Does it ever get confusing if all of them are together?


I have no idea how common this might be, but my parents and my fiance's parents have always addressed both sets of our grandparents as "Mom" and "Dad".

To date, I've addressed my fiance's parents by their first names, and they haven't seemed particularly uncomfortable or offended by this.

I always saw my mother refer to my father's parents as "Mom" and "Dad", but her own parents (my maternal grandparents) died before I was born.

Answer 1

First names. My husband does the same. My brother's wife calls my parents mom and dad, and my mom calls my dad's parents mom and dad. I call my mother-in-law "hey" on a nice day (I try to pretend she and her drug habit don't exist). My husband's bio father and now ex-step-dad, I call by their first names. I think most of it just depends on how much you like them and how you were raised to address such people. Ask your in-laws what they prefer. If your not comfortable asking, ask your husband/fiance.

Answer 2

I call my inlaws Mom and Dad and my husband calls my parents Mom and Dad as well. It was VERY strange and took some getting use to. I've been married a year now and it actually still feels weird. I do it cause I know they like it. If you're not comfortable with it, just ask them what they prefer... When all the parents are in the same room together I usually address them as Mom P or Mom H.

Answer 3

I can tell you how I did but you might want to ask them what they would prefer to be called.
My mother died when I was a baby so when I married, I was comfortable calling my MIL "Mother". I called my FIL "Dad" because I called my own father "Daddy". Even though we did not make it beyond eleven years, I continued to call my former in-laws Mother and Dad. Now, 45 years later, I still write my MIL regularly and still address her as "mother". Just because the marriage hit the wall doesn't mean it had anything to do with the fine in-laws I had and still treasure.

A funny sidenote: my oldest child could not say "grandpa" or "grandma" and he called them "bunkoff" and "monkoff". (don't have a clue why but at 17 months, what to do, what to do).
So I taught him the French words: grandmere and grandpere and he has always called them that!

Answer 4

I call my father in law dad but my mother in law makes me feel real uncomfortable so I don't call her anything. If pressed, I call her by her first name. This has been going on for all of my 37 years of marriage. Sad huh? I make sure that both my childrens spouses feel relaxed in calling me mom.

Answer 5

I call my mother-in-law Mom. I call her husband, by his first name because he is not my husband's biological father, but step-father. Pretty much the rule of thumb I go by, what ever words that my husband uses in reference to them, I also use.

Of course, my mother-in-law wanted me to call her Mom and I've gotten very comfortable with that. I sometimes call her husband "Dad", just to get him going! I get along great with both of them!

Answer 6

I call my in-laws Mom and Dad and my husband calls my parents Mom and Dad. We both asked them what they wanted us to call them and this is what they prefer. It doesn't get confusing.

Answer 7

i hit upon it so exciting that the huge battles around right here are not between "believers" and "non-believers" yet people who can no longer believe reference to the the main suitable option thank you to be Christian. If Christians could desire to handle something corresponding to a united front it does no longer be fairly so pathetic.

Answer 8

I have pseudo in-laws, and hell no, I don't address them as mom and dad.

what's really sick and disturbing is when a wife refers to her husband as "dad"...and I know why they do it, cause of the kids. they're so used to saying, "go ask dad" or whatever, but to refer to the husband as "dad" just because really bugs me.

Answer 9

No. I call them by their first names.

Answer 10

Ask them how they want to be addressed.