A and I yell out Precious' name even when we are calling out to each other. This is a sure case of lost identities, methinks. Are we now parents first and then husband and wife to each other?
Scary.
When I was younger, my grandmother used to call out her daughter, daughters-in-law and then grand daughter's names before she finally landed on mine. She blamed her forgetfulness on old age. My FIL does the same thing, he calls out for his sister, daughter and then finally arrives at his grand daughter's name!
A and I don't even have the 'we are getting old and losing memory' excuse! We remain young-ish.
Speaking of young things and name-calling - S has learnt our names and loves calling us by name now, the little imp. She was SO kicked that just like her, her parents have names too. I guess it's inevitable that she calls me by my name when nobody else around me refers to me as 'amma'. I spent all of last week correcting her and trying to add an 'amma' after my name and 'appa' after A's name.
We are getting there slowly.
When I lived in India, I used to naively think that American kids referred to their parents by their first names. Except Archie Andrews and his gang, who sometimes had 'mom's and 'pop's in their homes. Now that I have American friends, I know that's not true at all. Most of my friends might call their in-laws by first name, but usually not their own parents. It's just not natural to address your parent by his or her first name.
But last week, S did make me wonder if she was going the 'first name' route. I was surprised that I instinctively didn't like it one bit. At least we have some illusion of 'control' and 'discipline' because S is only 16 months old.
I shudder to think of what names she will call us in her teenage years!
Scary.
When I was younger, my grandmother used to call out her daughter, daughters-in-law and then grand daughter's names before she finally landed on mine. She blamed her forgetfulness on old age. My FIL does the same thing, he calls out for his sister, daughter and then finally arrives at his grand daughter's name!
A and I don't even have the 'we are getting old and losing memory' excuse! We remain young-ish.
Speaking of young things and name-calling - S has learnt our names and loves calling us by name now, the little imp. She was SO kicked that just like her, her parents have names too. I guess it's inevitable that she calls me by my name when nobody else around me refers to me as 'amma'. I spent all of last week correcting her and trying to add an 'amma' after my name and 'appa' after A's name.
We are getting there slowly.
When I lived in India, I used to naively think that American kids referred to their parents by their first names. Except Archie Andrews and his gang, who sometimes had 'mom's and 'pop's in their homes. Now that I have American friends, I know that's not true at all. Most of my friends might call their in-laws by first name, but usually not their own parents. It's just not natural to address your parent by his or her first name.
But last week, S did make me wonder if she was going the 'first name' route. I was surprised that I instinctively didn't like it one bit. At least we have some illusion of 'control' and 'discipline' because S is only 16 months old.
I shudder to think of what names she will call us in her teenage years!
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