July blogathon #17: Marital Codes, or the Honey Trap

[anghara]

Married people call each other things. You know - like "Darling", or "Sweetie", or... or... [insert endearment of choice here]. There is a certain divide across The Pond, as it were - Brits tend to favour "Darling" and the Americans tend to favour "Honey", for instance

Comments

[dichroic]

Christine Lavin has an hysterical song along those lines, "Don't ever Call Your Sweetheart by His Name"

"Some people think this is dishonest (no no no no no)
Some people think this isn't nice,
But have you ever said "I love you, Thomas,"
When Thomas was the boy you were in love with last night? (uh-oh)"

[kymbrunner]

Great observation! I'll have to tune in and see what terms my husband uses for what circumstances. :)

[dichroic]

I use 'Dear' for similar purposes, and I know exactly where I got it - from the time my first tech lead, a born and bred Texan woman, told me the story of how she knew she was really frustrated "when I heard myself callin' my boss Dear so I wouldn't call him Stupid." (You need to imagine that in a deep Texan drawl for full effect.)