What did children call their parents?

[deathseye]

This is a question that has caused me a lot of consternation. 
Problem: I'm having trouble figuring out how my MC would address his parents in conversation (as opposed to written correspondence.) 
For the present I've oscillated between Mom/Dad and Mother/Father when applicable but Mom/Dad seems too... contemporary. If I could find historical

Comments

[janewilliams20]

"Mo" and "Mar" are totally different vowel sounds, surely?

[akiko]

Mommy is pronounced mah-mee. Marmee would probably be pronounced mah-mee by people who don't rhoticize their Rs (Bostonians, Britons), which I think the Little Women protags are.

[clarice]

In non-rhotic English, "mar" has a "mah" sound, meaning it would be pronounced similar to the "mo" in "mommy."

[cygna_hime]

As far as the Laura Ingalls Wilder books go, it's worth mentioning that she continues to refer to her parents as Ma and Pa even into adulthood.

Also, in the same series, Almanzo refers to his parents as Mother and Father; he's of higher social/economic class than she is, and he was born and raised in New York State.

[deathseye]

I never read the later books, good to know. I know some people alter how they refer to their parents as they make the transition from child to adult whereas others do not.

[tinnean]

OK, this is probably useless, but Joe, Hoss, and Adam Cartwright always referred to their father as "Pa".

[archangelbeth]

There is also "Ma'am" and "Sir" for really strict/weird families. At least, I encounters one of those on modern times, in the 80s.

When my grandmother, born in 1901, talked about her childhood, I think she used "father." I forget what she called his next wife; her mother died when she was young.

[velkoria]

I second the 'Ma'am' and 'Sir' bit because of the location too. It was common to call mother and fathers this during that time in those areas. I know this mostly from geenral knowledge though and can't reference you anywhere =(

[houseboatonstyx]

Fwiw, my rural Southern US intuition has sometimes 'Mother/Mama' and sometimes 'm'am' in the same coversation, with some pretty definite rules about which to use when, though I can't recite them.

When speaking to her, you'd usually begin with 'Mother' to get her attention, set the tone. Then you'd say 'm'am' in short replies ot her: "Yes, m'am", "No, m'am".

[houseboatonstyx]

'Sir' would have been used to one's father even more, including the initial address.

[world_dancer]

What culture are your main characters and how recently did the immigrate?

The US saw a variety of names for parents based off of what was common in the originating culture. So that should be the determining factor.

[summersdream]

^This!
My grandfather is 100, of German descent and he still refers to his mom as Mama. My understanding is that it's what his parents called their mothers- but their families were from Pennsylvania and Illinois, with Austrian/German immigration in the 1830s and 1860s. Still, his parents were born in the 1880s/90s. His father he refers to as Pa or Dad, occasionally Daddy so I'm not sure which one got used more.

It depends a lot on your characters' family and where they originated. I know Papa, Poppy/Papi(more Italian famlies I think?), Pa, Daddy (this is actually more Irish origin, iirc), Father all work, or Mama, Mommy/Marmee, Ma, Mother... but maybe look up the language they would have originally spoke and see what words can be used for parents because those might persist for a couple generations. Or look at the area where they are at- Pennsylvania has a lot of Dutch and German influence, or English so finding what was used in those countries and go with that?

[deathseye]

I hadn't given the ancestors' specific country of origin a lot of thought as it doesn't pertain directly to the story. I had loosely pegged (at least one of) the parents as having grandparents from the British Isles (again, nothing specific).

Thoughts on how many generations would be influenced by language/culture-of-origin, or whether or not that would have an effect on changing how one referred to one's parents in childhood vs. adulthood?

[velkoria]

I think you question is valid and very relative. My father is from a part of the country where they use Papaito and Mamaita for their parents. My mother from another country where they use 'Mama' and 'Papa' which is the same for the part of the country I was born in. No matter how much my father refers to his parents as Mamaita and Papaito (all my uncles and aunts do too... all 13 of them) did it ever stick with me. I call my mother mom/mama and my dad mostly gets Papi (even when I speak in English).