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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsPlease add the funniest/most adorable things children have called things that have stuck in your family
Ill start us off with a couple.
My nephew started calling his grandfather Daddy Tom. When asked what Daddy Toms wifes name was the young boy thought a moment and asked Mommy Tom? All subsequent siblings continued to call their grandparents Daddy Tom and Mommy Tom.
The same nephew impatiently waited for his dad to assemble a bike. After a few minutes he asked dont you need the indistructions? Forever more my family only used indestructions when assembling something.
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NewDayOranges
(695 posts)As "hand socks".
MLAA
(17,553 posts)Turbineguy
(37,561 posts)or hand shoes.
In Spanish, toes are called dedos de pie, or foot fingers.
Probatim
(2,631 posts)When asked why, she said - cause you do dumb things.
She was like 5 when I told her she had to move out. She took it surprisingly well.
On Edit - when the Bicentennial Quarters came out in 1976, I was asked what they were called and I said "bisexual". (I wasn't even 10.) We still call them that.
underpants
(183,593 posts)![](/emoticons/laughing.gif)
MLAA
(17,553 posts)Somewhere we have a book filled with bisexual coins having lots of fun in the dark closet.
no_hypocrisy
(46,686 posts)The universal blankey.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)underpants
(183,593 posts)Im watching my wife from across the room. Shes talking to our maybe 3 or 4 year old daughter about something else.
My wife: Now its very important that you always tell the truth.
Daughter (looks down, thinks, looks up at her mother and says), Nanna gives me sugar
Nanna is my mom. I forgot what the topic actually was but it had nothing to do with her statement.
Were both giggling so we ask, What sugar?
Daughter: candy and she made me a white cake.
The next time we called my mom we had to tell her her only grandchild totally busted her out. We never figured out what the white cake was. No idea.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)![](/emoticons/roll.gif)
lastlib
(23,618 posts)Arne
(2,624 posts)MLAA
(17,553 posts)I called my dad Pop.
Arne
(2,624 posts)I once was in a store lost and asking for Pop.
They took me to the soda isle.
LakeArenal
(29,034 posts)![](/emoticons/roll.gif)
Ptah
(33,114 posts)but when my daughter was 4 and we were waiting for the city bus she asked, "How does the bus know where we want to go?"
MLAA
(17,553 posts)![](/emoticons/hi.gif)
Ocelot II
(116,598 posts)One day we were in the car, Mom was driving, and little brother, about 5 years old, noticed a road repair crew using a paver to apply asphalt. He asked what the men were doing and Mom said they were fixing the road by putting tar on it. The paver machine became a "tarputdowner," a word that stuck in our family ever afterwards. Not that we discussed road repairs that often, but there it was.
Mz Pip
(27,497 posts)When my granddaughter was 2 she loved playing a peekaboo game with her uncle and a giant bear. She started calling her uncle, Uncle Funnybear. It stuck. Shes 12 now and she still calls him that as does her younger sister.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)ariadne0614
(1,761 posts)We were exploring near the wooded area around our brand new home (a 100-year old farmhouse), and the place was alive with springtime activity. A kaleidoscope of butterflies caught her attention, and she exclaimed in her tiny, magical, toddler voice, Mama look! The butterflies are buttering and buttering!
Next month Ill be headed to Toronto to celebrate her daughters 3rd birthday. Cant wait to hear what my grandchild will have to say about life.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)Ill think of it and smile when I butter my bread.
ariadne0614
(1,761 posts)![](/emoticons/bigsmile.gif)
duckworth969
(813 posts)My eldest daughter, he he!
MLAA
(17,553 posts)Freddie
(9,326 posts)Hes 33 now and we still call it that (wheres the toe?)
I lost my Toe! Who took my toe?!
nuxvomica
(12,553 posts)He used to call hamburgers, "hamburgagers", and we still call them that.
His younger sister is named "Erika" and his pet dog when he was a toddler was "Ginger", so when his parents got an air conditioner he called it the "erika-ginger". Reuse and recycle, right?
But his most durable invention was what he would say when seeing something scary on TV or hearing a strange noise: "Oooh, gairce!" (Rhymes with "scarce".)
MLAA
(17,553 posts)of the year this week!
LuckyLib
(6,830 posts)So we were Pixie, Nixie, Dixie, and Trixie. All names fell by the wayside except Nixie. Decades later, he is still referred to by his senior siblings as Nixie or Nix.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)Niagara
(8,012 posts)what store did she buy me at? Somehow, I thought that parents purchased their children.
When my son was younger he asked for "chopstick" one day and I was confused. He wanted chapstick. I didn't buy him any because I knew that item would be lost in one days time.
My SO's children have came up with the following when they were young which we still use today:
"winklewipers" for windshield wipers
"wabbie" for water
MLAA
(17,553 posts)lastlib
(23,618 posts)"Pee-pee Rose." It fit and it stuck!
MLAA
(17,553 posts)dflprincess
(28,137 posts)Couldn't say baby so she'd ask people if they'd seen the Bobo. Mom became BoBo to her family for all her 88 years.I heard my grandma call her by her real name once. It was always weird to hear others use her name. Even the grandkids called her Grandma BoBo. (She always spelled it with two upper case Bs).
MLAA
(17,553 posts)![](/emoticons/hi.gif)
dweller
(23,873 posts)Exclaimed about a forest being beagles and beagles of trees
Carl Sagan influence ?
✌🏻
MLAA
(17,553 posts)LakeArenal
(29,034 posts)I called knickknacks Nude niks and it stuck.
Instead of an old wives tale I said
Its an old fishwife and it stuck.
My moms friends little girl could not say Pauline and called her Puna. It stuck in the family.
My friends little boy saw the firemen on the way and said: Ohhhh a FireFuck
MLAA
(17,553 posts)A friends son also called trucks fucks. While driving he would point at trucks and ask his son what they were, it would really annoy his straight laced wife.
KT2000
(20,645 posts)Brother called bananas nalobs. I still use both and still wonder what kind of issue caused this.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)![](/emoticons/roll.gif)
bamagal62
(3,311 posts)To spring and my son was a toddler, we asked what he wanted to wear that day and he responded, I want to wear pants up-sleeves up!. Of course he meant a short sleeved shirt and shorts! We now refer to those items of clothing as pants up or sleeves up!!!
MLAA
(17,553 posts)bamagal62
(3,311 posts)For a little guy that couldnt find the right words!
FalloutShelter
(12,037 posts)One granddaughter was four, and the other two and a half. We had driven around the back entrances to the sprawling shopping complex where we would provision for the week.
As we finally found the store we had been looking for, my husband pulled up to the door to let me out. The 2 1/2-year-old piped up..".Well. that was weird."
We all fell out laughing. Now... she has just turned sixteen and that moment is legend.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)![](/emoticons/rofl.gif)
The Blue Flower
(5,475 posts)Not sure how it started.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)MyMission
(1,862 posts)Last edited Sun May 26, 2024, 01:09 AM - Edit history (1)
Growing up, a younger child squashed a bug and said "I deaded it" She didn't know the word kill. We'd use the term after that. Did you dead it? or Did you make it dead?"
The other involves misunderstanding the spoken word.
My mother was French Canadian and we spoke French and English. She'd say (or I'd hear) bay prain when she didn't hear or understand. I'd say bay prain too, thought it was French for excuse me. I was well into my teens when i asked her what it meant. She had no idea. After talking it through, we realized she was slurring her English. Say "beg your pardon" really fast and it comes out bay prain.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)JoseBalow
(3,103 posts)![](/emoticons/chuckle.gif)
Marthe48
(17,444 posts)When our older daughter was about 4, said her younger sister "wasn't being have." Close to that time, she also said she wished her sister was on tv, so she could turn her off.
Fast forward many years. We were going to DC, and weather permitting, hoped to tour George Washington's home. As our college age daughter got in the car, she told us very enthusiastically that she had brought her hiking boots in case we got to climb Mt. Vernon.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)Good one.
Wonder Why
(3,649 posts)MLAA
(17,553 posts)Aimee in OKC
(159 posts)"Mopping birds" for mocking birds and "chicken with a handle" for a drumstick.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)surrealAmerican
(11,384 posts)... lawn sprinklers on our street. Once we're past them I ask, "Did you get sprinkled?"
Her answer, "just one sprink."
We still refer to one drop of water as a "sprink".
MLAA
(17,553 posts)Lunabell
(6,215 posts)She called them the Bellikies.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)keithbvadu2
(37,574 posts)![](/emoticons/roll.gif)
claudette
(3,722 posts)It was a female person that was called a sexretary. We just laughed and laughed!! Out of the mouths of babes!!😊
Added: one very young lad called firecracker firecrappers
MLAA
(17,553 posts)Sexretary and fire crappers!
pandr32
(11,734 posts)...and my son would say something scared the jeeps out of him.
My daughter asked for a penis butter and jam sandwich at a restaurant when she was little.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)Both scare the jeeps out me and a penis butter and jam sandwich are the best!
Ive always loved PBJs, now I know why!
Wicked Blue
(5,893 posts)She also invented the word hoppitator for helicopter.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)![](/emoticons/roll.gif)
bamagal62
(3,311 posts)When he was 10 months old (he talked early) whenever he would hand you something he would say, diddle do! Which was his version of, here you go. So, Im
Sure you know now that whenever we hand someone something, we say, diddle do. 😂
MLAA
(17,553 posts)![](/emoticons/roll.gif)
bamagal62
(3,311 posts)If I left the other kid out. She was born in Hong Kong where there are no changing of the seasons. She had never seen trees lose their leaves. The first time we came back to the states it was winter and she said, look, Mom, its a stick tree!. All trees without their leaves now are all stick trees
MLAA
(17,553 posts)I really enjoyed my 2 trips to Hong Kong.
womanofthehills
(8,913 posts)She was super tiny & would stand up on her hind legs and dance.
My daughter told her friends we just got a cha-wee wee and we started calling Ratona chi-wee wee.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)My nephew called peacock feathers pecan feathers.
TlalocW
(15,417 posts)Thought her name was, "No, Marla," until she was two or three.
redwitch
(14,969 posts)Our oldest son.
Kali
(55,091 posts)and sea gultures for seagulls. that is about all I can remember. son did once announce to a family gathering that ROACHES are what goes into an ashtray. thankfully, the straight people thought he meant cockroaches and it kind of made sense.
MLAA
(17,553 posts)yellowdogintexas
(22,374 posts)telemenish for television
teehiney for her backside
panana for piano
johnnies for pajamas
and my favorite "horn horn" instead of "honk honk"
My other sister: "shotter" instead of syringe at the doctor's
MLAA
(17,553 posts)My nephew would beg to differ on the panana, thats what he called bananas. 😉
I love johnies and shorter.
Harker
(14,287 posts)I've never looked at broccoli the same way since.
By now hes eaten a small forest!