Mother (to daughter): "Goodnight, sweetie."
Mother (to son): "Goodnight, darling."
Father (to daughter): "Goodnight, honey."
Father (to son): "Goodnight, son."
Whaaaaaaa? I'm not a dad, but as my mind wandered last night it occurred to me that I couldn't think of any terms of endearment that a father might use with his son short of "kiddo", "sport", "champ", and the like-- a far cry from the affectionate words we use when talking to little girls. What's up with that?
Posted by Peter at June 18, 2003 10:07 AMI have easily a dozen terms of endearment for Milo, including honey, sweetie, schnookums, groove, and brotherman. I dread the day that I embarrass him in public with one of them and he asks me to stop.
Michael
Posted by: Michael on June 18, 2003 01:32 PMFather (to son): "Go to sleep before I give you something to stay awake worrying about!"
Posted by: Matthew on June 18, 2003 02:26 PMI think you got it right, there. It's about traditional gender roles. Daughters are supposed to be sweet. Sons are supposed to be sports. So those are the terms of endearment. It's not that we lack such terms for boys, but rather that different characteristics are supposed to endear them to us.
It's pretty limiting. And of course, obviously ridiculous. So I invite you, when the time comes, to break the mold and try, "Goodnight, Tinkerbell" and see how things go.
Posted by: David Waldman on June 18, 2003 07:39 PM