Mom Nature and the Founding Dads

Am I right or haven't those good words, "mother" and "father," been shunted aside by a folksy rendering of  "mom" and "dad"--unless it's something literary?  I mean, at least we don't speak of Gertrude as being Hamlet's mom or Jocasta as being Oedipus's.  And we fortunately don't refer to Dad Time.  Or the mom in the bottom of a bottle of apple cider vinegar.

I grew up thinking it was only children who spoke of their parents as moms and dads.  As in, "What are we having for supper tonight, Mom." It seemed a personal form of address rather like calling one's daughter, Sweetie Pie.  So that, referring to girls in general today, we might now say, "The sweetie pies will gather at Susie's before the ball game."

I'm not sure what my beef is except possibly our constancy in making things lite or liter whether in language, dress, manners, ambitions, expectations.  Might Lincoln have ended the Gettysburg Address by saying, " ... and that government of the folks, by the folks, and for the folks ..."?  Or today he might have slipped in "you guys" instead.

I was once lunching with some older (my age) friends from Wales who'd just arrived in the States.  As we perused the menu, the waitress returned and asked, "So do you guys know what you want?"  I saw my friends sit up just a bit ... but they smiled and gave their orders graciously.

However, the waitress was no sooner out of sight than one of them asked me,  "What is this 'guys' thing?  Is that like 'Guys and Dolls'?"  He was quite good humored about it but did seem curious.

But, hey, I can go along with all this ... and I'll even pass along a useful little tip.  (And here's the editor in me.)  For anyone writing, remember not to capitalize "mom" or "dad" in the middle of a sentence unless you're using them as you would a name.  "Hey, Dad, a fox just crossed the road!"  Otherwise, "The moms are taking yoga every Thursday morning."

Speaking of it, Happy Father's Day.

A dad ... who happened to be mine though we called him Pop.