parents

Hey Buddy, that's your kid, not your mate.

‘I’m not your buddy!’

Considering they named their son Buddy Bear, Jamie and Jools Oliver may want to leave the room for this one.

So apparently the nicknames we’re giving our kids is leading to the downfall of modern parenting. That’s right,  we’re setting our ‘parenting dynamic’ up for failure simply by choosing the wrong nicknames for our children.

(I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking, ‘Oh good because I was so bored with worrying about which school to send my child to  and whether or not I should be buying organic food and cooking more meals from scratch and eating more often at the dinner table and not letting the kids watch Team Umizumi  during dinner and working out how to explain that “Want Longer Sex?” billboard to my four-year-old.  Now, for something completely different I get  to worry about whether or not I’ve screwed everything up because of the nickname we gave our child when they were three-days-old. TERRRRRRRRIFIC.’)

I hear you. But it’s one nickname in particular that is the red flag for concern. And it’s a nickname increasingly popular for little boys:  Buddy. Know anyone who calls their little boy (or girl) “Buddy”?

The New York Times reports.

 Like “sport” or “champ” of an earlier era, “buddy” has quietly evolved over the last 20 years into the go-to nickname for American parents, particularly fathers, looking to chum it up with their sons and daughters. How it got there is hard to say; good luck finding an adult who remembers his dad calling him buddy.

 

‘Buddy is the go-to nickname for parents looking to chum it up with their sons and daughters.

You can read that full story here.

It’s interesting the nickname choices Gen X and Y parents are going for.  Little girls are invariably called Princess with some psychologists quick to point out we’re setting the scene for prima donna behaviour and over-indulgence in our girls. While our little boys are called Buddy – with all the ‘you’re my equal’ connotations that brings.

 

 

 

Do you think a nickname like “Buddy” signifies a shift in the type of relationship Gen X and Y parents want with their kids? Are we all trying to be ‘friends’ with our kids instead of parents?   What nicknames do you call your kids? And what nicknames did your parents give you?