Please add the funniest/most adorable things children have called things that have stuck in your family

[MLAA]

I’ll start us off with a couple.

My nephew started calling his grandfather Daddy Tom. When asked what Daddy Tom’s wife’s 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 ‘don’t you need the indistructions? Forever more my family only used indestructions when assembling something.

[NewDayOranges]

1. I read about a toddler who referred to mittens

As "hand socks".

[MLAA]

2. Good one!

[Turbineguy]

30. In Dutch gloves are called "handschoenen"

or hand shoes.

[enid602]

77. Toes

In Spanish, toes are called ‘dedos de pie, ‘ or foot fingers.

[Probatim]

3. My daughter called me Do Dum.

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]

7. My wife and I are giggling at this post

[MLAA]

9. These are treasures!

Somewhere we have a book filled with bisexual coins having lots of fun in the dark closet.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Pissghetti for spaghetti.

The universal “blankey”.

[MLAA]

10. A classic, for sure.

[underpants]

5. White cake and sugar

I’m watching my wife from across the room. She’s talking to our maybe 3 or 4 year old daughter about something else.
My wife: Now it’s 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.

We’re 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]

11. Some things remain mysteries forever, white cake is one such mystery.

[Arne]

16. Angel Food.

[lastlib]

25. hotcake, maybe? n/t

[Arne]

6. Kids would say POP and they didn't mean their father.

[MLAA]

14. They called soft drinks pop?

I called my dad Pop.

[Arne]

15. I called my Grandfather Pop.

I once was in a store lost and asking for Pop.
They took me to the soda isle.

[LakeArenal]

26. I called my dad Pop.

[MLAA]

39. ...

[Ptah]

8. Not quite what you are asking for,

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]

12. Damn, that's a good one! What a clever girl with an inquiring mind!

[Ocelot II]

13. My little brother was fascinated by machinery.

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]

17. Uncle Funnybear

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. She’s 12 now and she still calls him that as does her younger sister.

[MLAA]

40. I bet he wears the name proudly!

[ariadne0614]

18. My daughter was a toddler in 1985.

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 I’ll be headed to Toronto to celebrate her daughter’s 3rd birthday. Can’t wait to hear what my grandchild will have to say about life.

[MLAA]

41. That is delightful! Buttering!

I’ll think of it and smile when I butter my bread.

[ariadne0614]

61. Forty years later, it still delights me every time it comes to mind!

[duckworth969]

19. Calling cumulus clouds "curious" clouds

My eldest daughter, he he!

[MLAA]

42. Too cute!

[Freddie]

20. When my son was a toddler he called the TV remote the "toe"

He’s 33 now and we still call it that (where’s the toe?)

[MLAA]

43. Good one!

I lost my Toe! Who took my toe?!

[nuxvomica]

21. I have a nephew that made up a few terms we still use

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]

44. Love it Erika-ginger. We are now running our Erika-ginger around the clock as we should hit our first 100 degree day

of the year this week!

[LuckyLib]

22. I was eight, the oldest of four and decided to rename all of us.

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]

45. Too cute. Love all four names.

[Niagara]

23. For myself, I wasn't very old when I asked my mom ...

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]

46. Love winklewipers!

[lastlib]

24. Two-year-old nephew, a baseball fan called the Reds/Phillies star....

"Pee-pee Rose." It fit and it stuck!

[MLAA]

49. He lived up to the moniker!

[dflprincess]

27. When my mom was born her older (by about 20 months)

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]

50. I love it. Your mom must have loved it as well as she didn't lose it in those 88 years. 🙂

[dweller]

28. My nephew, around 3-4 yrs old

Exclaimed about a forest being “beagles and beagles of trees”

Carl Sagan influence ?





✌🏻

[MLAA]

51. Billions and billions of beagles! What a wonderful image!

[LakeArenal]

29. As a baby they called me Tinka Babe. Cuz my older bro couldn't say Stinky baby.

I called knickknacks Nude niks and it stuck.

Instead of “ an old wives tale” I said
“It’s an old fishwife” and it stuck.

My mom’s friend’s little girl could not say Pauline and called her Puna. It stuck in the family.

My friend’s little boy saw the firemen on the way and said: Ohhhh a FireFuck

[MLAA]

52. Great ones! Love nude niks!

A friend’s 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]

31. Nephew - Praple for purple

Brother called bananas nalobs. I still use both and still wonder what kind of issue caused this.

[MLAA]

53. It does make you wonder how they came up with nalobs. 🙂

[bamagal62]

32. As winter was turning

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]

55. It's sleeves up weather!

[bamagal62]

74. We thought it was pretty creative

For a little guy that couldn’t find the right words!

[FalloutShelter]

33. We were on vacation at the beach with our two grands in the back of the car.

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]

57. That was weird!

[The Blue Flower]

34. My grandkids call their grandpa 'Oompa"

Not sure how it started.

[MLAA]

58. Willie Wonka

[MyMission]

35. I have 2 language foibles to share

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]

60. Tres bien, Mystery finally solved!

[JoseBalow]

36. Apparently I always play Frank Zeppelin too loud

[Marthe48]

37. We'd tell the kids to behave

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]

62. Wasn't being Have! Hahaha.

Good one.

[Wonder Why]

38. Our oldest called a calculator, a numbercator.

[MLAA]

63. Makes more sense, smart kid!

[Aimee in OKC]

47. From the younger set ...

"Mopping birds" for mocking birds and "chicken with a handle" for a drumstick.

[MLAA]

64. Chicken with a handle! Really good one! I just love it.

[surrealAmerican]

48. My daughter was about two when we were trying to time our way past...

... 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]

65. Sprink! Perfect.

[Lunabell]

54. My little patient loved watching the Gigglebellies on YouTube.

She called them the Bellikies.

[MLAA]

66. I like her name better!

[keithbvadu2]

56. Ticking parket

[MLAA]

67. ..

[claudette]

59. It wasn't a "thing"

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]

68. Both of theses are hilarious.

Sexretary and fire crappers!

[claudette]

73. 😀

[pandr32]

69. My ex said something scared the 'b-jesus' out of him,

...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]

70. Okay, you win the thread!

Both scare the jeeps out me and a penis butter and jam sandwich are the best!

I’ve always loved PBJs, now I know why!

[Wicked Blue]

71. My older daughter used to call hot dogs hockets.

She also invented the word hoppitator for helicopter.

[MLAA]

72. Love hoppitator!

[bamagal62]

75. One more, same kid...

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, I’m
Sure you know now that whenever we hand someone something, we say, “diddle do”. 😂

[MLAA]

79. Much more fun than here you go. Diddle do the mash potatoes! Diddle do the remote control .

[bamagal62]

76. I would be an awful mother

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, it’s a stick tree!”. All trees without their leaves now are all “stick trees”

[MLAA]

80. Glad you aren't an awful mother! And stick trees is a good one!

I really enjoyed my 2 trips to Hong Kong.

[womanofthehills]

78. When my daughter was little we were gifted a chihuahua named Ratona

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]

81. So cute! I'm sure chi-wee-wee appreciated the affectionate new name.

My nephew called peacock feathers pecan feathers.

[TlalocW]

82. One of my nieces

Thought her name was, "No, Marla," until she was two or three.

[MLAA]

84. Hilarious!

[redwitch]

83. Mc ick a donalds

Our oldest son.

[MLAA]

85. Too cute!

[Kali]

86. garjub - garbage

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]

87. Love sea gultures and ROACHES in the ashtray is priceless!

[yellowdogintexas]

88. my youngest sister came up with some good ones

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]

89. These are some good ones!

My nephew would beg to differ on the panana, that’s what he called bananas. 😉

I love johnies and shorter.

[Harker]

90. In the late 80s a toddler son of friends of mine told me he was having trees for dinner.

I've never looked at broccoli the same way since.

[MLAA]

92. Too cute!

By now he’s eaten a small forest!

[Upthevibe]

91. Bookmark.......