Son calling uncle 'dada'??

j.e.j.

I don't know if at 13 months he'll have much grasp of the concept of 'daddy' or 'uncle'. I'm guessing he's either learnt the word 'dada' after hearing someone say it or as other posters have said it's one of the first words a very young child can articulate when they're learning to speak. He seems to be linking the word dada with the general meaning that it refers to a man, though?

I think I would just correct him when he says it to his uncle. Just say, 'that's uncle..'

Gorgeestwo

Like the others have said I wouldn't worry about too much, my dd went through a stage at a similar age of pointing to every man she saw and saying dada, luckily it didn't last long, but was very embarrassing

lostinrates

Another don't worry from me. My nieces used to call me mummy sometimes, and i just reminded them i was aunty. My friends son refers to my dad as 'daddy x' because he was introdruced as my daddy. He also calls me 'booby' because its as close as he could get to my name when he started talking, he has no idea and it doesn't bother me, we just don't make a big deal about it. He so etimes calls be big hair booby, which i also find funny, funniest of all is the apt 'big booby' abreviation. He will learn and we try hard not to snigger and embarrass him in the mean time.

I can rememebr accidentally calling friends parents mummy and daddy, if they were being refered to all the time as mummy and daddy, and i even remember the same happening at school, sometimes people saying 'mummy, i mean, miss smith....' while the class collapsed into giggles.

How lucky he is to have a good male role model in his life.

Alias_Omega

Does it really matter?

I would not worry about the "where is my dad?" question, as by the age they understand no doubt they would have picked up the vibe whilst you dont talk/see each other..

A child growing up in a one-parent family will only know the one-parent family. Its only when they get to age 4-5 at School for Fathers day that they will start to ask. But that won't matter, as mummy will attend in place..

j.e.j.

LOL! I think Booby is another one of those words they can say quite easily. One of my nephews used to ask for 'boobies' (blueberries!). More embarrassing was when he tried to say crisps , but replaced the 'cr' with a p-sound.. and also left out the p at the end :eek:

Sometimes you can't wait till they're a bit older and can manage the consonant clusters!

Filey

My children grew up with 2 parents but were still very 'flexible' about what they called us. I remember once when we lived on a farm and my son was maybe three. I used to take flasks of tea and sandwiches out to the workers at harvest time and I heard my son saying 'My wife will bring you some tea soon.' And he always used to refer to me by name rather than Mum. It didn't bother me, in fact I thought it was quite amusing and eventually didn't even notice.

As others have said, dada is just a sound they make when when are starting to talk. It won't have any meaning for him. If you wanted you could start playing 'naming' games, pointing first to him and saying his name, then your sister saying whatever you refer to her as, or any other member of your family.

Eventually I assume you will pass his father in the street and could say brightly 'oh look there's your daddy'. Whatever situation arises I'm sure you will cope with it, just don't let your son see you are at all flummoxed.

Lovely word 'flummoxed'!!

tasha-debt

My Nephew (my Sisters Son) has no contact with his Dad at all but is very close to my partner and he calls my partner Dad (his Uncle). On fathers day they all made cards at school and my Nephew made his for my partner. It makes him happy to have a man to make it for, my Partner loves him unconditionally and they are probaly closer than some Dad's and Son's.

My sister and I do not mind at all, when my partner and I have a family it will not change their bond.

My Nephew could never say Auntie or Tasha when he was little, one day joking about my Partner called me Babe. From that day forward my Nephew has called me babe or my babe etc. The looks in the street we get are very funny. To this day (he is nearly 6) he always called me my babe at home but in public he sometimes will call me Auntie Tasha.

wiggywoo9

Thank you all, he is lucky to have a good role model, provided my sister puts up with him through pregnancy! I will reinforce 'uncle' and make sure he sees the new baby as his cousin too, an other 'baba' not bro or sis, which again could confuse him!

Toomuchdebt

My friend's 2 year old daughter calls all women mama including me Nothing to worry about.

stiltwalker

j.e.j. wrote: »

LOL! I think Booby is another one of those words they can say quite easily. One of my nephews used to ask for 'boobies' (blueberries!). More embarrassing was when he tried to say crisps , but replaced the 'cr' with a p-sound.. and also left out the p at the end :eek:

Sometimes you can't wait till they're a bit older and can manage the consonant clusters!

I still remember my brother arriving with his 2 girls (oldest 3 at time, youngest 14 months and still getting a bedtime breast feed) as I was feeding brand new DD. His oldest DD took one look at me feeding my DD and announced in her loudest voice "my mummy has boobies too"!

I also remember being very embarrassed to be asked by a workman what DD was saying (and for once it was clear enough I couldn't fudge it) when she was asking him if 'he got?' - She'd just discovered her relatively new brother had different bits in his nappy to her! and was assigning people as 'got' and 'not got'! :rotfl: Thankfully that phase didn't last long!