Mommy vs. Mummy

This entry is dedicated for Nadirah. Call me Mummy ya sayang. Not Mommy :-)

I've read this entry (below) long long long time ago, from one of my old time fav author's blog, Jane Green.

I realise in my last blog The Maniac phoned me up and said, ‘Mum, can you come and get me.’

He didn’t actually say that. What he, in fact, said was: ‘Mom, can you come and get me.’

I am still trying to get over the fact that all of my children call me Mom in thick American accents. I don’t want to be Mom. I want to be Mummy.

They say yo-ghurt instead of yog-urt, bath instead of barth, and tomaytoe instead of…well, you get the picture.

But here’s what’s really worrying. I am so used to it that when I go back to London and listen to the children of my friends, I am mesmerised by the perfect English accents coming out of these small people.

‘They’re so adorable!’ I will literally clap my hands in delight. ‘Say something else! Go on! Anything!’

And yet, if you watch any of my videos on YouTube (also, I think under the press page here), you will see that even after eight years here, I sound as English as can be.

My only change is when people ask me where I live, I say Connecticut with an American accent. It’s just easier than clipping the T’s. But at least I never said it the way my 99-year-old Grandmother says it, bless her: Connect-icut. Pronouncing the not-so-silent ‘c’.

Surely being called Mummy once in a while isn’t too much to ask?