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Do you call your Dad 'sir'?

We're not a military family and my dad is a happy friendly fella so 'sir's out the question. Maybe if I wanted to make him laugh. I respect him and we have a good relationship but its out of the question.

Oh wait this is a very old thread. Why was it brought up again?
 
It's a peculiarly American habit. Nobody over here has called their father "Sir" since the nineteenth century. I called mine Pa(pa).
 
i don't expect to be called sir by my kid, but dad is fine. However, there are times that I expect sir. Such as when I ask my kid to do something, I expect a yes sir and to answer yes sir and no sir as well as yes ma'am and no ma'am. I think kids are missing this nowadays.
 
No, never. I call him, Dad, Pops, Papa, and sometimes when we joke around we call eachother names.

I would never call my dad by his first name, he told me how much he dislikes it when my cousin calls his parents by their first names.
 
I have called my dad sir a couple of times, as in:

You sir, are a ****.

Edit: should clarify here that my dad is awesome.
 
i still refer to my parents as mom and dad. i never use their names. same with my grandparents


one of my best friends growing up always did the yes sir, no sir and yes ma'am no ma'am with his parents. granted his dad was in the air force
 
I call my dad either Dad, Papa, father, or "Parental Unit" sometimes as a joke. 😛.

Call my mom either mom, mother, madre, or "Parental Unit" as a joke again.

I would get my rear behind kicked if I called him by his first name. I mean, he doesn't mind when somebody is asking his name, and I respond to them, but to call him directly....*hides*
 
my little brother has been calling my dad by his first name for as long as i can remember. it's hilarious
 
dukebound85 said:
i still refer to my parents as mom and dad. i never use their names. same with my grandparents
Click to expand...

Same here. For me, it seems disrespectful to call them by their first names. I would say "yes, sir" or "no, sir" at certain times, especially when I was in trouble.
 
Sometimes I called him "Pappy" for fun. If you had known him, you would understand the humor. "Sir" would have been funny too.
 
Sometimes I call my mum by either one of her Polish names (-ania or -cha) as a joke. Grandparents get the same treatment if I'm in a daft mood.

Never called my girlfriends parents mum/dad and don't think I will. Maybe its just around here but partners parents go by their first name.
 
I call my dad......."Dad". I have been in the Air Force for almost 18 years and still trucking. I do NOT make my kids call me sir. However, I do know of, some guys in the military (all branches) that are "ultra" chewed up that make their kids call them sir. While it does denote respect, its kind of disconnected if used by family members. Thats my opinion at least.
 
Once in a while I'll call my dad "Rocky" - a rip from the Rockford Files which we watch on Netflix every so often. And then only when we're kidding around.
 
No, he's just "dad". Always has, and probably always will be. It'd be weird calling him "sir" and I don't know anyone who ever called their dads "sir" either. The only people I called "sir" were my teachers in school I didn't know the names of, police officers, and some of my earlier bosses when I first started working. (I don't call my bosses "sir" or "ma'am" anymore either).
 
Usually it was Dad and Mom, but I called my father "sir" and my mother "ma'am." I never saw it as anything near authoritarian, just a way to show respect. (I was born 1960, so the bulk of this would have been the 70's.)

My kids, on occasion, have picked up that a well-timed "sir" to me or a "ma'am" to their mother will help reduce the trouble they're in, but by and large, we're Mom and Dad, too.

mt
 
I did when I was a kid. As I got into teenage years, I eased off of it a bit, although I did use it when circumstances called for it. This was usually after I had screwed up. 🙂

To me, it goes with another thread I just saw on here where someone asked about calling teachers Mr/Ms and their last name. It's respect, pure and simple. I dunno, maybe it's just a Southern thing.

Sadly, I never got to find out how things would be different as an adult, since my dad passed away when I was 18. With my mother, I dropped the ma'am as I hit the teenage years. I don't really do it with my stepfather, but then again, I was 30 when he married my mother.
 
I grew up calling my dad daddy. When he started talking to me again after 2 years of denying my existence I started calling him sir.
It connotes respect while dismissing familial ties.
 
Wow, old thread.

People who hear this seem to misunderstand it greatly. I don't know of anyone in the US who calls his father "Sir" as a substitute for "Dad," in the sense that you might say, "Good morning, Sir." That would indeed be weird. Creepy weird.

In some parts of the country it is purely considered good manners for younger people to say "yes sir" and "yes ma'am" to their elders (not just parents), or just to someone they're trying to treat respectfully. It's like saying "please" when asking for something. The idea some people get that this is some sort of militaristic thing is just bizarre.

It isn't even universal in the United States. My brother in law (from upstate New York, and a military man) has that same feeling that it's weird. I grew up with it, so to me it just sounds like an ordinary bit of politeness.
 
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