How do you call your mother in law?

31 comments

1. First name, usually

2. Nothing because she doesn’t exist

3. I call her by her first name.

4. I call my MIL by her first name, I call my father in law dad.

5. I call her mom! I also call my own mother mom. That’s just how I was raised.

6. I am from different country. Is calling mother in law as a mom weired? Or feel more closed?

7. Witch!

8. I called her by her first name the other day. Scared the fuck out of me when she answered since she’s been dead for decades

9. Call her mom or her first name. Last name and mother in law seems too informal.

10. Suegra, which is the Spanish word for mother in law

11. I just call her by her first name.

12. First name.

    And I told my daughter-in-law to call me “mom”, or if she doesn’t feel comfortable doing that then to call me by my first name. She alternates between calling me both of those.

13. “Hey”
    Lmao I’m weird and hardly ever call people by their names.

14. Her first name or ‘mom’ depending on the setting.

15. First name. It’s what she preferred.

16. We’re on a first name basis.

17. When I talk about her I call her by her name. When I talk to her I don’t actually call her anything 😂.

18. I don’t have one, but usually by using a cell or mobile phone.

19. I call her by her name.

20. I’ve never referred to my MIL as anything and can’t see a scenario where I ever will at this point.

21. Before my wife went NC with her, I called her by her first name.

22. Initially, I used to call her as “Mrs. <Last Name>”. However, I gradually changed to calling her by her first name, and that is what I now use almost exclusively. I sometimes call her “mom” too.

23. Ms Firstname

24. As little as possible …

25. I’d call her by her first name, never by mom.

26. When we first met, I called her “Mrs T_____”. About the time we got engaged I started calling her “mom”. (Which absolutely tickled her to death. Dad on the other hand never quite got used to it.)

27. Hey, just a (hopefully) friendly aside, but in most english dialects we would say “WHAT do you call your mother in law?” rather than “HOW do you call your mother in law?”

    No worries or anything, we understand what you mean because it is a common mistake for ESL folks to make.

28. I call her Linda. Her actual first name is Jane.

    It is a power move on my part.

29. “Granny” which is what my kids called her.

30. In my part of the midwest, it’s either (Firstname) or Mom.

    Here, etiquette says (assuming you aren’t already on a first name basis with your in-laws) to refer to them as Mrs Last Name until they give you permission to call them something else.

    Oddly, this is *not* because they will expect to be addressed formally. Rather, you are obligated to do this as a way of asking “do you want me to call you (First name) or Mom?” by giving her the opportunity to offer. It’s almost a little ceremony that happens when you’re “officially” introduced as a significant other. You go, “Its lovely to meet you, Mrs Smith” and she replies, “Please, call me Janet.” It’s obligatory.

31. I’ve never addressed her by any name or term in the 33 years that I’ve known her. Same with my FIL. And I have no idea if they’ve ever noticed that. I was never comfortable calling them mom or dad, because they aren’t. I couldn’t bring myself to call them by their first names long ago, it seemed too informal. And Mr./Mrs. Last name, I used those maybe once when we were first dating, but after we got married, that seemed too formal.

    In closing, I made a conscious decision long ago to see how long I could get away with not calling them anything at all. At this point, it’s my own little internal (maybe) contest, and I’ll just keep going.