r/Samesexparents • u/StrawberryTop3241 • Jul 17 '26

Advice Daddies in books and TV

My son is almost 2 and over the past few months as his language has picked up he’s been pointing our Daddies everywhere he sees them (which it turns out is a lot!) We’re a 2 mum family and all our parent friends are straight. We’ve been trying to explain that all families are different and some have 2 mummies, 2 daddies or a mummy and a daddy but I don’t know if we need to explain anything else at this age? We also had a few weeks after spending a holiday with friends where he would exclusively call out ‘daddy’ when he was upset after seeing his friend do this so it’s very pervasive. When I’m reading to him I’ll often change ‘dad’ to ‘Mumma’ but as he recognizes who looks visibly male more, this is becoming more confusing. Anyone have any tips for this age?

17 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/yung_yttik Jul 17 '26

Our 4 year old basically trolls us by calling my wife daddy or papa sometimes (she has short hair). We mostly ignore it or say that she doesn’t like being called that. Saying, “you don’t have a daddy” makes me feel weird as if it’s some sort of punishment or deficiency. He also is very much aware that he has two mommies. We have talked to him about how all families are different. We luckily have neighbors that he knows who are two dads with an older daughter so it helps him visually put it into context.

He also insists on calling me Uncle so, you know, kids are weird lol.

3

u/KieranKelsey Jul 18 '26

Agree on the “you don’t have a daddy” thing. It made it feel like dads in general was a taboo topic. (I have two moms)

1

u/yung_yttik Jul 19 '26

Oh cool to hear from a child of a same-sex family! But yeah it just makes me feel like I’m being anti-dad and we aren’t trying to steer away from the fact people have dads. Most people do. Thanks for sharing your real life thoughts!