I get it, dad

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I am one of four kids. There’s Sarah, then me, my brother Tim and my sister Jenna. Back when we were all under the same roof, plus with two dogs named Ellie and Taylor, it was quite the full house.

To me it was my normal, it was all I knew. It was more than one, and less than a netball team. I liked it. My dad though, he struggled. Not with the parenting four children, because my mum did most of that. I’m not sure if my dad ever changed a nappy back in the day, I’ll have to ask him. {He provided for our family and cooked a mean fried rice though}.

The thing he struggled with was getting the right name for the right kid. He’d work his way through every living being in the house before he settled on the right name, “Sah-Tim-Jen-Ell-Tayl… Chantelle!” Bingo.

Back then I didn’t get it. Did he not know who we were? Did he not know what our names were? Sheesh, dad of the year right there. Ha.

I have two children. More than one, definitely less than a netball team. I have a dog named Bronte. And do you know what? Now I get it.

My brain is fried. I don’t know what I ate for breakfast, and I don’t even know what my own name is sometimes. I can’t remember dates or important details, and I definitely can’t remember where I left my wedding rings the night before {it would make sense to keep them in the same place each day, right? I’m not that clever}.

When calling out to the kids, I often get it wrong. Lacey becomes Lulu, and Lulu becomes Lacey. And a lot of the times I get stuck in the middle and I’ll call them Lu-cy. It’s like they’ve become a mash-up of two people, like they do with celebrity names. You know, like Brangelina. Lacey + Luella = Lucy.

So I’m going with that until I get my brain back {which is when, mind you?}. For now, my kids will collectively be known as Lucy. Or hey you. Whatever works.

So dad, I definitely get it.

Do you remember if your parents were ever knackered or a little bit exhausted from the parenting gig? Did they get your names wrong too?

56 thoughts on “I get it, dad”

  1. Haha, love this. I used to think the same thing as I’m the youngest of three, but now we have a 14m old and a dog and i am always calling our son our dog’s name and vice versa, like you said my brain just isn’t there anymore x

  2. Haha, my Dad did the same – being one of four girls, we got Ren-Sar-Reb-Bel – until he realised who he was after. I thought it was just cos he was always away for work, but now I understand having two of my own with sleep deprivation and just general baby/child brains!
    And when you were really in trouble -it was first and middle name!!!!

  3. Haha I do it. I call my husband by my son’s name, my son my husband’s name, my brother my son’s name, my son my brother’s name…you get the idea! Sometimes my mum calls me by my dad’s name, which makes me laugh.

  4. My mum did the same thing all the time! I never understood until now. I have two kids and I constantly call the each others names!

  5. Yep. Not my dad so much, but my mom. She was hearing impaired and for some reason seemed to run through the names before landing on the correct one. Except for my youngest brother, Jake. She never got his name wrong as he was her “pet” and in her eyes never did anything wrong. To this day he is her baby boy. She’s almost 94 and he’s almost 59 and he’s still perfect in her eyes. And I’m okay with that now.

      • No, not really. I was a daddy’s girl all the way. I never felt slighted. In fact, I was glad she gave him extra attention as it meant he had less opportunity to antagonize me! And I always knew she loved me, too… it was just different with my brother. Mom and I had a good relationship, I respected her deeply. But it wasn’t until after my father’s death that I realized that my father was able to be the amazing dad that he was because my MOM was such a good wife and mother. She always built him up in our eyes and gave him center stage. She made sure we appreciated our father. Her own father died when she was only 6 years old – so she wanted to make sure we all knew how lucky we were to have such a wonderful father in our lives. I sure wish I had understood all this when I was younger…

  6. I used to laugh at my aunties for doing the same. Now I constantly call my kids my brothers names. It’s embarrissing when were out, I’ll be like “What’s your name again?” Works great in front of other Mothers – Mother of the year here!

  7. yep and the kids and animals names get mixed up too. I don’t think that confusion is ever going away. I have several little pretty dishes around the house in the kitchen, bathrooms and bedroom so when I take my rings off each night and go looking for them in the morning they are in 1 of the 4 dishes.

  8. Yep, my mum did it, I do it (I have a boy and a girl but I still call them the wrong names) and the funny thing is, my kids even do it. The amount of times I get called ‘Dad-I-mean-Mum’. I think it is an inherent trait.

  9. Hate to tell you but it never stops, my mum calls my kids every name but their own, they even get called the dogs name regularly!!!! Unfortunate I think we all do it!!

  10. My mother had eight of us to run through and would say every single one in a roll on without pause jumble. My bad parent moment was that after 14 years of sons I kept calling my daughter ‘little man’ and then found myself calling her by a name completely different than her own; a girl name but not hers – bizarre.

    • That’s kinda funny! Sometimes I think my mouth works without even being prompted by my brain. Like sometimes I’ll catch myself mid-sentence, saying something like, “Can you get the…” and I didn’t even know what I was going to say, or what I was thinking. My brain is FRIED!

  11. I have 2 grandsons beginning with J and granddaughter and dog beginning with K….different names but Nanny has her moments of struggle.

  12. I used to roll my eyes at my dad when he used to get our names mixed up! Mind you I am the eldest of five kids. Now that I have four of my own, they are lucky they even have a name! My brain and I parted after my second child…. I doubt I will ever get it back.

  13. im the youngest of four and dad would run through all names to get to mine, now he does it with the grandkids to get them stirred up on purpose. its great to see

  14. My grandma has always mixed up me and my mum and it used to drive me nuts! I didn’t get it then either. But as my mum brought four sisters into the world for me, I started getting mixed up! My gran now just calls us all ‘darling’ or comes to find the one of us she wants..! As for me, I’ve mastered the little sister. I never get it wrong. Her name is ‘Leonie’ and nicknamed ‘Lonnie’ that’s the only bit that trips me up – which do I call her? Often she becomes ‘Lee-onnie’. xx

  15. I have a sister called Vanessa and when we were kids mum would either call out Savanesaa or Vanessara. Once mum called me grandma and I can’t remember the number of times she called me Cuggles (the cat). The best was when dad left me a note to say I had a phone call and he spelt my name wrong…

  16. I’m the last of five and dad would go through every one’s name before getting to mine. I have two, Jessie and Bailey and a dog called Sydney. For some reason I call my daughter my sister’s name and my son the dog’s name and vice a versa. Particularly when I’m yelling. My husband never gets called by his name and I call everyone else dear or mate. It’s all too hard.

  17. Both of my parents do this. Mom eventually figures out the right name but Dad finally just points at one whoever he wants and says “Whatever your name is. Come here.”

  18. I have a Blake and Joel…sometimes I call out for ‘jake’…or the dogs name! They’re so used to it now LOL

  19. I’ve got 4 kids – 2 boys and 2 girls, and also a dog. The kids often ask me why I get their names mixed up. I tell them it means that I love them all the same. They really like that explanation. (Better than the truth which is of course: fuzzy head! 😉

  20. My husband just left for work and said “Bye boys, I gotta go.” I’m one of the boys now. We only have one kid, he is a boy. He laughed at himself. But man those daddies have a lot on their plates. We had 8 kids in ours so it was a running joke that my mum would go through 4 kids names before she got to ours. Sometimes it gave us enough time to run away before she could get us to do a chore though, right? haha! “Char, Joe, Oli, Micah- JESSICA!!!!!!”

  21. ..LOL… I so relate to this Chantelle…. I sort my kids by location if I can’t quickly get the name.. ‘the daughter that lives on the farm… or the farm grandkids’ sometimes I just have to say ‘the tall dark haired one’ … or the curley headed boy…..
    My excuse is ‘I’m old’ and also that I have 4 married children , so that’s 8 people.. plus their children , now it’s up to 17 people …some of the grandies have partners .. now it’s21 people… then there is the great grand children … we are up to 25 people plus Mum … oh.. and hubby and me .. total 28 just in my direct family …
    Plus I’m one of five children, but we won’t go there..
    Hugs… Barb xxx

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