Your New Name
Guess which one is a parent who just heard a kid call out?
Chances are high you were born and given a name. Maybe you’ve even repeated the process yourself, and now have a kid of your own.
So, now you’re a dad or a mom. You’ve got a new name now, even before you’re actually able transform one of the little one’s goo-goos or ga-gas into a “Dada” or “Mama.” Or whichever version it winds up being; mother, father, mama, papa, mammy, pappy, etc.
It’s your new name. Your parent name. It’s whatever your kid calls you.
Sigh. It’s amazing. But it’s going to have some side effects, and go through some evolutions.
Aside from your kid simply getting better at saying it, your new parent name can go through some transformations. Ma might transform to Mama and then to Mommy before ultimately becoming Mom, and the same for the versions of Dad. But they’ll all be your names. You’ll respond to them when any voice close in age and tone to your kid says it. And on rare occasions when anyone says it.
Then there’s a phenomenon most parents experience. It’s completely reflexive and there is no solution or cure for it. It’s the self-induced whiplash of turning your head to see who called out your parent name.
Someone says, “Dad.” (Or Mom as the case may be.) And you’re spinning around like a drunken ballerina looking for who said it.
The irony is that in the end. You may form a set of earplugs formed by shear willpower.
“Hey, Dad. … Dad. … Dad! … DAD!!! … DAD-DAD-DAD-DAD!!!!”
And then, their last resort, “ANDY!” ARG!!! Nothing cuts through the filter better than that for me.
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Instructional Diagrams
These are fun.
Get an A in Facebook
You’ll probably enjoy.
WeirdFish says: 
Christina 
Evonne 
Desiree 
