I’m a 23F Latina working at a clinic. The other day, we had an older female patient come in with a much younger man. I casually assumed he was her son until a coworker said, “No way, that’s her husband. He calls her Mami.”
I said, “But doesn’t that mean mom?”
They looked at me like I had two heads and explained it’s a term of endearment. Like babe or baby.
Cue the existential crisis.
Because my own parents have been calling each other Mami and Papi for as long as I can remember. I always thought it was something they did when we were kids to avoid using their first names and confusing us. And then the habit just stuck.
Nope.
Apparently they’ve always used those names. Not for parenting purposes. For flirting. Just a little romantic thing I completely misunderstood for 23 years.
The kicker is my younger sister already knew. I was the only one out here thinking it was some kind of parenting strategy.
I feel like I’ve been living in the background of a telenovela and just now looked up.
TLDR: My parents have been calling each other Mami and Papi as a form of endearment and not to confuse us children.