Say My Name. . .

"Say my name, say my name.
You actin' kinda shady." -Destiny's Child



Y'all doing the shoulder thing with me? I have no rhythm. I think I gave myself a crick. But I digress. . .on to blog world. . .



"MOM!" The Edge hollered at me the other day as I was walking out the door.

"WHAT?! I'm walking out the door."

Her "person of interest" was on the phone and wanted to know how to address her father and me.

"'Most Beautiful and Intelligent Goddess of the World'. . .no, 'the UNIVERSE' would be appropriate for me. And Dad can be 'Dude.'"

Ha ha, he'll LOVE that! I thought to myself as I closed the door.

There are a few long-term family-friend kids who know me as "Miss Lara," but most of my kids' friends refer to me as Mrs. McKnight.

At first, it sounded a little stilted, but it's grown on me. Kinda like "Miss Jackson if you're nasty. . ." (Oops, there goes the shoulder again!)

So, now that Black Jack (21) has a fiancee, it's thrown me into a weird position. I call her to shoot the breeze on occasion. "Hey, it's. . ."

Who am I? Mrs. McKnight?

Your fiance's Mommy who loves him very very very much and will track you down and pull your hair if you do him wrong?

Lara? No, just using my first name didn't seem quite right, either. After all, I've got to maintain my "status."

"Hey, it's Me." Yeah, that will do it.

For the first ten years or so of our marriage, I would call my own Mother-in-law "Hi. How are you?" Or sometimes, I'd yank a passing kid into my lap and then could say, "Hey, Mamae, the baby wants to talk to you. . ." It's only lately that I've been comfortable with using her first name.

Fortunately my OTHER Mother-in-law is my age, so calling her by her name is no big deal. I call my Father-in-law long distance. :)


I guess I could make it easy on everyone and just come up with some cutsie nickname. In high school, I was "Doo." It was a shortened version of my maiden name. Fortunately, I didn't have any friends who stuttered.

My Mom calls me "Lollipop." I don't know. . .that's too close to "Sucker."

My husband sometimes calls me a "Mean Old B*%&!" and I have to set him straight. I am NOT old.

I don't know. Everyone else around here just calls me "MOOOOOOOOM!" There are days I regret starting that one going, not sure if I want that to be the norm.

So, what do you think, Dear Reader? What are your suggestions for referring to your potential future in-laws?

I still think that "Goddess" thing rocks, myself.

Have fun!