As much as I love being a mother, sometimes I absolutely hate hearing my name: Mom, Mommy, Moooooooooooom!!! All. Day. Long. When I was a child, I remember getting into trouble for saying my own mother’s name too much. “If one more person says my name [fill in a threat of violence],” my mom would threaten my sister and me. Now I know exactly how she felt because the incessant calling of “mom” can be very annoying. I know that being a mom is privilege that not everyone can enjoy, but I also know that even June Cleaver would go postal if her own children called her name as often as mine do.

My 3 year old son is the biggest culprit of overuse. From the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed he is saying, yelling, whispering, whining, and repeating my name. Maybe it would not be as grating if he simply said my name in a pleasant fashion, something like “Mom, I love you and while you may not be happy with the way your bathing suit looks right now, I think that you look like you did in the high school yearbook that you keep making us look at.” Instead, he yells it, whines it, screams it, even when he doesn’t have to, e.g., when I am sitting on the couch RIGHT next to him, he will yell, “MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!” Sometimes it is followed by an adorable pause and an “I love you,” but most of the time, “MOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!” is followed by another yelling of my name with some sort of request or declaration, like “I am hungry,” “I am tired,” “Mckinley is bothering me,” “I have to poop,” “I just pooped,” “I miss Daddy” – you get the point.

I feel horrible for thinking this or even writing it but if I hear my name yelled one more time I may lose it. I have threatened my kids that if they scream/whine/yell my name like that I won’t answer and I will put the offender in time out. But, my threats are ignored. (This is probably because they can’t hear me and are too busy yelling my name.) And, I do not blame my kids for picking up this annoying habit; I blame that annoying cartoon, Phineas and Ferb (which is now banned at my house.)  The way the teenage character, Candace, whines “Moooooooooooooooooom” is enough to make you want to scream.

Is there anything that your kids do that make you want to holler? Please tell me I am not the only one.