Yo-Yo Big Daddy-O!

I have received a lot of amazing feedback since I launched my site.  Friends, family and new internet friends came out of the woodwork (and the interwebs) to send their love and support. And I am truly overwhelmed at all of the changes you have made in such a short period of time.  I am so freakin’ proud of you I could burst! Literally!

I did, however, receive two, rather unlikely, rather surprising responses…  Two people who were a little hurt that everything was all about “the mamas”…

You see, these two people are friends of mine, friends that I see each week, friends that I have play-dates with, friends that I workout with, friends that I discuss what to make for dinner on a given night with, friends who do the majority of their families grocery shopping, meal planning and cooking and friends who also happen to be DADS.

Yup, these two friends are wonderful, amazing fathers who, in real life have the same name.  But, for their privacy (ha, ha), we’ll call them Enrique and Eduardo – which are so far from their real names, they laughed when I told them the names I was giving them in this article!  Enrique is a full time stay at home dad to a four year old and one year old and Eduardo is a work-from-home dad of two growing tween boys.

I know that it’s not only women out there making decisions for their families health.  I know that we are not the only ones cooking and shopping for them.  There are plenty of dads who do an outstanding job (truth be told, Enrique often puts me to shame with his kale-at-almost-every-meal-household – no joke!) and I’m not trying to forget about you – I love you equally!

You see, I call everyone mama.  I don’t just use it when referring to mothers and I don’t use it when referring to all mothers (I don’t call my 93 year old grandmother and say “‘Sup, Mama!” However, I will call one of my girlfriends and say “Sup, Mama?” and I’m pretty sure that I have slipped and called Enrique that a time or two!  I also use it when talking to any girlfriend, regardless of whether or not she has children.

Maybe it’s my love of  90’s rap (Tribe Called Quest anyone?  A little Rump-Shaker?), or my continuous love of anything with a good beat that allows me to shake-what-my-mama-gave-me (see a theme here?!), but I love the word mama and I use it all the time – 24/7 – to refer to almost anyone I am with.

Mama, to me, is more of a comrade-in-arms type word.  It’s like:

What’s up:

• Home-pizzle
• Home-slice
• Homie
• Girlfriend
• Mama
• Sista’
• Daaaaawg
• *insert your favorite slang term here

It’s truly a word I use all of the time and I use it in my writing because I created this for you my friends, for people I love (whether I know you in person or via the internet)  

and when I am writing, I write to you as though we are sitting in my kitchen listening to Naughty By Nature, drinking green juice and watching our kids run wild.

So please, don’t feel slighted with all the “mama” references, know that they come from a place of love and friendship and just for Enrique and Eduardo and all of the other men out there reading this, I’ll try to be better about dropping a bit more gender-neutral slang!

Do you have a favorite slang term that you use?  Let me know in the comments below –  I’d love to hear it!  

Have a great week and remember to high-five a dad at the park this week!

XO,

Christina