What name to call your in-laws?

[therisingblues]

I call my father in law "Otosan" which means father in Japanese. If he was Australian I'd call him by his first name, it'd feel weird to call anyone other than my real father "dad" in English. Saying it in Japanese sort of puts a gap between the word and its meaning. There's also the issue of which honorific to add to the end of his name if I used his first name "san" is more respectful "chan" is more formal but a little too familiar so both titles would be awkward. Japanese tend to refer to complete strangers as big sister, big brother, wife, husband, grandma etc.. So I'm following tradition anyway.
Recently I've been calling him "ji-ji" which is a cutened up version of the word "ojisan" (grandfather) as we have a two year old son who enjoys playing with him.

[fisho mcspaz]

I call my in-laws by their first names, same as Mr McSpaz does with my parents. However, my previous in-laws were a different story, because they were southerners and the American South have always been ridiculous about family. My ex-husband's family had fifth, sixth cousins all over the shop and somehow kept them all straight. When I married him, my in-laws nearly cried because they said they'd lost a baby daughter once and they always wanted a little girl and now they had one. (I was sort of a child bride, and they always seemed to view me as a child.) So I always called them Mom and Dad. Then when I divorced my husband, 'Dad' said 'You'll always be my daughter still', but 'Mom' said 'You bitch. You BITCH. F*** you, Kate.' Amazingly, six years down the track, we still keep in touch (they like to ring up to talk to their grandson) and we all get along really well. They've forgiven me for divorcing their son and I've forgiven them for being twats.

[OnSong]

I have found it's more a female thing to do

yes

x2.

My mum calls my dad's mother "mum".

I roll with first names of my wife's parents.

[scoob]

I call mine a pain in the arse

[tipper]

i cal mine "That Bitch" and the "long suffering bastard". however the last 7 months or so the mother inlaw an i have gotten on much better.













she died at the end of august.....

[Lightning McQueen]

Dear me.

[Johno6]

no need to sugar coat it mate, tull us the truth.

[Lightning McQueen]

no need to sugar coat it mate, tull us the truth.

LOL.

[Lightning McQueen]

Nothing anymore.

[wristwatcher]

If the old boy picks up a check one day I'll call him Sir

[stampy]

[quote="Johno6"]yeah first names for me.

altho sometimes i will yell out maaarrrrmmmmmm like a kid does to annoy the mother in law[/quote

just being around would do that wouldnt it?

[Cambridge Clarrie]

Must say Im not a fan of calling the inlaws Mum and Dad, you only have one set IMO, my sister in law who has been in the family for 3 years does it and makes me look like a tool as Ive been in the family for 16 years!

spot on

i got queried by the father in law as to why I dont call him Dad.

I simply said well you are not my father and that title does not belong to you for me.

You said it like that? Quite a formal relationship you seem to have with him...