That might explain why he accepted the VP gig.

I would worry more about the inability to make conversation. And of course the fact that he's a religious ideologue one step away from the presidency...

He's a very strange & scary dude.

It's not that unusual in many households.

But Dad certainly would not do it publicly. The joke fell flat, but the public endearment is weird to me.

Usually not that formal but some variant of "Mom, Mama, Dad, Daddy, Grandma, Gran etc...)

My great-grandfather used to call my great-grandmother "Mother" and she called him "Father", but they had 11 kids. I assumed they just got into addressing each other that way when the kids were little and over the years, the habit stuck. If they ever addressed each other by their first names, it was probably only in private.

If she doesn't mind, it's strictly their business. Consenting adults and all that. I'll save my indignation for when Pence steps on the rights of the LGBT community, non-Christians, and anyone else who disagrees with him.

Married 22 years. My husband will occasionally call me Mom and I'll occasionally call him Dad. As both our sets of parents did.

No big deal guys. Perhaps we can move on to more sensible outrages against Pence and Trump?

"Mom" Momster, Mamma, Momsicle, etc.

Some folks take great offense to it for some reason

There was no outrage, only a comment.

I don't need any instructions from on where my outrage should lie.

You choose to focus on the irrelevant and the irrational and allow it a moral judgment lacking any evidence to support it, and yet you need no instructions how to do so. We get it. We really do.

That's indicative of a certain emotional response and one that is very negative.

The idiosyncrasy of parents calling each other Mother or Father has been a staple in some places for well over a hundred years. For some of my friends, it seemed their parents didn't want to confuse the children by using a name for the parents different than the one the children were supposed to use. Those parents also seemed to be more formal in public and seldom used their given names around others. It's a non-issue for me.

On the other hand, Pence antagonism toward the LGTB community, refusal to accept federal funding for Pre-K education, abortion obsession, and habit of adhering to his ideology rather than doing what is best for his constituents are far more relevant and disturbing.

My grandpa would call his wife grandma sometimes.

There was never any ill towards them and they didn't take it as such. Plus, these were people who were married for decades.

Your hang-ups and intolerance are yours. Try not to project them onto too many others.

It's also very old fashioned. Ronald Reagan supposedly occasionally called Nancy "Mommy" when he was being "folksy" and inviting the public into his family, but he didn't do it constantly, and certainly would not have done so when asking for her advice or for semi-authoritative information from her in public.
I remember my Great-grandmother from Missouri, born in 1887, still referred to her late spouse as "Father" (as opposed to "your father) when talking about him to around family when we were visiting up through the 1970's and 1980's - but not when there were other visitors. Maybe if Great-Grandfather was still around (he died in the late 1960's), she might have called out "Father" if she was calling him, as some older novels and film show "country folk" doing when talking to each other, or talking about each other when the other is there.

It's rather like spouses calling each other Mr. and Mrs. [Last Name Here] in public.

However, both ways of addressing spouses have pretty much fallen out of general use since WWII. Society has moved passed assuming that spouses were "one unit", that the wife was an extension of the husband.

And it is very odd that Mr. Pence will identify his wife as only the mother of his children, rather than a woman of her own and or even as an adult extension of himself (i,e., calling her "Mrs. Pence...&quot when she is supposed to be in a position of prominence. It belittles her in public to call her "Mother".

Haele

and because I am a fan of the dumpy little lady, I like it. Not something to make fun of, imo. If anything, it tends to humanize Pence, which is a bad thing.

The term of endearment you use for your spouse, assuming it is agreeable to your spouse, should be of no interest at all to anyone else.

And yes, I have family members who use that term (or similar ones) for their spouses.

Let's pick on him for the stuff that matters.

Old fashioned and kind of icky when expressed like that in public. People have all kinds of names for their loved ones that they wouldn't say in public.

Way old timey....

for my grandmother--they were both born around 1900. Bill Lear--yeah that Lear, did the same with his last wife Moya. He was born in 1902

On xmas present tags!!

That article makes me laugh rather than get mad...

Usually older generations do that. It might actually be a respectful recognition that they are mothers. I do not know but I have heard it before.

My husband thinks (often says) that I'm a great mom to our now college-age girls. Don't know about that. But I know that's his intent when he occasionally calls me Mom.

Which irritates the fuck out of me..

I have met many men who are super religious that refer to their wives as mother.

He no longer views wife as wife but mother. I wonder what he calls his boyfriend? (Snark)

I have seen this a few times now. The husband calls the wife "Mother" or "Mom" or "Ma" and she calls him "Father" or "Dad" or "Pa." They are pretty much always older people.

As long as both are happy with the arrangement, there are many more things to worry about with Pence than what he calls his wife.

She did say it is normal for people in some areas and the older generations to say that and it is a term of respect. Sorry to make him look normal but it is just the facts. No, not alternative fact.

My grandpa did the same with my grandma.

no biggie really.

there are some issues there.

Those dumb people do this.

If she had gone outside or down to the basement and he was looking for her, he might ask, "Do you know where mother went?" I didn't find it strange or weird at all.

would ask the children, "Where is YOUR Mother", not just plain Mother. That adjective makes all the difference. My Dad called my Mom by her first name, or sometimes for endearment, "Sophia" because she was Italian and people said she looked like the actress.

My husband (of 42 years) just calls me by a shortened form of my first name.

I also detest anyone referring to "the wife"

and so did John Lennon, btw.

Speaks to the isolation of the person at the link.

Reagan called Nancy "Mommy&quot .

affectionately as Gramma sometimes since we became grand parents close to 10 years ago. She likewise refers to me as grampa. I love it.

Mother I guess would be ok in this sense.

So is Pence, evidently.

Andy Hardy's dad, Judge Hardy, in the 1940s series of movies starring Mickey Rooney, used to call his wife "Mother" in the movies. That's the most "modern" version I've heard it. Pence must really be backward.

Very old fashioned but certainly not unheard of.

Ugh

...normal in homes. I wonder about its use in a professional setting, though - his attempt as being human? I can see it used as part of sex, too, and highly inappropriate if that's his trip. I don't mind playful politically incorrect sex terms, but not in public.

Ok, doing it in public when there are no children involved is odd. But, i've heard people doing this my whole life. This is nothing unusual and if i'm going to hate on Pence (and i will) it's not going to be for something like this.

when he's talking to our poodle: "Is mommy making your suppy, mr. baby?"

At least Pence didn't call her Goody, the Puritan term for Goodwife.

the weird thing. He doesn't have young kids there...besides himself.

with their spouses. It's creepy to me but whatever. It's their choice.