Dear Wiggles: When Your Child Starts Calling You By Your First Name

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Welcome to Wiggles Talk, a podcast for parents.

I'm Simon. I'm, uh, six foot four.

Yes. And I'm the Red Wiggles.

Hello, Simon. Hello, Loki.

My name is Loki. I am the Purple Wiggles and little bit under Simon.

It's six foot.

Hmm, that's a perfect height, Loki, I think.

Well, yeah, it's a good height.

Good solid structure.

Do you ever think about how tall your children are going to be?

Funnily enough, Asha is, he's always been, I think I've said this before,

has been little for his age.

Yes. Well, kind of what you would class as he was born,

sort of, average height and weight, and he's still kind of maintained that.

Yeah. But the expectation given the fact that I'm six foot four,

yes, is that he will be tall and you think that will probably happen.

But at the moment, it's still smaller than a lot of his children, his own age.

Yeah. Were you like that, though?

I was always tall. I was always the back middle of the class photo.

Tripping over because I couldn't walk because I could giraffe.

You'll have a, I think I was like after you seven, I got taller,

but you had to know about the girls.

I think they'll, I mean, Jasper's catching up to Diana pretty quickly,

but he probably won't be overly tall, but yeah, I don't know, isn't it?

Funnily, isn't it?

The girls, I think at them, I mean, Lillie always walks in her tippy toes,

but they're kind of exactly the same height.

So whether one of them, one of them shoots up, shoots above, or they go together.

Yeah, I think it didn't end up with twins, because they're not identical.

Yes. What's going to happen to light wise?

Yeah, that was never thought of that.

It's interesting, because Asha has gone through a growth spurt,

and he is getting longer and taller, and then just for a period of a couple of weeks,

just eight, like in your 301s, it is extraordinary what his body's telling him he needs

about him, you know, and so I expected when he was going back to his friends again

that maybe he'd kind of caught up, but they've obviously kind of turned a similar thing,

so I mean, yeah, and then what's he going to be when he grows up?

Like, we don't know.

No, we don't.

These are the questions.

Hey, um, what is it?

Oh, he's agent.

Yeah, gift card shop owner.

That's what I'm saying.

We have to have told this story.

We have.

Yeah, my career advisor had to do the model choice thing, and it came out.

You'll be suited to it.

Gift card shop owner.

We would be, I can imagine the, the, those set ups.

Oh, it would be very.

It's like that these ones are for mum.

These are dad and aversary.

You know, that would be, and that all be in line.

Yeah.

And nothing out of play.

And then drive me mad when actual customers came in the store,

because they mess up the order.

Someone would just take an envelope, not the card with it.

Yeah, they reminded me yesterday afternoon, after I got home,

and there was, it was really windy at home,

and there was leaves in the pool.

The pools are new thing.

And I'm scooping, as I'm scooping, the wind's still blowing.

And my personality is I have to get every single leaf out of that pool.

And I'd actually do find it really relaxing.

I've said, I have said this before too.

And then there's all leaves lying around the arts out of the pool.

So I think I've got to sweep them away.

Yeah.

But as I'm sweeping, I'm not even thinking I'm going against the wind,

who's them blowing it, but anyway.

So there's got nothing to do with gift cards.

And there's nothing to do with this segment.

Wiggle, talk, talk, talk.

Wiggle, talk.

It's dear Wiggles.

Authorised by Simon Lockey.

This one's from Celia. Would you like to hear it?

Please, Lockey.

Okay.

Now, this is a dear Wiggles question from Celia.

Who writes?

Hello, Wiggles.

Somehow, my child has started calling me by my first name.

Not Mum.

Not Mummy.

Just my full government name in public,

like we're colleagues in an office.

Part of me wants to laugh because it's kind of iconic

and part of me is like, have I lost all authority forever?

Do you lean in or do you shut it down fast before it becomes permanent?

Celia.

That's interesting.

Isn't Celia?

Yeah, that's very funny.

We got to a point where we wondered if Asher knew our names.

And we thought it was important for him to learn our names.

And he knew, I think, because of the Wiggles and, you know,

Simon, he was more familiar with.

And we realized that he actually had no idea of Mum's name and all

that being Laura.

Oh, yeah, right.

And so Asher will do things like

if somebody comes up and wants a photo, he'll say things like,

that's my Simon.

That's my Simon.

You know, because he's getting a bit funny about

always being interrupted our time together.

And he's now learned Lauren's name.

He's never called us by our name as always,

Mum or Mummy or Dad or Daddy.

We started using our names as a way of introducing letters and language,

including his name as well.

But Celia, he hasn't gone to the point of calling us Simon and Lauren.

Is that interesting that my Simon, because that's a Wiggles thing too?

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Can you please associate Simon to Wiggles,

knowing it's me, so it's, yeah, it's really interesting.

Yeah, the girls are cheeky at the moment.

They were saying more darned than they do,

lucky, or sometimes they say Lottie.

And I think it's Lottie.

And they're like, they're like, Dad, I said Lottie.

Did I know your name is Lottlin?

I think so, but Jasper obviously calls me Lottie,

because he's my beautiful stepson.

He doesn't do Daddy, but I feel like you do need to,

even Mum is a funny one.

When you've heard Mummy for four years,

and all of a sudden they come out with,

oh Mum, can I have a Jasper's now Mum all the time?

Yeah, right.

Oh, Mr.

I want to be called Mummy just for a bit longer,

but I feel like in a fun way.

But also, I think you should pull it up.

Don't want to be called your first name,

your government name, by your child.

No, we're name tags.

Yeah, Dad and name tags.

Funnily enough, I grew up calling my dad by his first name,

because he didn't want to be called Dad,

so it's always been Tony.

Forever.

Yeah, so Mum and Tony, and that's how we grew up,

but that was a choice that he made

that he would like to be called Tony.

So it always was so natural for me,

and then growing up, particularly in my primary school,

and even high school as well,

like friends were like, what do you call your dad Tony?

And I think the thought was that there was a stepfather.

Because that's more of a common thing

with regards to names in the household.

But yeah, he just didn't want to be called known as Dad.

Wow.

And he was actually just happy to be, you wanted to be Tony.

Wow.

Yeah, and same with Simon with Asher,

with as grandparents there, Anne and Tony.

Okay.

Yeah, and that's just the personal choice that they've made.

But, you know, that doesn't help you at all, Celia.

And so we're on free.

Do you think that too?

Do you think if you'd probably just say to Asher,

like it's...

Yeah, I mean, it depends on the context.

I think I would then make light and make fun

of the language around your first name,

and be playful around it.

I think if maybe you're trying to shut it down firmly,

you'll actually hide in the situation.

But I would, Celia, Belia, or I would start doing playful plays

on your name, like, you know, I called Asher the other day,

Ashy, bangers and mashy, you know,

just as a fun thing to do.

And he thinks it's hysterical,

and we kind of do playfulness with our names that way

to keep it light and fun.

You know, Celia, whatever your child's name is,

just do it back.

But no, I think I'm sure it'll be a phase to you.

It's probably just a fun thing that the child's learned.

Yeah, I would think so.

I think so.

It thinks it's pretty funny and cool for a bit,

and then it'll go back to...

Yeah.

...it'll go back to mummy, Celia, don't worry.

And probably that thing too, where...

It's about getting a response, isn't it?

Yes, that's right.

You know, when there were babies in there,

cause and effect, they'd throw a toy on the ground

and you pick it up, and they'd throw it back in.

It's probably along those same terms and same lines

of what sort of response they get from it.

But I think you'd make it fun and playful

that you're kind of going along with it,

probably won't stop it soon, isn't it?

Yes.

The girls, because of Bluey,

when they're playing together,

they're always like,

oh, take that darling.

I think Ash, you call me Big Guy or something the other day.

Yeah, is that in Bluey?

That makes sense, too.

Yes.

Yeah, Big Guy.

Yeah, it is amazing,

but they pick up for us.

I think I said, yes, I am.

6 or 4, I swear.

Yeah, that's right.

Well, Celia,

I hope you get mummy very soon.

Thank you for your great question.

Thank you, Celia Babilia.

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Yes, thank you for listening to Weal Talk.

It's a podcast for parents.

Goodbye.

See you later, bye.

Bye, Celia Babilia.