Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> Do you refer to any woman who has had a child as Mama?

It's a personal family thing, Cindy and Bruce.

> Generally I don't like it when men call their wife Mama or Mother

Long term families with kids often use those terms. Just like a
nickname. All the kids call their parents Mom&Dad or Mamma/pappa
or mother/father. Parents often will adopt those names for each
other since all the kids refer to them that way. No worries.

No need for any others to be annoyed by it.

Same with all of my pets. My cat of 19.5 years had several dozen
nicknames over the years and he knew every one of them referred
to him.

Same with all 4 ferrets. Many different names.

When I first adopted Mia, the previous owner called her,
"Achilles," because they always thought she was a he. They were
wrong and the night I bought her, I showed him how to tell the
sex of a ferret. He was shocked. I kept her for the first 2
weeks thinking about an appropriate name. After 2 weeks living
with her, I decided that Mia sounded right. Even then...for the
next 6.5 years, she acquired many other nicknames and again, she
knew them all.

At the end of her life I was calling her,
- little parking bear
- little parkey
- parkers

Over the years, the nicknames constantly morphed. She knew them
all.