Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

as i was listening to the show yesterday i had a flood of thoughts on names that could be good for a baby sitter who becomes more of a family member but is not at liberty to name themselves as such (as the caller stated in her call)

the phrase or title that sat with me over night was

a full name friend

this goes back to my childhood when we grew up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood and everyone had a hard name to pronounce for little kids. One of my friends parents came up with the idea that we call all the parents by their first name + the title of Mr or Mrs .. this always stuck with me and was a better way to be friends with our friends parents and broke down some barriers of uncomfortableness that can be found between parents and kids (that are not their own) so my mom instead of being Mrs Santovin became Mrs Cathy which for most kids was way easier. In turn we had some great parent/kid friendships that last to this very day

So as the caller stated they called her by her full name and I thought that was nice; its respectful but friendly .. just my thoughts

I think Katherine Watson should call those kids her "puppies," I think people would understand the special significance
of your relationship and its a cute term of affection/endearment. Besides, you'd have to know em pretty well to call them dogs.
Sorry for posting in wrong spot-i'm new to site.

Why not simply "babysats"?

As in "My babysats gave me this lovely card for Christmas". Or "That would be a perfect gift for a babysat of mine!"

I think it's pretty clear, but if someone asks about it, one could respond that it's short for "kids that I babysat"

My niece loves when I affectionately refer to her as my little "niecelet". How about "kidlet".

I work at the University of Minnesota and every semester I train the new student workers in my area. I call them my "Ducklings" and everyone seems to know what I'm saying. These students are under my care, I'm protective and affectionate toward them and they follow me around everywhere! Unfortunately I can't claim to have come up with this; it's from the TV show, House.

It's probably not apropos in this discussion, but in Alcoholics Anonymous, we have sponsors for newcomers, and the old-timers (those who have multiple years of sobriety) frequently call their sponsees "pigeons". Anybody want to call babysitters 'ducks' and their charges 'duckings'?