Parents Should Not Let Kids Address Them as Peers ("Bro") but Insist on Respectful Parental Titles
Source: Eddie Scarry. "Stop Letting Your Kids Call You 'Bro'." October 19, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author says it's not cute when kids call their parents "bro" or "bruh." Kids are not their parents' equals, depend on them for everything, and should show respect through titles like Mom and Dad. Parents should act as parents, not friends.
Conclusion
Parents should not allow their children to address them with peer-level slang like "bro" or "bruh", and should insist on parental and honorific titles, because being a parent rather than a friend is what children need.
Premises
- Addressing elders and parents with peer slang is disrespectful and undermines the people children are supposed to regard most highly.
- Titles like mom, dad, Mr., Mrs., and professor implicitly acknowledge that older people are more experienced, wiser, and deserving of deference, so they are not mere formalities.
- Parents are the authority in the household and the providers of food, clothing, shelter, and luxuries, while children pay no bills and have much to learn, so children are not their parents' peers.
- A parent's role as confidante, consoler, and educator is different from friendship, and a parent's love differs from a friend's because the parent created the child.
- A boy who calls his mother "bruh" will likely show even less regard for other women.
Assumptions
- Forms of address shape or reflect attitudes of respect and deference.
- Age and experience reliably confer wisdom and a claim to deference.
- Financial dependence justifies deference and a hierarchical relationship.
- Casual or humorous slang use by a child necessarily signals disrespect rather than affection.
- Parents cannot be both authoritative and warm or friendly with their children at the same time.
- Habits of speech toward mothers generalize to behavior toward other women.