Why I Call Him "The Boy"

One of my silly pet peeves is when people refer to their children as "the baby." Once I was talking to a friend who said "blah blah blah...and I had the baby with me." So I said, "What baby?" And she said the name of her son. 

Her son happened to be ten at the time. I get it, he's her only child but still, there comes a time when The Baby grows up. 

I knew I didn't want to be the parent who referred to their baby as The Baby for life. So from the moment he was born, we started calling him The Boy. 

(Also, because The Husbands father calls him "Boy" all the time. And I think it's endearing that my 70 something father in law calls his son Boy. He'll call up and and "How's my boy doing?") 

When The Husband calls or walks in from work, he'll ask: How's The Boy or What's The Boy up to?

Surprisingly people ask why I refer to my son as "The Boy." The other day it came up and the person said it sounded mean. That bothered me a little.  

His name is Norrin. I refer to him as Norrin when I write for Parents, Babble or any other venue. So no, I don't refer to Norrin as The Boy to protect his privacy.

When I first started blogging here, I did refer to him as Norrin. And then I wrote a blog post referring to him as The Boy. Because that's how we almost always refer to him. And it just stuck. 

I refer to my husband, as The Husband just because I blog about him so sporadically it's just easier. But his name is Joseph. And on one of our first date, I tried to call him Joey - which he did not like. And he doesn't like Joe. It's just Joseph. Or Cheo if you're family. But I don't call him that either.

I wish there was some better reasoning behind it. But there isn't.

And when people ask me about The Baby? I immediately ask what baby.