Urban dads in New York are trying to shake off the shackles of the past by being known as “Papa” over “Dad” or “Daddy”.
The new Brooklyn “papa” trend may have started with youthful grandmothers refusing to be called traditional names.
Former “Nans” have swapped Gran for Gogi, Glam-ma, Gummy, GeeMa, Godget, Foxy and Glammy.
Or perhaps it was the rise of “Mama”, which replaced boring old “Mum” in mainstream families around the globe.
“On any given Sunday in a gentrified Brooklyn coffee shop, there are just as many white, upper-middle class ‘papas’ in their thirties and forties—many of them bearded and tattooed—as there are white, upper-middle class dads,” writes Lizzie Crocker in The Daily Beast.
The on-trend Brooklyn hipster dads are looking for unique ways to describe their role. (Post continues after gallery.)
“I just think ‘dad’ and ‘mom’ are very Saved by the Bell-ish,” Will Grose told The Daily Beast.
The 36-year-old father of three said about half the children in his four-year-old’s preschool will be called “papa”.
“I don’t know if my wife and I explicitly made decisions about what we were going to call ourselves,” he said.
“Maybe there’s some by proxy indoctrination that happens so that you just end up doing what everyone else is doing.”
Welcome parents to the sticky world of This Glorious Mess. Post continues after podcast.
Parenting author Armin Brott told The Daily Beast the name Papa could be representative of “a general leaning towards wanting to be your child’s friend as opposed to having a more hierarchical relationship”.
“‘Papa’ is a little hipper, a little more familiar and friendlier than ‘dad,’” Brott said.
After a quick poll in the Mamamia office, it seems the trend is not quite mainstream in Australia yet.
But the anecdotes of Brooklyn dads looking for cooler alternatives means it could hit our shores any day now.
Creative grandmother names are already prevalent in my big suburban family – we obviously need a papa to catch up.
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