Hey there Honey....

a wise band once said

Honey
Doot Doot, Doot Doot, Doot Doot
Ah, Sugar, Sugar
Doot Doot, Doot Doot, Doot Doot

I'm mixed on it. My mother called me honey, which was and is dear to me in memory.

With what I think of as overuse, since I'm not from the south of the u.s., I'll just say it's cultural, and don't mind it at all. Well, maybe a little. If I moved to the south, this might be a matter that would turn me suicidal.

I have heard the usage by grownups as manipulatory sometimes, which bugs me. I have a thing about manipulation.

If used genuinely romantically, good word.

It can be used and taken condescendingly like "son," "boy," "pal" or "bud".

In the Spanish Southwest some people have the habit of calling people mijo or mija, "my son" or "my daughter." They usually mean it endearingly, but it comes across as condescending and patronizing.

Well babe, I don't use the word or term honey. It just never caught on with me babe. (actually I don't use Babe for too many, that's reserved for my closest pals). I've been known to use the terms love and sweets and sugar, never honey. I have a few times said "hon".

And now for our required musical interlude because Honey always brings back Martha and the Vandellas.

Are you referring to when I called that woman honey, when she was upset her husband went to see the new grandbaby?

My boss used to say mijo and mija. He was japanese american raised with/around braceros.. I knew from his tone and general behavior that he wasn't being condescending. But, I get your point.

My business partner (Texas) called dear ones sweets - I'd not heard that before. It never rankled, since she didn't use it to tool people.

I use it as a gentle form of affection, means I like the person and think they're nice, sweet.

Really?

I've been called that, even by people my age, and I'm a gringa.
It's always made me feel good, like they were embracing me into something they don't say to everyone.

I think it's cute when a mexican mother calls her little girl "mama"

"mama come over here, I've got some popcorn for you."

Nods.

It's all in the tone .

I have a soft spot for the word 'babe'. Undoubtedly because of folks who called me that endearingly.

I almost remember the word 'doll', popular in the fifties. I think I was only called that once, by the thirty four year old film editor I had a huge crush on, when I was seventeen. (We were part of a film crew, but never mind.) He treated me appropriately. The good news is that my huge crush rendered my entering the convent novitiate moot.

My friends and I call each other honey all the time.

Well, see, you're southern...

; )

HEHE, Well I am now since moving to Florida

I use the word Babe with people I care very very deeply for, it goes a level or three deeper than Sweets.


I don't know that I've ever used Doll, although I have been addressed with it as in "Be a doll and get...." or "Be a doll and find..."

Oy, you coulda been a nun, there's still time. (I say this because of a friend who suggested I could go into some religious order even at my age. The idea was tempting for a short time and had been suggested years earlier by a slightly crazy man in Santa Fe....'we can go to Rome and become monks.' apparently the beard and long hair just scream prelate).

It was a close call, as I was signed up, but.. it wouldn't have lasted.
Beard and long hair, I'm thinking more eastern than Rome.

I used "Hon" a lot when I was in the psychiatrists' office calming people down, "Don't you worry, hon, we'll get you in" type of thing. They could have been older than me but who knew? Like dlowan said, it's all in the tone. If it's meant well, it's usually taken well. And that goes for practically any other term of 'endearment', even 'bitch'. See, I could see calling chai and shewolf 'bitch' in an endearing kind of way. Don't know that I'd call them 'hon', but 'bitch', yeah, can see that.

I've never called anyone honey, baby, babe, sweetheart, etc. My father called me baby and referred to me as kid. I liked that. Won't tell you the nicknames my mother had for me. But I liked them.

When I talk to Diane on the phone, she calls me sweetie. I like that.

Sometimes hispanic people call me mommy. I like that.

When I was younger and a man I didn't know called me honey or baby or some other similar term of endearment, I did not like it.

If I like somebody, at some point I'll probably call them "kid."