What If Your Kid Calls You By Your First Name?

"I work too hard to be merely referred to as Jenny!" Ego or not?

Yesterday, when I picked Isabel up from school she asked the teacher if "Jenny" could come into the classroom to see her art project. Her teacher said," Oh, do you have a visitor today?" I explained that I was the Jenny she was referring to...there was some awkward laughter on both our parts as I quickly assured her use of such noun was just a phase. Thing is I am not sure if it is a phase. Isabel has been calling Valentino...well Valentino for well over a year. It happened innocently enough one day she just called him by his first name and it stuck. It never bothered him...it does however bother others. "How come she calls him Valentino?" "Oh my that would never happen in our family." Are common replies people offer when they hear her call him by his first name. It is almost as if calling him Valentino is showing a lack of love or bond...as if the title Papa or Daddy gives confirmation of such a bond. I have attributed the use of noun to an Italian family tradition. Valentino has been calling his father Diego since he was young. All of his immediate family (he has two sisters and one brother) call his father Diego. When I asked him why they call him Diego he can offer up no more explanation than "Well...that's his name." I guess that's sufficient. His father like Valentino is loving and caring...so no further inquiry is needed I suppose??

So back to the question at hand...Isabel has begun to call me Jenny. Do I share the same sentiment as Valentino...NO WAY! Over the past year she has called me "Mom" good, "Mommy" cute and good,  "Mama Jenny," strange but ok, and "Jenny" not so good. Call me traditional, but I work too  hard to be referred to as plain old Jenny!  When she calls me "Jenny" I respond...who's Jenny? Then she corrects herself. So I need some advice. Should I be concerned? I know she loves me and knows I am her Mom. Is this my ego talking? I know there are worst things she could call me, but those titles, I assume, will have to wait until she is a teenager!

Me, Kelly, and MOM!...We would have NEVER thought to call her Donna.