Words carry deep meaning, especially the word “mama.”

This woman does not have the best relationship with her MIL. Recently, her 2.5-year-old son started calling her MIL “mama”, so strong reactions and feelings arose from this bothered momma.

Read the full story below for more details.

AITA for not wanting my son to call my mother-in-law “momma”?

I (29F) have been with my husband (34M) for 9 years. My relationship with my MIL (let’s call her Cornelia) has never been great.

On the surface, she’s polite and diplomatic,

But she has this way of making little digs at me, always subtle enough that outsiders wouldn’t notice unless they knew me well.

For example, she buys white chocolate as a gift for me, even though she knows that’s my husband’s favorite, not mine.

It sounds small, but it’s these kinds of constant little jabs that build up over the years.

This woman was stunned when her son strted calling her MIL “mama.”

My husband and I now have a 2.5-year-old son. When he was born, Cornelia decided she wanted to be called “MaCo” (short for “Mama Cornelia”) by him.

I didn’t love the idea, but I went along with it because I want my son to have a relationship with his grandmother.

For context, when I was pregnant, she used to call my unborn baby things like “cigarette butt” which I found really hurtful.

Recently, my husband took our son to visit his parents. When they came back, my son suddenly wasn’t calling her MaCo anymore, he was calling her Mama Cornelia.

This really bothers me. To me, there’s only one Momma in his life, and that’s me.

She felt MIL crossed the line.

I don’t want to be petty, but I also feel like she’s crossing a boundary here, maybe even deliberately.

My husband sees where I’m coming from.

But he doesn’t want to rock the boat with his mom.

AITA for not wanting my son to call my MIL “Momma”?

Sorry, but “mama” is already taken.

Let’s read some of the responses of other people.

This one takes her side.

Here’s a good one.

Some useful advice from this one.

Hilarious but fair.

People are calling out the husband.

“Mama” is reserved for the one and only mom.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.