Is it weird to constantly refer to your sibling not by name?

In terms of annoying habits, this one seems pretty mild. We can always find something in our partner that gets on our nerves. There is no rational explanation just as there is none for the things that you do that irritate him.

One man’s “weird’ is another’s “completely sensible.”

lol would it be annoying to you? I bet if I started saying “my boyfriend” constantly to his family they’d think it’s weird haha
I have three older sisters. Maybe I should drive him crazy and start saying “my sister ah blah” and have him not know who

Maybe he won’t give a flying fig? Better to ask yourself why you are so annoyed?

Turn it into a joke. Use a silly retort. “Do you have some sisters whom I don’t know about?”

My partners and I irritated each other in many ways. It’s human nature. One of my husbands used to bite a nail and then chew it for an hour or so. Whenever he spoke, I used to see the nail sliver in his mouth. He did this only in private, agreed that I had a right to find it off-putting but never changed.

It’s annoying to me because you refer to someone by “my” when you don’t know that person well. Lol it’s annoying when he says my sis just cuz I never know which

I find using “cuz” rather than “because” annoying. I also find “Lol’ irritating.

I’m just saying it makes me feel like I’m a stranger to the family when they do that. Like I said it’s like “Which sister are you talking about”

I use my sister all the time. I use both equally I think, her name and my sister when talking about her. When I talk to my parents I never say my sister, I would always use her name.

My exboyfriend’s family used to say my sister or my parents when he was talking to his siblings, now that I thought was weird. For instance, he would say to his brother, “my mom isn’t going to the party.” They both have the same mom. I would just say, “mommy isn’t going to the party,” if I was talking to my sister. Maybe I would throw “our” in front of mommy, depending on the exact sentence.

It sounds more like a culture thing to me.
My partner is East Indian (Hindu) and her sisters never call her by her name. They call her Jiji…which is a term of respect for an elder sister. They also call their brother Bhia (sp?) which means brother…never his name. They use other titles for parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins as well. It is the equivalent of what you are saying. However, it does not sound odd to me because they aren’t using the English terms.

It would annoy me. Yes, you should just start referring to “your sister” without explaining which one. Do it right after he tells you something regarding his sister. “Yeah, my sister did that once too!” Works on my husband. He used to think it was cute to come up behind me and grab my boobs. He didn’t get why I found it so annoying. I finally started grabbing his balls, giggling. He finally stopped.

@Plucky…but it sounds like they’re still specifying who they’re referring to. Like, Gramma or Aunt or whatever.

I don’t know what some people’s problem with communication is. My husband tells stories that involve 2 or more people and he only uses pronouns, without giving a clue as to when he’s changing from one person to the next. It’s VERY confusing. “Yeah, I saw Jim and Mark and Fred today and he said yadda yadda yadda, and then HE said, blah blah blah and then he said ya ya ya and then we all laughed. THEN he said blah blah blah about him and he said, “Oh really? I really need to ask him about that.” WHAT????

Can you believe what the Jelly said the other day????

I don’t know if it’s weird, or maybe more unusual in one culture than another, but I do hear a lot of people referred to by relationship rather than name. It bothers me, for instance, when someone makes an introduction by saying “This is my mom” or “This is my fiance” and never mentions a name at all. I’d like to be told both first and last name, especially when the person is a guest in my house.

The question reminds me of a former friend of mine who used to refer to “my daughter Linda” and “my younger daughter Alice.” It was never “my older daughter Linda” or ever just plain “my daughter Alice.” The emphasized “younger” stood in for what she wasn’t saying, namely, “my adopted daughter Alice.” Even though she didn’t mention “adopted” every time she referred to the younger girl, she always made that verbal distinction between her natural daughter and the one who was really her niece.

Jeruba, using relationship names is fine unless you have more than one person that you can list under that relationship name. My Mom, for example, is fine. But when you have 5 sisters and you say, “My sister went to the store,” how are you supposed to know which sister the person is referring to?

I agree. I hate it when people single out their adopted kids for some sort of “disclaimer” introduction. I just hate it.

@Jeruba I would consider an introduction different than if we were having a conversation and I mentioned my sister. I have an extremely popular name, if my sister is talking with someone and she only mentions my name, the person she is speaking to probably knows at least 5 people with my name. If she says, “my sister,” then the other person would know exactly who she is talking about. But, we don’t have any other siblings, just us two.

I don’t see how younger is synonomous with adopted?

I call my (only) brother Bro, because he was named after our dad (and his dad before him) and prefers it. Although it can cause a little confusion when I forget to use his proper name when talking with others; more than once, someone’s asked “So how’s your brother Beau?”

My wife does this regarding her aunts and uncles – and they are legion. We’re probably talking ten of each.

She’ll say, “My aunt called”.
Me: “Which aunt?”
Her: “Adelle.”
And then we move on with the story.

This has been our schtick for twenty-five years. I say embrace it.

There is that @chelle21689. Just ask “Which one?”