What happened to calling anybody "sweetie" or "darling"?

Are you British? Or American?

Times change, breh. You just have to be chill about it. People think of sick new terms and they replace the wack ones.

Also dude and bro most likely come from Cali, where Hollywood is. We do anything Hollywood does. Back in the day Hollywood probably did baby, sugar pie, and darling. Culture has much to do with it as well, which means in many areas you can still find it.

No wait I got it. Kids follow Hollywood (dude and bro), spread it to more kids. Then there’s the parents who want to do all the cool things the kids are doing, and they spread it to adults. More and more adults start using the new terms, and boom you don’t hear the old ones anymore.

Waitresses, store clerks etc… still talk like all the time here in Tennessee. It never insults me.

i still say those things

I still do it sugar pie!! Servers in diners here in Jersey always call people “hun” at least once during every visit.

I dig it when a waitress calls me “honey.” I get all googly inside.

Oh booboo nuts, terms of endearment are alive and well in casa gimme. I love to put a special pick’em up on them though, and I throw out cupcake face, muffin head, doodlebop, huns buns badoodle duns, booboo nuts, and sweetie petey bo deety. I am all about terms of endearment, and will often call friends honey, sugar, sweetie, etc. I love it!! Makes me feel all happy!

A waitress over 35 can call me “hon” anytime. A 22-year-old waiter had better not try it.

Oh, I remember some others: honey bunny budarundy, sweetpea badeedlebee, loverly darling, and hot fudge angel kisses. Ahhh yeah, I’m on a roll.

I call my female friends (some of them, anyway) “hon” and “dear” all the time. One of my male friends and I jokingly call each other “baby” on a regular basis.

The waitress at the restaurant tonight kept calling me “sweetie” and “honey” and “darling” throughout my meal. Cute the first time, annoying the rest. I can only guess she was hoping it would somehow increase her tip.

Here in West Virginia, even the men have not heard that they shouldn’t call me sweetie.

I use sugar, sweet pea, lovebug, lambie, honey-bunny all the time with my children’s friends.

I refer to women as “hon” and older women as “dear” or “m’am” all the time.

Older men: “sir”
Younger men: “slappy” or “chuckles”
Children: “munchkin”

All the time. I’ve yet to be corrected.

@gimmedat: “booboo nuts” sounds painful.

Lurve for slappy and chuckles, Sugar!

I call my SO all sorts of things! Babe, babe, my love, dear, sweet heart, sweetie, sugar nipples, love muffin,... You get the picture.

For my son!! Ha, oh me, oh my…- vida mia, honey bunny, sweet pea, turkey goblin (this one came from one of his aunt, as well as the next one), sugar love, baby boy, boombala, stink, boo boo, boom, sir stinks a lot, and different variations of his name, Xander… Xanman, X-man, Salaxander…. Yeah, i’m weird.

Some of us lived through a period when feminists got prickly about how people could call women baby-names, e.g. all the stuff quoted above (with the probable exception of “booboo nuts”). We started asking people to address us as “ma’am”, “you”, “your excellency”, “mi generala” and other appropriate honorifics. Now that people think of women as human on a regular basis, it seems a little silly – but there was a time when it was pretty serious.
Back to you, bunnykins.

Oh yeah, I know. But booboo nuts has really found its way into my lexicon. My boys cringe everytime I say it, but it seriously slips out. Even Max, the ferocious dog, knows when I say, “Booboo nuts, let’s take a walk,” in that very special dog charming way, I mean business.

@krose1223: Not weird at all. In fact, if we’re talking immediate family…

My wife is “ducky” or “Rosarama”.

My daughter is “the boopachetta”.

I’d have go agree with buster. Here in Tennessee, an assload of people use to those terms. I’m included in that group.

The old broads at the gas station near my house always use at least one of those terms with me. It’s fine. It makes me feel good. Sometimes I’m even called Sweetie-Child but only if it’s a real old lady.

Bodyhead Sweetie-child
You know that I love you
I can’t help myself
I love you-ou and nobody else….

My pizza pie slice guy always says, “Have a nice day, dear” when I leave. I love it.

i think it’s so cute. i went to a restaurant the other day, and the waiter was this really nice older man, and he was like, “you’re welcome bella” and i was just like ~swoon.
i love when random people use cute names like that, i think it’s really sweet.

My favorite is boobaloo, but I’m not allowed to tell you why!!

I was just called “sugar nipples” via text by my “babygirl”
...luv that stuff

Remember “Flo” the loud, OLD, obnoxious waitress that worked at Mel’s on that old 70’s TV show, “ALICE”? Well, she is the spokesperson for the OLD, OUT OF TOUCH, Women that continue to use these terms: Sweetheart, Honey, Darling, Sugar, etc.

I find that OLD women use these terms the most. And by “old”, I mean those in their 60’s!

My mother is 72, uses these terms and still wears dresses, gawdy jewelery, high heels, fake nails and the perfume of the elders, Channel, which is cool and all, but MY SISTER is only 45 and dresses, smells and talks like an old lady, but wonders why she cant find a desent suitor! Get with it Sis! Aint no man gonna want to date a woman that dresses, and smells like his mama and calls strangers “Sweetheart”, “Honey”, “Darlin’” etc., Thats just sicko!

In all fairness to my sister, I will say that she was born in Brazil and came here to the US when she was 19, so she tried to assimilate by using terms of the “classy & friendly” women she saw in the movies. Unfortunatly, those movies were made in the 50’s.

Question: How do I tell my sister this? Nobody ever told her this because she hangs out with a bunch of Brazilians and this is more of a cultural thing, so how do I say it?