A mom of three has recorded the poignant moment when her toddler asked her to stop calling him by a nickname.
During the TikTok video, Brandee Mulligan, 39, from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, can be seen sitting in the car with her three-and-a-half-year-old son, Mayer, in the back. She begins a conversation by calling him, "Babers." He responds "what?" then quickly says, "No, I Mayer."
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Mulligan captioned the clip: "Milestones are especially hard when you know they're the last." She elaborated on the emotional moment in an interview with Newsweek, revealing the nickname "Babers" originated from her mother-in-law and stuck uniquely to Mayer.
Holding back the tears, Mulligan said: "It was kind of like being hit with the realization that this stage of our parenting journey is coming to an end and it's just bittersweet."
She points out that it was only two months ago when he would only respond to Babers. "So when he recently corrected me, it just felt like a big thing that he was letting us know that he wants to be a big boy," she said.
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This moment was a significant realization for Mulligan, signaling the end of a cherished stage in her parenting journey. She told Newsweek: "I love watching our kids grow and turn into their own person, but it's still sad when you realize you won't always be one of the few people in this entire world who understands what your kid is saying because no one else can understand their specific toddler talk."
Mulligan's reflections will resonate with many parents who've experienced similar feelings as their children grow. The transitions from baby to toddler, and then to an independent child, are filled with moments that are both joyful and heart-wrenching. These milestones are often celebrated but also mourned as they signify the end of a phase in a child's development and in the parents' journey.
"The baby-toddler years were my favorite," Mulligan continued. "I said in my post about how people say 'you don't know it's your last time carrying your toddler until basically time has passed and you realize you don't carry your kid anymore.'"
Despite Mayer's assertion of his real name, Mulligan admits she still occasionally calls him "Babers" out of habit.
She told Newsweek: "I have tried a couple more times to see if it'd stick, and he catches it and tells us he's Mayer, not Babers. So now it's Mayer, because even though he is my baby, he is a big boy and that's his name."
The video attracted comments from other parents who could relate.
One user said: "The day my little boy wouldn't answer to his name so we had to call him home w/ 'Babycakes!' was the last day..."
"My girl is two and will only refer herself as baby when someone asks (she does respond to her name meadow tho) I'm gonna cry when she doesn't want to be called baby anymore," said another user.
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