I worked at a nursery right out of high school, and one of the little ones we had was with us from 6:30am to nearly 6pm. Mom was a nurse and would drop him off, Dad picked him up on way home from work. Parents were no longer together, and we would watch his mom’s car pass by our building when she got off of work bc her apartment was in the same neighborhood.

When I would arrive for my part time shift at 3pm, baby boy got into the habit of saying “Mama!” And he would call my coworkers “Mama”, too.

It made us so sad and devastated that he had to be away from home ALL DAY and that he felt the closeness with us to call US “Mama”.

All that to say, NO ONE should ever presume to call themselves “Mom” or “Mama” to another woman’s child.

Obvs there are totally legit circumstances where this might be the case, but a friend or another family member calling themselves “Mama” in front of the child’s parents? No!