Unfortunately, there are any number of people who think it's cute, or amusing, or just OK for them to rename people regardless of what the person thinks, as in the woman in my office.

Sorry for having a little freak-out there.

It wasn't a freak-out, you were talking to people you knew would listen. It sounds like the direct approach worked.

Here, watch a baby eat ice cream for the first time. [link]

Unfortunately, there are any number of people who think it's cute, or amusing, or just OK for them to rename people regardless of what the person thinks, as in the woman in my office.

As a serial nick-namer, allow me to say Not OK, Nicknamers Who Don't Take Other People's Preferences Into Account!

I think "Toddy" is cute, but more because I associate it with Robert Preston's character in Victor/Victoria than because I think it suits you!

"There's nothing worse than an old queen with a head cold."

I may use that line myself fairly often, but it is definitely not *our* Toddson.

This may sound like a weird question(especially not close to father's day) but grown daughters, what do you you do with your dads? as you know, my dad and I put the strange in estrangement...just want a sense of what's...normal?expected? Especially since people hear that we have a troubled relationship and think he's extra horrible cause I'm disabled and, he, like doesn't wrap me in bubble wrap, or some shit. Which wouldn't be what I really want but in some ways would beat, you know, "as close to nothing as propriety permits" like I've got now. do you still look to him for advice? Share a hobby?ETA: I had a stepfather, and he used to, you know, give me resume advice and check my computer for updates, but him having a nervous breakdown than pissing off...kind of makes that weirder than I thought at the time.

My dad is super republican. He's also very old and frail. And his hobbies are stamp collecting and baseball. We don't have much to talk about. Mostly the weather, my travels, occasionally news items that aren't going to make us fight....we aren't close. But we never were growing up, either. So...yeah.

My dad and I have dinner together once a month. It took a great deal of hinting to make it happen (he's in my part of town once a month for a meeting, so we'd have, like birthday dinners when he was here anyway. It took a solid year or two of me going, "we COULD do this on months that don't have a special occasion..." to make it become a regular thing). I don't call on him for regular advice, but I'll occasionally call for house stuff. But, I have to commend him, he made a conscious effort to stay in our lives when he left my mom, and tries to still be present. It helps that we're very similar politically, and we're both voracious readers, so we do have things to talk about. But, as my step-sister lives on the other end of the state, and my brother and step-brothers are...men, I think I'm probably the one he's closest to.

Thanks...appreciate reading all the different perspectives...clearly there's a real range.

My dad is a functional alcoholic. Mostly we hang out. We chat, and watch baseball or football.

Dad's mostly deaf, so I only talk to him when I'm visiting my parents, which I don't do as much as I used to because my brother's moved back home. That said, I know Dad lurks on Facebook, so my main interactions now are flipping him shit there and seeing if he says something.

(I'm close to my dad. We just don't talk a lot. I once told him that, for his birthday, I was going to give him the gift of not calling him.)