My parents are both divorced and remarried (ish), both late in life-- I was nineteen when they divorced and they're just now getting engaged/remarried. I address their significant others by their first names, and in the third person I tend to refer to them as "my stepfather" and "my honorary stepmother" (the honorary to be dropped when they get married). However, when the relationships were first starting up, they were "my mom's boyfriend" and "my dad's girlfriend." I had no personal engagement with either one.
There's also my cousins. The eldest one has a different father than the younger two, so she refers to their father by his first name, and their mom as "Mom." However, the younger two use both their parents' first names, because their older sister was referring to their father by his first name, so of course they did too, and then realized that wasn't fair so now they call their mom by her first name too. IDK, my cousins are strange.
Anyway, the level of personal engagement might be the key. Someone raised entirely by a stepparent might refer to that parent simply as "Mom" or "Dad." Someone who's just met their stepparent might refer to them as "my parent's spouse." IDK if that helps.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 07:22 am (UTC)There's also my cousins. The eldest one has a different father than the younger two, so she refers to their father by his first name, and their mom as "Mom." However, the younger two use both their parents' first names, because their older sister was referring to their father by his first name, so of course they did too, and then realized that wasn't fair so now they call their mom by her first name too. IDK, my cousins are strange.
Anyway, the level of personal engagement might be the key. Someone raised entirely by a stepparent might refer to that parent simply as "Mom" or "Dad." Someone who's just met their stepparent might refer to them as "my parent's spouse." IDK if that helps.