One of the first Valentine’s Days that my hubby and I spent together he bought me this sleep shirt that had huge red hearts on it and the front was filled with endearments – sweetheart, pumpkin, sweetie, baby, honey, dumpling, etc. We had a fun time making up our own pet names combining some of the names on the shirt.  Eventually our favorite combo was Precious Pumpkin Butt (no I don’t think butt was on the shirt but we couldn’t resist adding it!).  That was 18 or 19 years ago and to this day we still sometimes sign cards to each other “Your P.P.B.”.  We don’t actually call each other the name – ever.  Do we have pet names for each other other than the joke one?  Kind of.  Sometimes I call him baby – sometimes hey you, (lol) but mostly I just call him by his name.

So what brought this up?  Lately I’ve read some books where pet names have been included and frankly the ones they use have annoyed me.

“Petal” was one that was used recently and I couldn’t help roll my eyes every time I read it – which was frequent.  Maybe it bugged me because he’d met the woman 10 minutes prior to giving her the name and he had no clue what her name was or anything about her? IDK, but once he learned her name the pet name continued.

Yesterday I read a book where the man was calling the girl “little heart”.  I’m sorry – why would you want to call the woman you love something that brings to mind The Grinch?  I don’t think I’d like to be known as little heart – I’ve got a big one dammit! lol

When I was at Holly’s recently Lori reminded us of a book where the heroine was called “little flower” constantly.  Why?  Why do you insist on calling her that?  Do you hate the woman’s name? Did you forget what her real name was? lol 

Pet names don’t always irritate me.  I guess it all comes down to the appeal of the pet name in the story, how often it’s used and the why behind the name in the first place.  I absolutely need an explanation of why you’re calling your man or woman that name.