Grammar with 60+ answers. You should only capitalize mom and dad when they are used as a name. Whenever they are preceded by my they should not be capitalized. For example, when writing I love you, Mom, you would capitalize mom because Mom is used as a name. When writing I think my mom is awesome, you wouldn't capitalize mom because in that case mom is used as just a word to describe a familial relationship, and it's not being used as a name. One rule of thumb is that if you can replace mom with an actual name and it still makes sense, then you should capitalize.