How do parents say "I" when talking to their children in Japanese?


When a parent is talking to their child in Japanese, what are the common ways
of saying "I"? I've often heard parents refer to themselves in the 3rd person,
ie お母さんについてきて ("come with me"), お父さんの車を洗って ("wash my car"). Is this the most
common approach? To me, it would sound strange if a parent referred to
themselves as 私、僕、俺, etc using the usual 1st-person pronouns. On the other
hand, repeatedly using the 3rd-person お母さん and お父さん could be clumsy if you
keep having to say "I". When the child is young, I've heard them saying ママ or
パパ, but that might sound childish if the child is in their teens or 20s, for
example.

So, what is an appropriate way for parents to say "I" when they are talking to
their children? And how does that change according to the age of the child?

**EDIT:** Also, are there ways of referring to themselves which would be
considered inappropriate? For example, would a father call himself 俺 when
talking with a teenager (or older) child? What would be considered unnatural?




お母さん/お父さん and ママ/パパ are the common "first-person" pronouns at least when a
child is small. See also: [When referring to herself, is there any pronoun
other than お母さん when speaking to her
children?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/25947/5010)

It's easy to find surveys on _second-person_ usages of ママ/etc (for example
[this](https://benesse.jp/kyouiku/201002/20100225-1.html) and
[this](https://www.excite.co.jp/news/article/Mycom_freshers__gmd_articles_33354/)),
but I could not find a survey directly on _first-person_ ママ/etc. From my
understanding, ママ/パパ is the most common first-person pronoun when a child is
very small, and it will be gradually replaced by 俺/わたし/父さん/お母さん/etc. Many
parents keep using first-person ママ/お父さん/etc even after their children become
adults. I am in my thirties and my mother still calls herself お母さん when she
talks with me over the phone.

> repeatedly using the 3rd-person お母さん and お父さん could be clumsy if you keep
> having to say "I".

Repeatedly using _any_ person pronoun is clumsy in Japanese. As you probably
know, Japanese is not a language that makes you use the same person pronouns
many times. The majority of conversations with a child are done with no person
pronouns, and you almost never have to say お母さん repeatedly.




お母さん/お父さん and ママ/パパ are the common "first-person" pronouns at least when a
child is small. See also: [When referring to herself, is there any pronoun
other than お母さん when speaking to her
children?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/25947/5010)

It's easy to find surveys on _second-person_ usages of ママ/etc (for example
[this](https://benesse.jp/kyouiku/201002/20100225-1.html) and
[this](https://www.excite.co.jp/news/article/Mycom_freshers__gmd_articles_33354/)),
but I could not find a survey directly on _first-person_ ママ/etc. From my
understanding, ママ/パパ is the most common first-person pronoun when a child is
very small, and it will be gradually replaced by 俺/わたし/父さん/お母さん/etc. Many
parents keep using first-person ママ/お父さん/etc even after their children become
adults. I am in my thirties and my mother still calls herself お母さん when she
talks with me over the phone.

> repeatedly using the 3rd-person お母さん and お父さん could be clumsy if you keep
> having to say "I".

Repeatedly using _any_ person pronoun is clumsy in Japanese. As you probably
know, Japanese is not a language that makes you use the same person pronouns
many times. The majority of conversations with a child are done with no person
pronouns, and you almost never have to say お母さん repeatedly.

