[steven]

Referring to one's self in the third person does happen in Japan, though. I don't know too much about the context of a family-- but I have seen it in that context a few times. Referring to one's self in the third person is actually quite a feminine thing to do. Guys can do it to, but it sounds funny (and if that's your intention then it works). I do it sometimes with my girlfriend, actually.

Sometimes your parents will have nicknames-- as a lot of people have nicknames. I've heard my girlfriend call her dad by his nickname before (what the snack ladies call him), and it was said as well as taken as a joke.

Sashimister is Japanese so that says a lot about this kind of thing. I'm happy that someone agrees with me that Anime is a bad way to learn the language. While you might get some insights on language usage from them, you will also get fantasy, which is what most anime is full of.

As a side note, it may be a regional thing, but I have almost never heard ちち (chichi) or はは (haha) said in actual spoken Japanese. In the handful of times that I have, it's always 父親 (chichioya)... living in the inaka like I do, I may have a biased view on things, but I don't know why they teach such words so early on in Japanese courses. I'm also suprised at the amount of times I've heard people call their parents パパ　and ママ. With that said, I've seen husbands call their wives mama and wives call their husbands papa (or お父さん、お母さん, or whatever they go by). In English, a husband will refer to his wife to his kids as "mom" or a wife will refer to her husband as "dad" to her kids... but I haven't heard a husband calling his wife "mom" or a wife calling her husband "dad" when actually talking to each other too often (I've heard it, but not nearly as much as I've heard it in Japan). I might have made that more complicated than it needs to be, but i hope you get my drift.

Sashimister, I have heard of Americans calling their dads "Sir" before. That's usually when you get busted for something though. (unless you have a super ultra strict dad).