My stepsister had a baby this week. So my dad called to give me the news and was trying to figure out what my relation to this baby might be. After several guesses, I just blurted out "he would be my step-nephew. I'd be the step-aunt."

To which I got a stern conversation about using the word "step" and that "we're" all family and "we" apparently don't use the "step" word anymore. For example, he went on to explain, when (my wife) and I sign cards to the kids, we sign it "Love Mom and Dad," not something like "Mom and (my name here)."

Now look. I know I'm being a bit of a whiny brat about this, but the fact that my dad refers to himself as "Dad" to anyone other than me, makes me feel like a little peice of me just got chopped off.