Is your mom a proper noun?

It has become apparent to me lately that people don't know when to capitalize the words "mom" and "dad." This is pretty easy, so it's going to be a short post.

There are basically two ways you can refer to your parents:

My mom likes cookies.
Mom likes cookies.


In the first example, "mom" is a generic title. It's the same as if you said:

My turtle likes to eat flies.
My favorite president is Rutherford B. Hayes.

In the second example, you're using "mom" as if it's her name. Since we generally capitalize people's names, you would also capitalize "mom" when you're substituting it for her name. For example:

Let's bake Mom some cookies!
I'm taking Mom to see "Grindhouse."

Get it? Really, it's not hard. Basically, if the word "mom" or "dad" is preceded by the word "the" or "your" or anything like that, you don't capitalize it. Super easy. Now go tell your mom what you've learned today.