“Whatever, Michael!” is a phrase that Farrah Abraham has been saying to her father ever since she was a knocked-up teen on MTV’s 16 and Pregnant. Years later, the Teen Mom OG star continues to call her father, Michael Abraham, by his first name.
Now that Farrah, Michael and Farrah’s mother, Debra Danielsen, are starring together on Marriage Boot Camp Reality Stars: Family Edition, a new fan base is getting to know them…and wondering why Farrah refuses to call Michael “Dad.”
In a Facebook Live interview with Best Products, Debra revealed the reason that Farrah and Michael are on a first-name basis. It’s all a matter of culture, apparently…
“In our family that’s not a big deal because a lot of my relatives on my dad’s side are from Denmark,” Deb explained. “We’re only second generation in the United States. I [grew up] hearing my dad call his parents [by their first names]. It’s just a thing. I don’t know for all Danes but for them and everyone on their side of their family, everybody calls everybody by their first names.
“It’s a sign of respect,” Debra said, adding that she doesn’t allow Farrah to ‘respect’ her in that way.
“When she tries to pull that on me though I’m like, ‘No, I’m your mother!’” Deb said.
This is just the latest explanation from the Abraham family as to why Farrah calls her father Michael. Years ago, Farrah gave a few different answers when she was asked about the name situation.
In 2010, she claimed that she did it so that her sister, Ashley, didn’t feel bad growing up, since Michael is not Ashley’s biological father.
“I have a sister and we have different dads, so in all fairness to my sister I call my dad Michael just like she does and everyone else in my family,” she told SheFinds. “It works out fairly this way in my family. I do call my dad ‘Dad’ sometimes. If others look at this as a disrespectful thing then you can talk to my mom about it. I never started it, I was taught to do it this way.”
Later that year, Farrah had a totally different explanation for calling her father by her first name. She claims that she lost respect for him after he took Debra’s side during their knock-out-drag-out fight back in 2010.
“Because I felt like he betrayed me for being on my mom’s side when she assaulted me,” Farrah said at the time, adding, “but I eventually got over it. I call him dad now.”
(Photo: WEtv)
36 Responses
My husband’s family is Danish, his grandmother is 1st generation in the US. This is NOT their culture, promise!
Farrah is a disillusioned uneducated moron
With the no vocabulary or conversational skills
It’s not normal it’s rude disrespectful ignorant
I just have 1 question/comnent. When is someone/anyone going to knock Farrah’s teeth out of her mouth and knock her on her behind? It’s very hard for me to believe that she just walks around in public and no one has knocked her down.
Oh I’d happily slap her silly
what a bunch of wackadoos….the more Deb talks, the more I see why Farrah is the way that she is. Before I thought Deb was this poor victim that always got verbally attacked by her wretched daughter(s)….now i see that she’s bat shit crazy, and her crazy just rubbed off on Farrah.
I’m far from a Farrah supporter so I offer this merely as a personal perspective–I refer to my father by his first name. To his face, at home, I always call him dad, but when I started working for him, he instructed me to never call him dad at work. I was and am to only use his first name. That habit has extended past business hours. It’s actually not uncommon in my community for children to refer to their parents by their first name. It may seem disrespectful but I know I deeply respect my dad. One of the ways I show that respect is by complying with his name-reference preferences.
Farrah is just bat shit crazy.
I worked with my dad too, but it was a family business so everyone knew he was Dad. However, if it wasn’t the family business, I know my dad would have had me do the same.
However, I never said it growing up and never with such disdain – when she says it she has that sour look on her face like she figured out she was being fed Drano and she’s spitting it out.
Yo, Debz – if it is a sign of respect, why are you appalled when she calls you by your first name?
Is it because:
A. It is not really a form of respect, you are just following form and speaking out of your Forever 21-clad behind.
B. It is not really a form of respect, you are desperately trying to distance yourself from the fact that you, ma’am, raised that little Hellbeast.
C. It is not really a form of respect, you are trying to extend your 15 minutes of fame into 16 or 17 minutes.
D. It is not really a form of respect, and all of the above.
I don’t know about y’all, but my money is on D. And that it is not really a form of respect.
I can recall Farrah awhile back stating that Michael is her real father but she doesn’t call him Dad because she doesn’t respect him enough. Does anyone else remember that? Not sure if it was part of a regular episode or an after show. Anyway, based on what we know about Farrah, no doubt that’s the real reason. Desperate Deb is always trying to paint her in a more positive light, which is impossible of course, since she couldn’t possibly be more vile.
Yeah I’m pretty sure this was an excuse she have Dr Drouche at one reunion or something.
My neighbors growing up called their Dad by his first name. They have an older sister who has another Dad and they started calling him Windle when they were little because that’s what their sister called him. When the oldest was around 12 she asked to call him Dad instead of Windle because her father wasn’t around and he did everything for her. All the kids started calling him Dad after that. I also know a girl who always called her step-dad Dad because his kids called him Dad. Personally, I don’t think Ashley has any sort of relationship with any of them.. with reason..
Also, I’ve never heard about it’s a danish thing to call your parents thing by first name out of respect … I call bullshit
I’m Danish, calling your parents by first name is not normal here .. Christ
Usually, Danish women are very attractive. Debra looks like she was rode hard and put away wet!
Lol
Breaking news: Farrah Abraham and her entire family are delusional. Likely, there is no reason for her calling him Michael other than she just wants to. This is just another chance for their to be a “story” about her life.
She is the definition of mentally ill. She is one sick pup!
When kids call their parents by their first names, they are placing themselves on their parents level and that is unnatural and leads to all sorts of problems. They were the adults and she the child but obviously she got confused and now they have a disrespectful, entitled BRAT for a daughter!
It’s a sin to call your parent by their given names, one of the very worst ones. If I had ever called my mother Maria Teresa Evangelina she would have slapped my face harder than the polished steel gates of hell. Farrah needs to ask forgiveness, if it isn’t already too late. Her parents also, they appear to be acting in complicity. It’s an abomination.
A sin?Slapping your child THAT’S a SIN!
Debra and Michael should have slapped Farrah A LOT more when she was growing up. That girl was out of control since day 1 and treat her parents like sh*t!!!
And what would hitting her have taught her? About herself, her parents and their relationships?
The last time Debra slapped her cause she was a brat, Deb ended up bruised and convicted.
That is one of the problems with slapping your child to teach it to obey and respect you, that method won’t work when they get older, they will start to hit back or won’t accept it anymore. And than sh can seriously hit the fan.
There are better ways.
Yeah, calling your parents by their first names sounds way worse than slapping your kid in the face as hard as you can. Just another reason why religion is so awesome!
I believe that Farrah likely does this because it is what she was taught growing up, then as she grew older she applied rationalization to her behavior. My older brother has always called my parents by their first names. When I asked my mother why she said it was because they were so naive as new parents they didn’t realize to call each other mom and dad in front of him. Later, a relative told me the real reason is that they were trying to treat him like a little adult so he would be mature, or something incredibly developmentally unsound of that nature. If this was happening in Debra’s family for generations without giving the matter of thought (so much so that she thought it a cultural norm!) well it wouldn’t surprise me… As a parent it would feel incredibly unnatural to teach my kids to call my husband and I by name. That relationship, that bond is unique, it would be a pity to forgo the language of the family.
My point is that this has less to do with Farrah’s lack of emotional depth, spitefullness, etc. but points some clear arrows to where some of that may have originated from.
Uh, no – I’m a second generation in the US from Danes as well, and I have never heard of this. Most of my family is still in Denmark, and none of them call their parents by their first names – mom is “mor” and dad is “far.” Debra is just being crazy, again….
I had assumed for a while Farrah called him Michael because he wasn’t her father. Hearing her sister reason doesn’t make that much sense to me just because I grew up with Step Sisters too. Both called my dad by his first name, but it never occurred to me to not call him “Dad”. That’s who he was to me. Surely Deb didn’t teach Farrah to say “Michael” and “Debra” for her first words.
This family needs some real counseling, off camera, and Farrah needs to stop messing with her face.
Bullshit, Farrah.
That would be horseshit!! Horse face!! A lot of horse analogies!! I could go on and on…lol but def bullshit every time that chick opens her mouth!!
Um I’m Danish and I do not call my parents by their first names….nor they do they call their parents by their first names. It’s not a thing.
Admittedly I call my mother by her first name a lot. I started doing it when I was young because I’m one of 4 kids and she stopped responding to mom since she heard it non stop. So I started using her first name instead. It has nothing to do with a lack of respect and everything to do with my moms selective hearing
My dad is my “Dad”, unless we’re in public and I need to get his attention. He doesn’t have a common name, so I know he’ll respond pretty quick compared to the million “dad” calls he gets ?
I’m the youngest of 5 and not one of us called our mom by her first name, that’s downright disrespectful
Let’s discuss why Farrah, besides the hideous plastic…looks nothing like either deb or michael
She calls him “Michael” because it’s a highly dysfunctional family and each and every single level.
*”ON (not “and”) each and every single level”