Mom ‘n ‘em (Mom an’ ‘em)

“Mom ‘n ‘em” (or “mom an’ ‘em,” also hyphenated as “mom-n-em” or “mom-an-em”) means “mom and them,” usually used as a greeting meaning “How’s your mother and the rest of your family?” The term probably began life as a simple “How’s your mom ‘n’ dad (and the kids)?”
 
“Mom ‘n ‘em” is popular throughout Texas, Louisiana and other parts of the South. The term is cited since at least 1990, but the origin is unknown.
 
     
Twenty Simple Rules of Life in Texas
6. “Mom’n'em” is not one person. When someone asks, “How’s your Mom’n'em?” They are referring to the whole family.
 
Advice for Newcomers to Texas
34.  “Mom’n'em” is not one person.  When someone asks: “How’s yer Mom’n'em?”, they’re referring to the whole family.
     
TexasEscapes.com
Kopperl, Bosque County, Texas
By Steven Fromholz
I was neither born nor reared in the very small town of Kopperl, Bosque County, Texas, but as we Texans say, “Mom ‘n ‘em were.”
   
Wikipedia: Yat (New Orleans)
Yat refers to a unique collection of dialects of English spoken in New Orleans, Louisiana. The term also refers to those people who speak with a Yat accent. The name comes from the common use amongst said people of the greeting, “Where y’at?” (Where you at?), which is a way of asking, “How are you?” The Yat dialect sounds similar to that of Brooklyn, New York, natives, with influences from Louisiana Creole French and Southern American English, particularly Older Southern American English. While the term Yat is usually reserved specifically for the strongest varieties of the New Orleans dialect within the city, the term often refers specifically to speakers of Yat, outside of the city proper, and around the rest of Louisiana.
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Lexicon
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ya’mom’n'em* - “your mom and them” meaning your family
 
Top 15 Signs That You Are From Alabama
1. You have used the phrases “fixin’ to,” “might could,” “usetacould” or “mom-n-em” during the last twelve months.
   
16 January 1990, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), “Super Boring Bowl: 49ers and Broncos aren’t party animals”:
So where y’at, Niners. How’s ya mom ‘n em, Broncos.
     
Google Groups: alt.smokers.cigars
Newsgroups: alt.smokers.cigars
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Mike Perry)
Date: 1998/08/05
Subject: Re: ASHCAN Thanks
 
With all apologies to Jeff Foxworthy: “Howz yer mom’n'em?”
 
Google Groups: sci.med.transciption
Newsgroups: sci.med.transcription
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Cici in Texas)
Date: 1998/09/11
Subject: Re: The latest at MT Exchange (also posted to MT Daily)
 
Well, in questions like “How y’all been doing?”, that’s right—it’s kinda like the old countrified question, “How’s yer mom’n'em?”
 
Google Books
Grady Baby:
A Year in the Life of Atlanta’s Grady Hospital
Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi
1999
by Jerry Gentry
Pg. 6:
Just like I know my name is Robin because my mom-n-em told me my name was Robin.
 
FBI National Associates, Inc.
April 11, 2001 A.D (Wednesday)
N/A TIMES The first edition of the 205’s N/A TIMES hits the news stands, with a feature story on Dr. Pain.  Flag Night!  Tonight the 205 gathers in the cafeteria to stand under the flag of their state or country to talk to the ‘Baby Agents’ who are in training at the academy.  Tom Columbel supplies the kegs, and a chorus of ‘Howdy’, ‘Hey’, ‘Hi’, ‘Aloha’, ‘Hi Ya’ll’, ‘How Yoo Doin’’ and ‘How’s Yer Mom n’ ‘em’ echo through the room.
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May 3, 2001 A.D (Thursday)
Speech!  Speech!  The five section reps deliver their campaign speeches to the entire 205, followed by an election for session representative.  Bill Maheu from San Diego PD is elected.  During his speech, Bill immortalizes the Mr. Parker -Jimmy Byler encounter as well as Sid Fuller’s favorite greeting:  ‘How’s yer mom n’ ‘em?!’
   
Google Books
A Methodology of the Heart:
Evoking Academic and Daily Life
by Ronald J. Pelias
Walnut Creek, CA: Rowman Altamira Press
2004
Pg. 16:
We did not speak the N’awlins of the Yats, those other people who got their name from the question, “Where are you at?” meaning, of course, “How are you doing?” which should not be confused with “Hw’s ya Mom ‘n ‘em?” meaning, of course, “How is your mother and the others in your family?”
   
Life Goes Off
Monday, August 30, 2004
How’s Yer Mom an’ Dem?
   
Gambit Weekly (Best of New Orleans)
POLITICS By Clancy DuBos 03 29 05
End of The Mom’n'em Rule?
Cedric Richmond is just as likely to face a challenge to his qualifications in December as he did last month.
 
For years, candidates for public office who no longer lived in the districts they sought to represent dodged residency or domiciliary requirements by effectively claiming they lived “with Mom’n'em”—that is, at some long-established (but long abandoned, by the candidate) family abode within the borders of the district. Judges traditionally used more hi-falutin’ language to bless the deception, but they may as well have just gone ahead and called it “The Mom’n'em Rule.”
 
The rule was simple: If you don’t live in a particular district, you can still run for office from that district as long as you might have lived there at one time and your mom—or some other close relative—still lives there. For at least 40 years, The Mom’n'em Rule was pretty much the law in Louisiana.
 
Google Books
New Orleans: A Cultural History
by Louise McKinney
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
2006
Pg. 234:
Mom-an-em = your folks (ie, “Say hello to your Mom-an’-em for me”)
 
Edge of Sports (August 29, 2007)
And Still They Rise: Confronting Katrina
By Dave Zirin
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There was Danger Blonde, MD Filter, my unflappable guide, Liprap, and Mom’n'em. (Mom’n'em is a man. The handle comes from a matriarchal New Orleans phrase. Instead of asking, “How’s the family?” You say, “How’s Mom’n'em?”) 
   
Yourblocks’s Weblog
October 15, 2007
Mom n’ Em
Filed under: Uncategorized — yourblocks @ 12:20 pm
The weather has cooled off.  It’s about ten degrees cooler today than yesterday.  It feels pretty good, but I don’t like it much below 70degrees.  Does it seem like I talk about the weather a lot?  Well, I suppose I do. But it’s because the weather is a neutral topic.  You know people don’t like to have you talk about politics, religion, etc.  Here in the south, another topic of diversion in mom n’em.  Yes, we like to talk about our mothers and especially our grandmothers.  My grandmother, Dot Robinson Barnwell, is doing well at age 92.
 
Espn.com - Hunting
Yankees welcome
South kind of opens arms to northerners, but they must adhere to our rules
By Steve Bowman
ESPNOutdoors.com
Updated: November 28, 2007, 12:12 PM ET
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“Mom’n'em” is not one person. When someone asks, “How’s your Mom’n'em?’’ They are referring to the whole family.
 
Austin (TX) American-Statesman
Austin lands Global Language Monitor: Finally, something good comes from California
By John Kelso
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, March 30, 2008
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I’ll bet he’s missed a few Texas expressions — like “mom ‘n ‘em.”