Alternatives to "Grandma"

[Anonymous]

When I was about to become a Grandmother, I was sure I was too young-looking for my mental image of a Grandmother, which was old, wrinkled and rocking-chair bound. A friend came up with Glam-ma, for Glamorous Grandma, which I thought perfect. But, when I announced it to my son and daughter-in-law, they were crushed. She had never had any grandparents and her parents were already gone. My son stammered, but, we thought you'd be honored to be a Grandma, as you will be our child's only grandmother. Of course, I was. And, Grandma I became.

BTW, I am interviewing mothers and grandmothers about what they would like to tell each other, if they could do it without hurting each other's feelings. The resulting articles will be assembled into a book. If you would like to be interviewed for the book, please let me know. Interviewees will be anonymous.

Carol Covin, Bristow, VA [phone]
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Cannot wait to be a grandma. I want to be called Mimi. It suites me!

[Anonymous]

Funny-we started off calling my mom "Grammie" but when my daughter started talking it came out sounding like 'Mimi". So we all switched to Mimi. But now, my DD just turned 2 and is starting to annunciate better...guess what she calls my mom these days...Grammie. I suppose when she was saying, 'Mimi" all this time she was TRYING to say "Grammie". Sigh. She also went through a phase where my MIL, who wanted to be "Granma", was dubbed, "Meema". It's slowly starting to sound more like Granma, which is good because "Meema" always gets a chuckle. (We're from the south too!)
Anyway, how gracious to be the grandparent who says "Whatever the child wants to call me will be fine"...I think it really sends a message of maturity, at the least.

[Anonymous]

My mother is Mom Mom, which is what I called her mother. She doesn't have any issue with Grandma, just picked a name that was meaningful to her. My dad did the same thing -- my kids call him what I called his father.

[Anonymous]

my mother asked to be called LaLa - her name is Laura so I think it is some version of her name. Kids can say it, I don't mind it and she's happy.

[Anonymous]

My mother also did not want to be called Grandma. She wanted to be called Grandfirstname (i.e. Grandmary). She read somewhere that Jackie Kennedy Onasis was Grandjackie and she liked that.

My father is Granddad because his father was Grandfather to us. We all felt like Granddad was the son of Grandfather more than Grandpa was.

My husband's mother wanted to be called what her mother was called, Nunna. Her husband was deceased when I met my husband (her son). our child refers to my husband's deceased father as Granddad Bob which my MIL has been fine with.

We let them pick their own names. If they had a preference it made no difference to me or my husband

[Anonymous]

Nana
Geema (G-ma)
Gam

[Anonymous]

Tell your mom it could be worse. My cousin's kids call his MIL "Money." Now there's a form of affection...

[Anonymous]

We've got a Gmom and a Gpop. My parents picked them when my niece was born. I wasn't thrilled, but they've grown on me.
On the other side we have a Nana D. Specifying the last initial makes me laugh, since she's my son's only Nana, but she's got other grandchildren with two Nanas.

[Anonymous]

My mother-in-law goes by GG for Gorgeous Grandma. ha!!!

[Anonymous]

I agree that your DS may come up with his own name for her. My dd couldn't say "grandma" so she started calling her "Jamma" which stuck with my mom who loves the name!