What to call "Grandma" and "Grandpa"

[Anonymous]

I hate the name my MIL picked for herself and I hate the cutsie name my SIL picked. To be fair, my own siblings also picked other names. Who am I to say what people want to be called. I've never complained to any of them. At some point my kids may feel strange calling them these childish sounding names and choose something else but I'm staying out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's common for grandchildren to call grandparents different things. No biggie. If you all keep calling them that around the baby then he or she will probably pick up on it too.

I have never known kids who use different names for grandparents, that is strange. the SIL is being weird.

[Anonymous]

Good lord, are you always such a micromanager? You'd drive me nuts.

When my kids were born, we gave each grandmother the choice of what they wanted to be called. My mother chose the same thing my nieces have always called her (it's cultural). However, my MIL was only so-so on the name our SIL picked when my nephew was young, so she picked a name of her own choosing. My kids call her what she chose. My nephew still calls her by the name his mother picked out many years ago. And no one gets confused who we're talking about.

Why should you have any say in what your nieces and nephew call your mother?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's common for grandchildren to call grandparents different things. No biggie. If you all keep calling them that around the baby then he or she will probably pick up on it too.

I have never known kids who use different names for grandparents, that is strange. the SIL is being weird.

Then you need to get out more and meet mor people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think SIL is cray for messing actively wanting her kid to mess up an existing tradition.

Agree but I wouldn't get involved in it. Really, if the kids hang out with the cousins and grandparents regularly they will likely start to use the same names but I'd let it go. If they don't see them very often, I don't see how it matters.

In my family, my parents' "chose" their names (Nana and Pop Pop) and everyone taught those to the kids. DH's brother's kids actually called his parents by their first names, which we think is weird so we went with Grandma and Grandad since they said they didn't care when we asked them (we don't see them often and they were never close with our kids, and have now passed away)

[Anonymous]

My kids call their paternal grandfather "pop pop". I can't stand the sound of it and it grates on my nerves but I know that they all love it. I'm not Italian and this came from my sister-in-law's Italian husband and what their kids call the grandparents. I just think it's a creepy sounding name.

They seem to go by the "the cousins already call them that" rule and I was fighting the ocean so I didn't say anything other than "we aren't Italian"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think SIL is cray for messing actively wanting her kid to mess up an existing tradition.

Agree but I wouldn't get involved in it. Really, if the kids hang out with the cousins and grandparents regularly they will likely start to use the same names but I'd let it go. If they don't see them very often, I don't see how it matters.

In my family, my parents' "chose" their names (Nana and Pop Pop) and everyone taught those to the kids. DH's brother's kids actually called his parents by their first names, which we think is weird so we went with Grandma and Grandad since they said they didn't care when we asked them (we don't see them often and they were never close with our kids, and have now passed away)

LOL, writing this out I now realize *I* am the SIL who wanted my kid to call the grandparents something different than what the older grandkids do. But really, I'm not teaching my toddler to call "grandma" and "grandpa", Shirley and Howard! That's just weird. It was never an issue that we used different names. In part I'm sure because we saw them only a few weekends a year and the other grandkids were 12+ years older than my kids.

[Anonymous]

Just because your kid "named" Grandma J and Papa doesn't mean everybody else has to follow suit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's common for grandchildren to call grandparents different things. No biggie. If you all keep calling them that around the baby then he or she will probably pick up on it too.

I have never known kids who use different names for grandparents, that is strange. the SIL is being weird.

Then you need to get out more and meet mor people.

Um, I know plenty of people and come from a huge family. eveyrone calls the grandparents the same name. The grandparents call themselves that once the first grandkid starts it. its pretty straightforward.

[Anonymous]

My SIL's kids call my inlaws made up names. My kids are older and call them Grandma/Grandpa. It's dumb. My kids are like "who are they talking about?"

FWIW my inlaws picked grandma/grandpa, but their only daughter does what she pleases and no one says a word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's common for grandchildren to call grandparents different things. No biggie. If you all keep calling them that around the baby then he or she will probably pick up on it too.

I have never known kids who use different names for grandparents, that is strange. the SIL is being weird.

Then you need to get out more and meet mor people.

Um, I know plenty of people and come from a huge family. eveyrone calls the grandparents the same name. The grandparents call themselves that once the first grandkid starts it. its pretty straightforward.

NP here who also thinks you need to meet more people. Different names happen all the time. Maybe not with siblings, but most certainly with cousins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's common for grandchildren to call grandparents different things. No biggie. If you all keep calling them that around the baby then he or she will probably pick up on it too.

I have never known kids who use different names for grandparents, that is strange. the SIL is being weird.

Then you need to get out more and meet mor people.

Um, I know plenty of people and come from a huge family. eveyrone calls the grandparents the same name. The grandparents call themselves that once the first grandkid starts it. its pretty straightforward.

Um, several cultures have different names for paternal and maternal grandparents (and other family members).

[Anonymous]

Ha! OP, you should worry more about the name your extended family is going to call you behind your back if you push this. Yes, you think the names your child picked for the grandparents is the best (we all know it was your kid), but you need to back the eff off of this

[Anonymous]

We called my parental grandmother, Grammy. All the other cousins on that side called her Grandma. They called their other grandmother, Grammy. There was never any confusion.

I think Grandparents get to choose their names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please let me know if you think I am overreacting. My parents have six wonderful grandkids and are affectionately known as Grandma J and Papa. These names were given to them by the oldest grandchild, and the rest of the grandkids followed suit. However, my sister-in-law wants her kids to be able to call my parents whatever they choose - her son is a year and hasn't started talking yet. I think all the grandkids should refer to my parents by the same name. Am I being too pushy in thinking that?

Yes, you are bordering the cray cray scale. We were 10 grandkids from my father's side and we called our grandma different things by family! Two families called her one thing, two others regular grandma, and I called her gaga since I could speak and so did my brother. Why does your child dictate what other kids call their grandmother?