SIL refuses to use MIL's "grandma" name

[Anonymous]

Isn't bubbie or bubby a Jewish thing? I believe all of my friends who refer to their grandmothers like that are Jewish.

My own mother who is not yet a grandmother has decided that she is too young and stylish to be called grandma, nana, granny, Grammy or anything like that. She is 65. She has decided that all future grandchildren will call her YaYa. And no, we aren't Greek. DH and I think she's being a fool and he has vowed to instruct our future hypothetical children to refer to her as Old Mother Time, or OMT for short.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't stand made up grandma names. My one grandma wanted to be called "Gaga" and all my cousins called her that. I refused as a 2 year old and have called her "grandma" ever since. I giggle every time my 30 year old cousins say "Gaga".

Aw. My neighbor, who was an adopted grandmother to me and my brothers, was called Gaga and then Gagy (pronounced gaa-gee, with hard g's) by us and later the whole neighborhood. She started calling herself that because she was convinced that my brother said "gagagagaga" only for her. When she died at 99 years old, none of the kids for four decades in our neighborhood knew of her as anything but Gagy. It was sweet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't stand made up grandma names. My one grandma wanted to be called "Gaga" and all my cousins called her that. I refused as a 2 year old and have called her "grandma" ever since. I giggle every time my 30 year old cousins say "Gaga".

So if your MIL hates your first name, you'd be fine if she just called you whatever name she likes, right? After all, all that's really important is that she hates your name.

[Anonymous]

My very Irish grandfather wanted to be called "Grandpere", so that's what we called him.

Grandparents get to choose their "call signs". End of discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't bubbie or bubby a Jewish thing? I believe all of my friends who refer to their grandmothers like that are Jewish.

My own mother who is not yet a grandmother has decided that she is too young and stylish to be called grandma, nana, granny, Grammy or anything like that. She is 65. She has decided that all future grandchildren will call her YaYa. And no, we aren't Greek. DH and I think she's being a fool and he has vowed to instruct our future hypothetical children to refer to her as Old Mother Time, or OMT for short.

Yes, it is Jewish but some Jewish grandmothers (like my MIL) don't care for it and use Grandma or Nana.

[Anonymous]

When my first baby was born, my difficult mother was too vain to pick out a grandma title, and refused. So I chose "Granny" for her. tee hee

[Anonymous]

Growing up my dad's side of the family had 9 grandchildren from 4 families and my grandmother had 2 or 3 grandma names. No big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't stand made up grandma names. My one grandma wanted to be called "Gaga" and all my cousins called her that. I refused as a 2 year old and have called her "grandma" ever since. I giggle every time my 30 year old cousins say "Gaga".

Aw. My neighbor, who was an adopted grandmother to me and my brothers, was called Gaga and then Gagy (pronounced gaa-gee, with hard g's) by us and later the whole neighborhood. She started calling herself that because she was convinced that my brother said "gagagagaga" only for her. When she died at 99 years old, none of the kids for four decades in our neighborhood knew of her as anything but Gagy. It was sweet.

Its the pregnancy hormones, I know that, but this has got me near damn tears.

[Anonymous]

What is missing from this discussion is how your MIL feels about it. Not for you to decide. If MIL wants all to call her the same, then she can speak with your SIL. I'd stay out of it if I were you, and try to just extricate your resentment, as you'll spend any joint time w/ SIL's family feeling pissed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't bubbie or bubby a Jewish thing? I believe all of my friends who refer to their grandmothers like that are Jewish.

My own mother who is not yet a grandmother has decided that she is too young and stylish to be called grandma, nana, granny, Grammy or anything like that. She is 65. She has decided that all future grandchildren will call her YaYa. And no, we aren't Greek. DH and I think she's being a fool and he has vowed to instruct our future hypothetical children to refer to her as Old Mother Time, or OMT for short.

Ha--that's what MIL (also not Greek) chose. We all (including her son and husband) think it's ridiculous. Glad someone else shares our pain!

[Anonymous]

My MIL is French. In France, it is common to call one grandmother, Me me and the other ma me (which is pronounced pretty much Mommy). I told my MIl she would need to be Me Me because Ma Me was too close to Mommy. And she got super pissed, and we usually have a pretty good relationship, and when my son started talking and saying Mommy she would always try to insist he was calling her. she finally relented and goes by something completely different. It is strange how people pick their battles.

[Anonymous]

DD came up with a name for my mother and stepfather (which is what my mother wanted). Neither name is a traditional grandparent name. DS uses the same names. My nephews use different names (I'm not sure who came up with them, nephews or brother) . I think my mother would have preferred all the grandkids use the same name, but its not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

My MIL "stole" my mom's grandmother name. It's so irritating. And it actually became confusing to my daughter. At least before when she was "grammy" and my mom was "nana" we could keep them separate. Now my MIL, kind of out of nowhere, decides she also wants to be nana. It's insane. I don't care in that she can be whatever she wants, but I care in that it's now confusing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My MIL "stole" my mom's grandmother name. It's so irritating. And it actually became confusing to my daughter. At least before when she was "grammy" and my mom was "nana" we could keep them separate. Now my MIL, kind of out of nowhere, decides she also wants to be nana. It's insane. I don't care in that she can be whatever she wants, but I care in that it's now confusing.

Why not call them Nana Sue and Nana Betty?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL "stole" my mom's grandmother name. It's so irritating. And it actually became confusing to my daughter. At least before when she was "grammy" and my mom was "nana" we could keep them separate. Now my MIL, kind of out of nowhere, decides she also wants to be nana. It's insane. I don't care in that she can be whatever she wants, but I care in that it's now confusing.

Why not call them Nana Sue and Nana Betty?

That's what we've recently started doing, but it's just odd because my daughter doesn't know their names! She's 4.5 and this is the first she's now hearing what their names are. It's just an odd thing to pull out of thin air when the kid is already 4.