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Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
What is the deal with grandparents being called names other than grandma and grandpa?
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Anonymous
| l grew up with the standard "grandma and grandpa" or "gran" . lt seems like now a days the grandparents want to be called unusual or creative names. Why is this? l don't want to be negative but it seems like an attention seeking behaviour or "l want to feel special" behaviour. My inlaws now want to be called nay nay and yeh yeh and it is annoying to me. |
Anonymous
| I agree its annoying. It our case MIL doesn't want to sound old. |
Anonymous
| Are your parents baby boomers? Mine are and I think it's a baby boomer mentality thing. They like to think that they aren't like their parents, all old and retired and grandma-ish. I think the boomers are a much more vibrant generation and have a tough time relating to what they picture "grandma" and "grandma" to be. The different titles are a form of denial, in my opinion. |
Anonymous
| well they are in their 50's....l really don't want to enforce my child to use these names. they live out of state and we do not see them very often. they are sweet and all but l just think it is too much |
Anonymous
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Sometimes it is a cultural thing. Sometimes they want to be called by the same names they called their grandparents by.
I asked my parents what they wanted to be called and they were both kind of mystified by the question, like they hadn't thought about it before (I'm sure they hadn't - they don't "feel" like grandparents.) |
Anonymous
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Often it's because it's all the kid can say. My cousin called his g-parents Moo Moo and Pop Pop. And so all his siblings used the same thing.
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Anonymous
| Ours seemed to want to distinguish themselves in a way other than Grandma "Last Name," especially since there are also step parents involved too. My mother decided on Nana but my 2.5 year old somehow shortened it to Na even though he is now perfectly capable of saying Nana. Seems like a lot of times kids decide on their own anyway. |
Anonymous
| I hear you, OP. This issue arose immediately after our son was born (4 yrs ago). We starting getting bombarded with questions about what everyone would be called...and we have four sets of grandparents, none of whom live near us. I had never given it one moments thought and guess I always assumed that everyone would just be "grandma and grandpa" because that's what I did. I think I even posted on here about it and that's where I learned that it was common to let grandparents choose their own name, but I also had trouble with what seemed like silly names (or in one of our cases, a name that were just mispronunciation of their normal name that they thought was cute from another little kid they knew...close friends but not related). So fast forward and everyone is basically "Grandma XX and Grandpa XX." And I must admit that with four sets who our child (now children) doesn't see very often, I think he does get very confused about who is who but then again, he's four. Surely as he grows older he'll know Grandpa Joe from Grandpa Henry from Grandpa Bob, etc. And he may now if he saw them regularly. We are trying to do more Skype calls which will hopefully help. Bottom line - I'm not big on nicknames or shortened names, so this whole thing was really weird for me, too. |
Anonymous
| I think it's also because in come cases, our grandparents are still around, so we need different names. 3/4 of my DH's grandparents were alive when DD1 was born and as well as my grandmother, so all those names were 'taken'. |
Anonymous
| well l have to say l think it is completely fine and cute if the dc comes up with the name |
Anonymous
Same here. |
Anonymous
Yeah - my niece who is older than my first settled on a non traditional name for my FIL so that is what we decided my kids would call him. My child is the first for my parents and she also settled on untraditional names. I'm really against grandparents picking their own names - the grandkids should decide! Plus our families get together a lot and it would be too confusing to have two grandmas etc. And "Grandma NAME" sounds way too formal to me. |
Anonymous
| My use Korean for one set of grandparents. |
Anonymous
| My son decided. When he started talking it was Mom Mom and Pop Pop even tho I always said Gramma and Grandpa. |
Anonymous
| Who the hell cares if something other than gramma or grampa is used. I am much more annoyed by small children calling me by my first name |