Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 2, my oldest niece was at a Thanksgiving dinner with my mother and her two brothers, and forever after she and all the other grandchildren called my mother by her childhood nickname that her brother's still use.

My cousins, and their kids, all call my mother "Aunt [Embarrassing Childhood Nickname]" It's fantastic.

Ha this reminds me of how my child as a toddler couldn't pronounce "Aunt Christine" and instead called my sister "Icky" at first. And couldn't pronounce "Aunt Kathleen" and said "Auca" Then it just kind of stuck. Icky and Auca.

Anonymous wrote:At 2, my oldest niece was at a Thanksgiving dinner with my mother and her two brothers, and forever after she and all the other grandchildren called my mother by her childhood nickname that her brother's still use.

My cousins, and their kids, all call my mother "Aunt [Embarrassing Childhood Nickname]" It's fantastic.

At 2, my oldest niece was at a Thanksgiving dinner with my mother and her two brothers, and forever after she and all the other grandchildren called my mother by her childhood nickname that her brother's still use.

Good lord, who cares. My cousins' kids were supposed to call their grandparents (my aunt and uncle) Grandma and Grandpa, and now a couple of cold, buttoned-up WASPs have their heads on a swivel for the names "Dumpy" and "MawMaw". My own Polish grandparents were Baba and Jaja. If you're that embarrassed you can always refer to her as "your grandmother" to the kids. Literally no one will flinch when a kid calls their grandparent a ridiculous name.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Korean-American babysitter thinks it's hilarious how much drama there is in (white) US culture over grandparent names. My DH is super low-drama but freaked out that my dad wanted to be called Papa. It is a common grandpa name (and never a dad name) where I'm from in the US, but DH is from a different part of the country and has spent a lot of time in Europe where Papa means Daddy. So as a compromise -- an admittedly passive-aggressive one -- I've started teaching DD German, which I speak, and calling her Dad "Papa" and Grandpa "Opa."

That's interesting. I know some families where everybody including the grandkids call Grandma and Grandpa "Mom and Dad". Their differentiate with their own parents by saying "Mommy and Daddy".

Yep, my great-grandparents were “Mom and Dad Smith,” and my dad & siblings call their own parents “Mama and Daddy.”

This is super-interesting, where are they from?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's up to her, not you. The exception being my FIL who picked a name with sexual connotations and we said hard pass, try again.

Fellaty?

I bet his name is Richard whose friends call him Dick and he wanted the grandkids to call him something like “Big Dick”

Thank you for this. Really, I needed that today. Off to work.

I think grandparent names are stupid, but if that’s what they want it’s their prerogative.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's up to her, not you. The exception being my FIL who picked a name with sexual connotations and we said hard pass, try again.

Fellaty?

I know a woman with a grandparent name of Mimsy which can be a slang term for vagina.

Anonymous wrote:When I'm a grandmother, I totally want to be called Glitter!

Glitter is really hard for a toddler to pronounce.

My in-laws wanted names that just felt all wrong. The one MIL wanted sounded like a name for a very old woman and the one FIL wanted (supposedly…I think it came from MIL) was super annoying and not something I would call anyone. Dh couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to be Grandma and Grandpa, like all of his grandparents. When our oldest tried to say Grandma and Grandpa, she came up with her own adorable pronunciations and my husband ran with them and that is what they’re still called years later. The names aren’t real grandparent names from another language, but they really sound like they are. Your kids will ultimately call their grandparents whatever you refer to them as.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's up to her, not you. The exception being my FIL who picked a name with sexual connotations and we said hard pass, try again.

Fellaty?

I bet his name is Richard whose friends call him Dick and he wanted the grandkids to call him something like “Big Dick”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Korean-American babysitter thinks it's hilarious how much drama there is in (white) US culture over grandparent names. My DH is super low-drama but freaked out that my dad wanted to be called Papa. It is a common grandpa name (and never a dad name) where I'm from in the US, but DH is from a different part of the country and has spent a lot of time in Europe where Papa means Daddy. So as a compromise -- an admittedly passive-aggressive one -- I've started teaching DD German, which I speak, and calling her Dad "Papa" and Grandpa "Opa."

That's interesting. I know some families where everybody including the grandkids call Grandma and Grandpa "Mom and Dad". Their differentiate with their own parents by saying "Mommy and Daddy".

Yep, my great-grandparents were “Mom and Dad Smith,” and my dad & siblings call their own parents “Mama and Daddy.”

When I'm a grandmother, I totally want to be called Glitter!

Anonymous wrote:You don’t think your mom gets to pick her own name? Wow.

NP here. I would just ignore the creamy and keep referring to her as grandma. After a lifetime of calling my mom simply “mom” I think it would be too awkward to suddenly start calling her “Pink” or “Glitter” or whatever else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t think your mom gets to pick her own name? Wow.

"Hey, I think I want the kids to call me Glitter. What do you think?" would be nice. It should be a conversation.

It’s her name. Not yours.

It’s not her name for heaven’s sake! It’s an informal title bestowed on her when she has a grandchild. She can’t make herself a grandmother. She only becomes one through someone else’s actions, so let’s not act like her grandparent name is her identity.