Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Sept 4, 2013 14:41:30 GMT -5
Back in the day, I just called my grandparents "Grandma" and "Grandpa." But these days it seems everyone is coming up with new and cutsie names for grandparents. It appears "nana" and "mimi" are becoming popular. Also, it seems each individual grandparent needs to have their own name. Whatever happened to "Grandpa Jones" and "Grandma Smith?"
What are the grandparents in your life called?
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Sept 4, 2013 14:46:30 GMT -5
My paternal grandparents have always been "Grandma and Grandpa B". Even though I'm down to only them I still refer to them like that out of habit. When my maternal grandmother and grandpa lived on a different street they were just "Grandma and Grandpa". When my grandfather died and she moved in across the street she became "Grandma across the street". I cracked up when I realized my mom is now "Grandma B across the street". Gwen for whatever reason decided that my parents are "Grandma and Grandpa" and would get very upset when she heard those titles and we did not go across the street. She didn't get that DH's parents were also "Grandma and grandpa" too. Lately we use "Other Grandma and Grandpa" and she gets that means DH's parents. I don't know if it'll stick but it avoids confusion on her part so whatever works. MIL has been trying to get her to call her "nanna" but it's been a no go.
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Sept 4, 2013 14:48:14 GMT -5
Not to be snarky, but didn't we just have this thread? (and I'm really not trying to be snarky, mostly wondering if I've lost my mind).
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Peace Of Mind
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Post by Peace Of Mind on Sept 4, 2013 14:49:35 GMT -5
Most of mine are called "deceased". Except grandma who turns 92 this month. ETA: Rae - That was Zib asking for suggestions for her.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Sept 4, 2013 14:51:34 GMT -5
My Mom is Grandma First Name and Dad is Grandpa First Name - my older siblings started this when they had multiple sets of grandparents still alive. My kids just inherited the names. There are 8 other grandchildren and I'd already gotten into the habit of referring to my parents this way.
My MIL is GrandMo and FIL is GrandPops. My DH calls them Mo and Pops. We talked to them and asked if they wanted GrandMo and GrandPops; Grandma First Name and Grandpa First Name or what. They opted for GrandMo and GrandPops. My BIL's wife wanted to know why they couldn't be Grandma and Grandpa - in my family that's my Mom's parents, even though Grandpa is deceased. I'm not giving their names away. It's an emotional decision I know.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Sept 4, 2013 14:51:41 GMT -5
Not to be snarky, but didn't we just have this thread? (and I'm really not trying to be snarky, mostly wondering if I've lost my mind). If we did, I totally missed it. It wasn't intentional if that is the case.
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Sept 4, 2013 14:52:26 GMT -5
Rae, I had the same thought. I think it might have been Southernsusana's thread about what her grands call her that generated this discussion before.
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Sept 4, 2013 14:54:26 GMT -5
My paternal grandparents were Grandmother and Grandpa. According to my mom, before I was born, someone jokingly asked my grandmother whether she'd be a Mamaw or Nana, and she said, very frostily, "the child will call me Grandmother." She's been dead since 1992 and I still pronounce it with the capital G for fear of being haunted... My mom's dad is Pawpaw. My mom's mom died long before I was born. Our parents will probably be Grandma/Grandpa [firstname]. Although my dad is known as Buzz to everyone, so maybe he can be Grampa Buzzy.
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dannylion
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Post by dannylion on Sept 4, 2013 14:55:30 GMT -5
My grandparents are dead. I refer to them collectively as "my grandparents." There is seldom any reason to call them anything else as they are no longer active in, well, anything.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Sept 4, 2013 14:55:32 GMT -5
My Mom is Grandma First Name and Dad is Grandpa First Name - my older siblings started this when they had multiple sets of grandparents still alive. My kids just inherited the names. There are 8 other grandchildren and I'd already gotten into the habit of referring to my parents this way. My MIL is GrandMo and FIL is GrandPops. My DH calls them Mo and Pops. We talked to them and asked if they wanted GrandMo and GrandPops; Grandma First Name and Grandpa First Name or what. They opted for GrandMo and GrandPops. My BIL's wife wanted to know why they couldn't be Grandma and Grandpa - in my family that's my Mom's parents, even though Grandpa is deceased. I'm not giving their names away. It's an emotional decision I know. That's another odd trend, that I think would take some getting used to. Referring to another family member by their "title" for the benefit of the kids. Like calling your wife "mom" in front of the kids, or your parents "nana and papa."
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Sept 4, 2013 14:56:15 GMT -5
Mid - he can be Grandpa Lightyear! We had a discussion with my aunts when I was around 13 or so - one of my aunts declared she wanted to be know as Great Aunt Full First Name once my cousins started having babies. She was joking but we still sometimes call her that.
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kittensaver
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Post by kittensaver on Sept 4, 2013 14:56:15 GMT -5
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Apple
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Post by Apple on Sept 4, 2013 14:56:23 GMT -5
Just Gramma and Grampa here.
When my son was little, my parents were Gramma and Grampa, and his dad's parent's were "Dad's Gramma" and "Dad's Grampa". This kinda ticked off my MIL, but the kiddo is the one who came up with it. She got him to switch it to "Dad's mom", but she never did become just "Gramma". The ex-inlaws are out of our life now, so who knows what my son would have chosen to call them as he got older.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Sept 4, 2013 14:57:00 GMT -5
I never had this problem as my grandparents were all gone to heaven by the time I was 4. My mom wanted to be called Grandma (my dad died years before there were grandkids) but my one SIL in insisted on having the kids call her "Nana" whiched morphed into Nonny. The other grandkids called her Grandma or more like Grannma... no 'd' sound. I was a surprise late in life baby, so I took especial delight in calling my little old grey haired mom - Mommy! She was 65 when I was 20 (and was probably often mistaken for my Grandma...)
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Sept 4, 2013 14:57:25 GMT -5
My paternal grandparents were Grandmother and Grandpa. According to my mom, before I was born, someone jokingly asked my grandmother whether she'd be a Mamaw or Nana, and she said, very frostily, "the child will call me Grandmother." She's been dead since 1992 and I still pronounce it with the capital G for fear of being haunted... may Grandmother rest in peace. my mom's dad passed when my mom was a kid. my mom's mom was Nana. my dad's parents are Memere and Pepere.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Sept 4, 2013 14:58:58 GMT -5
My Mom is Grandma First Name and Dad is Grandpa First Name - my older siblings started this when they had multiple sets of grandparents still alive. My kids just inherited the names. There are 8 other grandchildren and I'd already gotten into the habit of referring to my parents this way. My MIL is GrandMo and FIL is GrandPops. My DH calls them Mo and Pops. We talked to them and asked if they wanted GrandMo and GrandPops; Grandma First Name and Grandpa First Name or what. They opted for GrandMo and GrandPops. My BIL's wife wanted to know why they couldn't be Grandma and Grandpa - in my family that's my Mom's parents, even though Grandpa is deceased. I'm not giving their names away. It's an emotional decision I know. That's another odd trend, that I think would take some getting used to. Referring to another family member by their "title" for the benefit of the kids. Like calling your wife "mom" in front of the kids, or your parents "nana and papa." My Mom ALWAYS referred to my Dad as Dad. Well sometimes it was Father (as in "Don't wake your Father up!") And grandparents were always referred to as Grandma or Grandpa (or Grandma First Name, Great Grandma Last Name or Grandpa Last Name) My sibs do/did this too. I know I've confused my kids when I've called my parents Mom and Dad.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Sept 4, 2013 15:01:42 GMT -5
My Mom is Grandma First Name and Dad is Grandpa First Name - my older siblings started this when they had multiple sets of grandparents still alive. My kids just inherited the names. There are 8 other grandchildren and I'd already gotten into the habit of referring to my parents this way. My MIL is GrandMo and FIL is GrandPops. My DH calls them Mo and Pops. We talked to them and asked if they wanted GrandMo and GrandPops; Grandma First Name and Grandpa First Name or what. They opted for GrandMo and GrandPops. My BIL's wife wanted to know why they couldn't be Grandma and Grandpa - in my family that's my Mom's parents, even though Grandpa is deceased. I'm not giving their names away. It's an emotional decision I know. That's another odd trend, that I think would take some getting used to. Referring to another family member by their "title" for the benefit of the kids. Like calling your wife "mom" in front of the kids, or your parents "nana and papa." I think this is more a result of the English language not having alot of 'words' to describe people's relationship to one another. I think other languages have 'words' that differentiate the grand parents (mother's mom or father's mom, etc). I think it's cool that grandparents sometimes get 'customized names'. My mom got use to the Nonny thing... especially when attending things for the grandkids - she didn't have to deal with the slew of calls for Grandma name here or Granny name here or what ever. She was the only Nonny! at the function.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Sept 4, 2013 15:03:46 GMT -5
Oh, sometimes my Mom is called Grandma Duck because one day her asthma was acting up and she was coughing so oddly the kids thought she sounded like a duck. Which started a 5+ year barrage of duck key chains, etc. for her.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Sept 4, 2013 15:07:02 GMT -5
My Dad's parents were Grandma and Grandpa Last name or Grandpa was Papa First name.
My mom's parents were Grandma First name and Papa First Name.
My parents to my children are Gigi (short for Grandma Jean) and Papa First Name. My MIL is MeeMaw. My Grandma is Grandma.
That is why there are so many "different" names. My sister's oldest kids had 6 Grandmas! 6! 2 grandmas and all 4 Great-Grandmas.
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movingforward
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Post by movingforward on Sept 4, 2013 15:07:10 GMT -5
My paternal grandmother was Irish (2nd generation) and we called her "granny." All my friends at the time thought that was a riot for some reason. Now I hear it on Downton Abbey all the time . She also called the trunk of the car "the boot" and underwear was called "drawers." I used to stay with her for 2 weeks every summer and when I was about 7 yrs old she said she needed to go buy some new drawers. I thought she meant furniture type drawers until we got to the store and she bought underwear. She ended up having to explain to me that underwear and drawers were the same thing.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Sept 4, 2013 15:10:38 GMT -5
My Mom is Grandma First Name and Dad is Grandpa First Name - my older siblings started this when they had multiple sets of grandparents still alive. My kids just inherited the names. There are 8 other grandchildren and I'd already gotten into the habit of referring to my parents this way. My MIL is GrandMo and FIL is GrandPops. My DH calls them Mo and Pops. We talked to them and asked if they wanted GrandMo and GrandPops; Grandma First Name and Grandpa First Name or what. They opted for GrandMo and GrandPops. My BIL's wife wanted to know why they couldn't be Grandma and Grandpa - in my family that's my Mom's parents, even though Grandpa is deceased. I'm not giving their names away. It's an emotional decision I know. That's another odd trend, that I think would take some getting used to. Referring to another family member by their "title" for the benefit of the kids. Like calling your wife "mom" in front of the kids, or your parents "nana and papa." When I'm talking to the kids, I talk about "daddy" and "gigi" and "MeeMaw" and "Papa Bill". Little kids have a HARD time differentiating things, like mine and yours. They also have trouble with things like differentiating he and she. After 8 months, DS still refers to DD as "he". We correct him every single time. It has not sunk in yet. You really want to keep it simple.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Sept 4, 2013 15:11:11 GMT -5
Referring to another family member by their "title" for the benefit of the kids. Like calling your wife "mom" in front of the kids, or your parents "nana and papa."
Eh not really. Only time it gets confusing for us is when I talk about my grandparents and forget to put "great" in front of it. DH doesn't know if I'm referring to my parents or my actual grandparents depending on the conversation we're having.
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Sept 4, 2013 15:12:40 GMT -5
My grandparents were Gramma and Grampa, and the other set was Granny and PawPaw. My son calls my parents Oma and Opa, my IL's Gramma Hunny and Grampa Juan, and Great Gramma and Ho-Ho. DS couldn't pronouce G's or C's for the longest time so my parents came up with Oma and Opa so he could have a name for them. Hunny came about because FIL screams 'HONEY' across the house all.the.time and ds started calling MIL that. And since ds couldn't say Grampa and fil refused to be called anything else ds started calling him by his first name and now its just stuck with Grampa Juan. I only refer to my dh as 'dad/dy' when talking directly to the kids. My grandparents always called each other Dad and Mother, but yeah...not for me. All other family members are the same. If I'm calling for dh, ds likes to yell dh's first name too and giggle. Ds uses my first name occasionally too. He thinks its the best joke. Similar question--what do your kids call you (as in parents). My son is only 4 and switched to Mom and Dad. I miss being Mommy.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Sept 4, 2013 15:17:24 GMT -5
Oma and Opa are the German words for Grandma and Grandpa.
My kids call me Mommy/Mom/Beth. They call DH Daddy/Dad/Scott. He strongly discourages the first name. I figure it's a stage and the less fuss I make, the sooner DD will stop. And it has, mostly.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Sept 4, 2013 15:22:49 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2013 15:24:51 GMT -5
DDIL is pregnant (woo-hoo!) and I'm hoping for just plain old Grandma (last name) or even Grandma (first name) since the other grandparents are also still alive and well. I've never been big into baby talk, and I would discourage anything cutesy like "MeeMaw and PoPo". It may take some getting used to that DH and I have different last names, but I know my grandchildren will be endowed with superior intellect so they'll learn quickly.
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Sept 4, 2013 15:28:50 GMT -5
Wow, that was quick! Congrats!
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Sept 4, 2013 15:31:36 GMT -5
Wow, that was quick! Congrats!
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Sept 4, 2013 15:33:54 GMT -5
Oma and Opa are the German words for Grandma and Grandpa. My kids call me Mommy/Mom/Beth. They call DH Daddy/Dad/Scott. He strongly discourages the first name. I figure it's a stage and the less fuss I make, the sooner DD will stop. And it has, mostly. I think the Oma/Opa is dutch too--just because we get asked if we're Dutch or German when anyone overhears ds. I'm surprised how many people use those terms. I don't mind ds using my first name because of the context that he uses it in is usually pretty funny. But I thought I'd get to be mommy a whole lot longer. Since ds uses mom, I imagine dd will use that really early too.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Sept 4, 2013 15:35:56 GMT -5
Calling grandparents by different names is NOT new. Just because you didn't do it doesn't mean that this is some new fangled cutesie thing.
I am older than you, and I called my Dad's parents Nana & Papa because that's what they wanted to be called. My mom's parents were Grandma and Grandpa. My Dad and step-mom are Pa and Gabby to my nieces (and signed their card to DD that way), because my oldest niece needed a way of distinguishing her step-grandfather (my dad) from her bio-grandfather, and Pa was easy to say. Gabby came about because she had problems with with Rs and Ms. It has stuck.
Kids nickname their family members all the time. I was 10 or 11 before I ever learned my dad's brother's name. My brother had nicknamed him Uncle Buggy as a small child and that's all I ever heard him referred to.
My dad's sister once tried to have a conversation with my brother and I about how she was not an "ant" but an "aunt". She forgot we were her brother's children. We still occasionally call her Termite First Name or Cockroach First Name.
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