Changing my mind about being Granny...

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
...and thinking about being Mamo. Mamo is "granny" in Irish Gaelic.

I always have to do it just a little bit differently...but seriously, even though my Granny was a really cool lady, I want a name of my own. My mom is Nana, and Grandmas abound.

What do you think?
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Hon...really, the baby will give you the name itself. You can attempt to force the name but in the end, baby will say what baby wants to say!
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
My grandson is still too little to call me anything, but I have no problem with plain ol' 'Grandma'. And since I'm his only grandmother, they won't have to come up with two different things to call us.

I'm not wild about "Grandma" either, but I can live with it. I hate it though when it is used as a disrespectful, generic term for an older woman! I am NOT "a" grandma - but I AM Ethan's grandma! And no offense to anyone but when I hear "Granny ...", my mind immediately adds in "... Clampett"! And being a huge Disney fan, when I hear "Nana", I'm automatically getting a mental image of the St. Bernard in Peter Pan!

And Janet is right ... they'll call you what they want to call you. My brother's three year old grandson calls his other grandmother, "Knock Knock"! It makes perfect sense if you know the story behind it ...
 

Suz

(the future) MRS. GERE
Donna...you have GOT to share the Knock Knock story...otherwise my mind will be in the gutter :916blusher: as to how she got the nickname. :D

Suz
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
LOL Donna. We tried mightily to get my boys to call my dad Grandpa. Billy just would have none of it and he named him Papa. Soooo...when Keyana came along we tried valiantly to get her to call Tony Grandpa. Again...none of it. He became Papa too. Now you can imagine how confusing this is! Fortunately she doesnt see my dad often enough that she gets the two of them confused and by the time she had to really learn names...she could call my dad Grampa and we got that straightened out.

Now it is a problem because MY boys refer to my dad as Papa but also refer to Tony as Papa when talking to our grands...lmao. So it gets really really confusing if we are discussing both Papa's in one sentence.

I really wanted to be called Memaw because I was scared to death that anything close to Grandma would get shortened to Grammy. Grammy was my mothers name. I want no part of anything to do with my mom! Now...well...Im used to Grandma and if they slipped and Grammy came out, I could deal with it. However, Keyana is pretty stuck on Grandma now and the oldest pretty much picks the name.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
The story about my great-nephews 'other' grandma isn't really a nice one and it makes me mad just to think about it, but fortunately they don't see much of "Knock Knock" any more!

My niece married the second most worthless man on the face of the earth - (I married the first)! He's completely irresponsible, has never supported his children, he's abusive and very in to drugs and alcohol. Thankfully, she came to her senses, divorced him, and is now back with her two little boys living with her parents (my brother and sister in law) The oldest is 3-1/2 now, little guy is almost a year old. But if you wonder how this paragon of manhood got that way, you should see his mother! For lack of a better term, his mother is the town drunk! She's been arrested dozens of times. When she gets fired up she goes to people's houses, pounds on their doors, and wants to start a fight. She was arrested for going to a former sister in law's house and trying to attack her because she resented it that the former sister in law was still going by the last name of her ex-husband ("Knock Knock"s brother) - that she divorced TEN YEARS BEFORE! So my niece's older boy still remembers his drunk grandmother showing up at their house, sometimes in the middle of the night, and pounding on their front door - so he refers to her as "Knock Knock" - he's scared of her! His "Grandma" that he loves and relies on is the one he lives with, my brother's wife.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Suz, those kids haven't seen their 'father' in almost a year - he saw the baby once, right after he was born, for less than 15 minutes. The baby will be a year old in a few weeks. Of course, the less they have to do with him, the better off they will be.

My niece does take the two kids to where "Knock Knock" works to see her for a few minutes, maybe once a month or less. That way she can't complain that she is keeping the kids from her, giving her an excuse to start trouble. And that way, my niece doesn't have to leave them in her care - and when she's at work, she's usually sober! :tongue:
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
I know the oldest grandchild chooses the name...I named my grandfather, and Miss KT didn't call my mom anything until my Nana died. That evening, she began calling my mom Nana.

I just want to have a unique name so the rest of the family knows who Son #2 and K are referring to, until Maddie decides to change it.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
When we were kids, we just called our grandparents the same thing that our parents called them! Both grandmothers were "Mom", differentiated by the last names. My father's father was always "Pop" because that's what everybody else called him. And my mothers father was "Bill". We always called him by his first name - for some reason my mom did too! She always did, even when she was a kid.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
My brother and I both call our paternal grandmother "Mom". When my brother was born, our uncles were both teenagers living at home. My brother heard them calling her Mom, so that's what he called her. I copied my brother.

There weren't anymore grandkids until I was 15. They call my grandmother "Grandma". But, boy, if my brother or I ever did - jokingly - she'd get so mad at us. HAHAHAHAHA My brother and I are a lot closer to her than the other grandkids. I even lived with my grandparents for 6 months when I was 14.

It never bothered my mom, until I became an adult. So, when I talk about her to my mom - which isn't often - I say my grandmother's given name. It just seems uncomfortable either way. She doesn't mind my brother calling our grandmother "Mom", though. Or she doesn't show it. I'm not sure what the difference is....or if I'm being oversensitive.

My mom is Nana and the kids never had trouble saying that. My stepdad is Granddad and easy child called him Gaga til he could say it right and difficult child called him daygray. LOL I don't know how she got that. But, not they both call him Granddad.

I think Mamo is perfect. It will be easy for a little one to say. :)
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I think that is why so many kids say certain names first. Papa actually was the first word Keyana said even before Mama. Was just easier for her. Because of the way she did her cooing and babbling sounds...she did a lot of the Pa sounds. Pa's and Ba's and Da's. Not as many of the Ma's and Ga's. Thankfully No wasnt in there...lmao.

So her first words were in the Papa Baba and Dada realm. She didnt call me Gamma for a looonnnnggg time. All women were Momma forever.

Its funny, she is learning that people have other names. She obviously knows Daddy is Cory too because we all know her mom refers to him as Cory and not Daddy. We try very hard not to slip but there are times when we will say to each other that Cory is on the phone when he calls and she is there. Or that Cory is on his way over or something like that. Now if we are talking to her we always say "your Daddy" but if we are just talking to each other or someone else...it slips.

Now she hears me call her Papa Tony from time to time. I try not to but other people do it around her. So she has picked up on his name.

She asked me one day what my name was. I told her...my name is Grandma. She said...no, what is your name? I said...my name is GRANDMA! she just laughed and said...Ok...your name is grandma.
 
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