Say My Name!

While we found out we were pregnant and began picking names, our parents began the debate about what they wanted to be called. Mom thought Nana would be good. Dad was going for Jiddo. Then it changed to Grampie. He wasn’t thrilled about it, but since we are not Lebanese many commented that Jiddo didn’t make sense. Once he “was” Grampie, he asked if Mom would be Grammie so that they could match. Fine. We’ll be Grammie and Grampie. It was settled… Too bad WickedGirl didn’t get the message. When WG started talking, she started by calling me “Ah Mah”. I didn’t even hear it at first. My family let me know it was happening. A month or so later, my mom came to visit us, and WG started calling her “YaYa”. We don’t know where it came from, but it was clear that my mother would be YaYa. It seemed to even mean more that WG picked the name, so we went with it.

So what happened about Grampie? A full year later, he still wasn’t consistently being called any one name. She would try for Grampie but it was garbled at best. Finally, we realized she was calling him something like “Bumpy”. I started to listen and realized that every day when Dad got home from work he would say “HEY BUDDY!” to WG as she ran to him at the door. Sure enough, one day I heard her say “HEY BUDDY!” back. He wasn’t Bumpy. He was Buddy. So far, that’s what he is consistently called.

What about WickedHubby’s parents? In honor of WH’s grandfather, his father is called Grampa. His mother was going to be Grammie, but WG still struggles with that one. Recently, her name was changed to Nanny out of comfort (WickedNanny didn’t like Grammie too much – but it matched so she was trying to be agreeable) and ability to articulate.

Bottom line? As usual, we spent lots of time contemplating and debating something only to have the kiddos tell us what was truly meant to be. It didn’t matter what we chose… Someday we will learn that stressing the issue doesn’t do anything but raise our blood pressure. We will learn to relax and let the memories create themselves. While we wait for that time to come, we’ll be chilling with YaYa, Buddy, Grampie, and Nanny :).

Do you have a fun story to share about what you or your kids call their grandparents? PS – My name became “Mama”, “Mom”, “Mummy”, or “Maaaaaaa” depending on the situation. “Ah Mah was retired when WG was about 2 years old. We shall see how it goes with WickedBoy :).