Do Your Grandkids Call You Something Besides GRANDMA AND GRANDPA?

by Susan Hoffman

Whether you see them frequently, rarely or once they become adults, kids have their own frame of referrence when it comes to what they call their grandparents.

I'm not just talking about the different cultural names, like Abuela or Bella for Spanish or Nonna for Italian or Me-Maw in the South but more like affectionate names. Kids sometimes adopt their own little personal pet names for grandparents that are special and used only by them.

Some examples, Poppy, YaYa, Mimi, Nuni, GiGi, Goggi. Maybe they can't pronounce grandma and grandpa, maybe they simply want to invent their own unique name. Like a secret bond.

Then there are the precocious ones who have dispensed with tradition and decided to call grandparents by their first name. But not all do so when they are at a young age, some do so after a long abscence for instance when they reunite with the child after they have reached adulthood.

When there has been a significant gap in the relationship the adult child doesn't always feel that connection that was once there between grandparent and young grandchild, so they end up referring to the grandparent by their first name. It kind of becomes a new relationship, everyone is starting over.

Have they , the grandparents lost that title? Possibly, but only in name only. Once a grandparent always a grandparent, it doesn't matter what they call you. I mean we answer to anything when it comes to our grandkis, right?