At first my son didn't really go for the new grandma name I picked. "Mom, Patricks not going to want to say Go Go in front of all his friends when he's 16."
My daughter-in-law commented that we could cross that bridge when we got to it. She's always so diplomatic:)
O sigh....I just wanted something different. I wasn't ready to be called grandma. I didn't feel like a grandma and I certainly didn't look like my grandma did when she was my age: floral print cotton dress snugly fitted around a buxom top, dark black shoes that laced up with thick 2 inch high square heels, short, gray bobbypinned curled hair, a button nose and little wire-rimmed glasses, and a stern "you better not cause me any trouble" look on her face.
Soon after this discussion I was watching Your Life A-Z. There was a young lady,in her 30's, being interviewed. As I listened I heard her saying that every 20 seconds a baby boomer became a grandparent and this generation was not ready to take on the traditional name of grandma and grandpa. How do they graciously accept the role as grandparent without "feeling old". After all,these are the ones who have fought the aging process, with their array of ideas to stay looking younger and feeling better. They wanted to pioneer their way to a new avenue of grandparenting. She went on to say that this was the reason she wrote her book "You Can Call Me Hoppa".
Are you telling me there's a book out there that validates my inner most desires! I had to listen longer to hear what Lauren Charpio had written a book about.
"You Can Call Me Hoppa" is a book that Laruen compiled of all the different names men and women chose to be called for or by their grandchildren. Each name has a story behind it and why it was chosen. Its very cute.
"Hoppa" was the name that came out of her 16 month old baby when the child tried to say grandpa to Lauren's dad. It stuck! One man wanted to be called "chief" because he had once been an executive on wall street for years and just felt too tough to be called grandpa. Another lady played peek a boo with her granddaughter every time she visited. One day her grandbaby called her "boo" assuming that was her name.
There are so many more......
Well, when I told my son about Lauren Charpio and her book, he thought that was pretty cool. He even gave me permission to submit our story to Lauren.
Tell me your story of how you got your name.
Visit Lauren Charpio's website at
http://www.callmehoppa.com
By the way, some of my dearest friends and family are called grandma and grandpa. Love it!
Hi ya, Gogo Grandma, or Gogo, or GoGo. I'm a little offended to discover that my 'grandma' name got relegated to the dot dot dot part of your title, but since you're a friend, I'll let it slide. I like the fact that you and I share two syllable two capital grandma names - I am YaYa, as in the YaYa Sisterhood. Only that's not where the name came from and, just as a sidebar, I still haven't seen the movie.
ReplyDeleteActually, Katy and I were in negotiations for over a year as to what I would be called, though we both agreed Grandma was out of the question. After trying on Oma for a while (I knew a German lady once who was the inspiration for that one), Allie began talking a little, beginning with Mama (traditional beginning), Dada (nod to the big guy in the house who pays for the house), and yaya. Katy had suggested this name early in our negotiations since it was the grandmother's name in one of our favorite movies, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. But that grandmother was a little crazy, hunch backed and dressed in black. Naturally I avoided the comparison. That is, until accepting the title made me third in line for name recognition with my precious granddaughter. And since the YaYa in that movie turns out to be delightful by the end of the story and since Eula is Greek and the movie was about a Greek family and YaYa is Greek for grandma, well, there you go.
YaYa. My granddaughter has been saying my name since she was six months old. She's such a genius. :) It's kind of a short name - it would fit in perfectly right before the 'and more' in your title . . . I'm just saying . . .
Peggy,
ReplyDeleteI want to be called Nana..My great gramma was called Nana.. I am pretty sure I will live past her 93 yrs..I'm excited to be a Nana Soon ;D
...heaving sigh, I have not given myself one of the cute creative names, not for lack of trying! But, for me, "grandma" just seemed, should I admit it? natural. I did struggle with grandmotherhood in the beginning as I felt that I hadn't gotten the mother thing down very well with some of my children. But the minute the little guy was born and I got to hold him this mother was transformed into grandma! I LOVE hearing my name from their little mouths. Although I'm a bit jealous as "grandpa" is becoming the cute "pop pop" with at least one grandboy. I will admit 'though that one of my children tried to get his son to call me "grannie" and I balked at that one!!!
ReplyDeleteI actually wanted to be "Granny", but that one was already taken by my mother ... and quite graciously, I might add. What to do?
ReplyDeleteDeliberations were begun between myself, my daughter-in-love, and her mother (the upcoming Grandma herself), during which I was lovingly dubbed "Nana". It was music to my ears from the start, but it got ratcheted up to the equivalent of angel-song on the day my 3-year-old grandaughter spotted me from across a park, jumped up from the ground from beside her mommy, and ran at breakneck speed across the lawn, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Nana! Nana! Nana!!"
It doesn't get any better than that.