Grandma and all that
Let me preface this by saying this: We don’t have children, so anything I can possibly say about them or the raising of them is purely hearsay. You are completely welcome to ignore it.
The following comes in response to the Viv blog, located here.
Disclaimer aside, let me say this: I abso-FRIGGIN-lutely despise the use of cutesy names for people in the family. My mom is mom or mother. My dad is dad or father. My mom’s mom (and so forth) is either “grandma” or “grandmother”.
There is no “grammy” or “grams” or “mimi”.
There is no “pah-paw”. That one I really hate.
Yeah, you know what. Pah-paw is okay when the kid can’t muster syllables. But he/she needs to grow out of it. It’s not cute past 2 years old. It’s downright sick.
In summary: Kids who talk like two year olds even after they turn 8 are monsters. Parents who perpetuate it are even worse.
You know who used to talk like that? Wilford Brimley. Now he’s got the diabetes. You do the math.
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:39 pm
what about “Daddy”?
March 23rd, 2006 at 9:44 pm
my parents are mom and dad. when referring to my grandparents, they are my grandparents, but when talking to them, they are mamaw and papaw. go ahead and cringe. that’s what i was brought up calling them, and i’m used to it. also, when i was young, i had all 4 grandparents and 5/8 of my great grandparents living. they were referred to as grandma and grandpa, probably because that’s what my parents called them, and we picked up on it.
now, my cousin’s old babysitter’s name is Norma, but when he was little, he and his sister called her momo. now, he’s 14 years old, and still calls her momo, and his sister is 17 and also calls her that. that is annoying. also, i think momo is litterally mentally handicapped, or at least very stupid.
March 24th, 2006 at 9:24 am
sometimes i’ll call my dad, daddy…it’s usually used when i’m asking for something. but normally he’s just dad.
my maternal grandparents have always been called grandma and grandpa. and all of the other have been grandma + first name or grandpa + first name.
if caleb and i have kids, then we’ll probably do the grandma + first name or grandpa + first name, ’cause i agree with caleb.
on a side note, i dislike it when the husband calls the wife mom or the wife calls the husband dad.
March 24th, 2006 at 9:52 am
I call my dad, “Dickhead”
March 24th, 2006 at 10:04 am
> on a side note, i dislike it when the husband calls the wife mom or the
> wife calls the husband dad.
der bossman and his wif call each other “mommy” and “daddy”. Their appetite is “tummy”.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
The word “daddy” is fine.
Look, when I wasn’t able to speak clearly I would call me dad things like “dee-dad” and “dah-dah”. But my parents didn’t perpetuate it. You aren’t supposed to talk to a kid like they’re a kid. You talk to them in whole words, so they learn them properly. You don’t googly them and say “ooo-sooo-booo-sooo-booo-seee”. You say complete sentences. And words. And that’s how they learn.
This nickname scenario has got to stop.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Also note that I call red2 “momma” a lot, because she seems to not like it.
And now that I know she doesn’t like it, I can’t stop, because I’m too used to it.
March 24th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Caleb, just to clear up a language issue that might have led to this blog: Mama and Papa are NOT baby language or baby terms to address parents in Germany. They are NOT equivalent to English baby words such as dada or poopoo. They are simply among the more loving and gentle names you can use to address parents in my native tongue.
Also, my parents didn’t perpetuate any baby talk or nor did they fail in teaching me language. In fact, I started speaking clear adult words at nine months old and used complete sentences by 18 months of age. At that time and until I started kindergarten, I spoke perfect High German completely free of any regional dialects.
Furthermore, because my mom did so wonderfully with my early language development, I am now bilingual. I also used to speak nearly fluent Russian which I have lost over the past 10 years due to non-use. I also successfully studied French for two years.
March 24th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Sorry - I didn’t mean to target your specific entry. I’m not against the use of mama and papa.
I am against the use of “grampy” and “mah-maw”.
March 24th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
one note about parents calling each other mom and dad. when i was a kid, and realized that my mom and dad had real names, i thought that was cool as fuck, so i started calling them larry and jami…well they didn’t like that, so to keep us from doing that, they started calling each other mom and dad. that stopped when we were old enough to realize they didn’t want us calling them by their names.
March 27th, 2006 at 7:37 am
poopoo!