Hip baby boomers shun `granny' names

Houston Chronicle ^ | 3/20/04 | ELLEN WARREN

[qam1]

Hearing, "You don't look old enough to be a grandparent," is a little like being a good-looking corpse. Not the greatest compliment.

Baby boomers entering the grandparent years are launching a small semantic revolution to avoid the traditional label of senior citizen status. These youth cult boomers are demanding that their grandkids call them names with a younger sound than the traditional "grandma" and "grandpa."

"Baby boomers don't want to adhere to the blue-haired old granny stereotype. They are choosing young-sounding names for themselves because generally they don't think of themselves as grandparent age," says Norah Burch, 30, a self-described "name nerd" who has been tracking options for the new slew of first-time grandparents on her Web site, www.namenerds.com.

Burch's own mother decided that her grandchildren would call her "Moogie," the term for "mother" from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

"I don't have any problem, even for one second, being a grandmother. For me it's just the name," explained Laura Burch, who became a grandmother, at age 51, to Mikala, who is now 9 (followed by Jacob, 5, and Ari, 2).

Norah Burch says her mom, a potter who lives in Ithaca, N.Y., chose the unconventional name "because she associated `grandma' and `granny' et al with bingo playing and driving a giant Oldsmobile."

"My mom and her whole circle of friends, when they started having grandkids in their 50s, the thought of being called `grandma' was pretty awful to them. They weren't gray-haired old ladies sitting around in rocking chairs baking cookies."

One correspondent on namenerds.com writes, "My mom is your typical white middle-class suburban Southern Baptist Bible-thumpin' Dubya-suppportin' Texan. She has big, puffy, shellacked blond hair and wears T-shirts with three-dimensional objects hanging off them. She believes in Jesus Christ, the Republican Party, craft fairs and spiral perms. She has rebelled against Grandma because it sounds `old' and she's only 41."

She wants her grandkids to call her "Peaches." "She's even thinking of having a peach tattooed on her toe."

[TontoKowalski]

... They weren't gray-haired old ladies sitting around in rocking chairs baking cookies."

One more thing. I thank God every day for knowing my Grandmothers (rest their souls). Both were gray and spent many hours rocking grandchildren in their rockers, and I couldn't even begin to count the cookies they must have made for their families over the years.

These women left a lasting legacy in the form of children and grandchildren who cherish their memory, and strive to emulate their selflessness and faith and compassion. It really pisses me off for shallow liberals to turn their noses up at women like my Grandmothers.

[HitmanLV]

The most self absorbed generation, ever. It's all about them, and not the grandkids. Remarkable!

[Richard Kimball]

They're worried about being seen as old and out of it, and still use the word "hip"? How bistro can you be?

[codyjacksmom]

Just doing my job...

[Aggie Mama]

Ha! =)

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Moogie?

[Junior]

Whatever happened to Mamaw and Papaw?

[DameAutour]

All of this makes me so sad. The Bible says that in the time of the end people would be "unthankful" and "having no natural affection".

To have grey hairs is a thing of honor. To be a parent and a grandparent is one of the most wonderful things a person can experience.

[Betteboop]

Call me whatever you want, just give me the grandkids---I'm waiting!! :)

[Robe]

Happiness is seeing your Mother-In-Law's
picture on a milk carton

[radiohead]

I guess I'm about to get my baby boomer faced smacked here, but isn't this just an argument of form over susbstance? No one has said that these people don't enjoy being grandparents or that they are shunning any responsibilities that come with the job. They just want to be called something else. So what?

My sister's grandkids call her 'Oma.' I don't have grandchildren yet, but am opting for 'Nana' (which is fairly common. We called our grandmother Nana.) when the time comes.

Now that I see 'Moogie,' the ST fan in me is finding that quite cute and attractive. Bubbe is nice as well. Who cares what you're called?

[anniegetyourgun]

When that day comes, I'm thinking of asserting the title of 'mother superior'.....

[GraniteStateConservative]

Baby Boomers should just be put in mass graves. What a terrible plague of social ills they've brought to our country. They've managed to not only live up to their stereotype, but embrace it and express pride in it. A pathetic generation.

[MaryFromMichigan]

Let this be a lesson to you!!!

Never sign up on a board when you're in a silly mood or drunk!

[Constitution Day]

My dad and mom are "Papa" and "Granny" to my 3-year-old, and that's what they want to be called.

Maybe my parents differ from the folks in the article in that they weren't wasted on drugs and protesting the war in the 60's.

[ErnBatavia]

Any day now, we'll hear that the Heathers and Jareds of the world are becoming grandparents....time flies.

[Incorrigible]

her mom, a potter who lives in Ithaca, N.Y.,

City of Evil bump!

[Antoninus]

Burch's own mother decided that her grandchildren would call her "Moogie," the term for "mother" from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Baby boomers are *so* hip....

[angcat]

LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ebenezer]

"Next title from an article:

'Baby Boomers shun being dead'"

"Dead"? Too politically incorrect. Maybe "metaphysically challenged", as was suggested in an episode of the cult cable TV classic "Mystery Science Theater 3000".

Whatever you want to be called, if your kid has kids, you are a GRANDPARENT! Deal with it!