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."

[Nea Wood]

What's with all the boomer bashing? There are good and bad people in every generation. When the Gen-Xers start becoming grandparents, let's see if they want to be called "Granny" or "Pops" or "Old-Timer" or such.

[mabelkitty]

Hip baby boomers - oxymoron alert.

[cupcakes]

I agree...remember when we were talking about another baby boomer topic the other day. Again, this is my mother! ARGH! What is funny is I'm only 34, greying and probably getting wrinkled too and I'm looking forward to being a grandma someday. I certainly am not looking forward to being closer to death, but getting old and being a grandparent in and of itself does not scare me one bit. What is wrong with that generation? They seem to have an awfully hard time moving on to the next portion of their lives don't they? Again, my mother is the same way. I sense an underlying jealousy that I am pregnantand in my most fertile years(while I could understand a certain sadness might come with your first grandchild and the realizations of getting other, this is her 3rd grandchild by her daughter in 6 years--you think she would have dealt with those issues by now). I know her mother(WWII generation)never behaved in such a manner.
My mom doesn't have a problem so much with the titles though as with actually doing anything that might make her appear grandmotherly. She won't get down on the floor and play with the kids or do things with them or share things about herself as a child/adult, instead she primps and goes out with her boyfriend and avoids the grandkids like the plague lest they mess her hair or clothes up. She's way beyond being worried about semantics.

[Temple Drake]

that is IT! I am telling all my kids to make their children call me that when the time comes ... PERFECT!

[Blood of Tyrants]

Sorry. (snicker!)

[ModelBreaker]

If this somewhat-less-than-hip boomer lives long enough, he will be proud to be called 'Grandpa.'

[hunter112]

Who cares what you're called?

I guess the corollary to that question is, why start asking for respect now? Maybe its different in other areas of the country, but I don't know any baby boomers who have ever insisted on being called Mr. or Mrs. (or even Ms.) and their last name by any of their friends' kids. Schoolteachers are about the only people that get addressed that way anymore.

I've expressed support for parents who have told their kids to call me Mr. Hunter, I like to do that in front of the kids, so that they will know that not EVERYBODY of my generation wants to be known as their peer.

[cupcakes]

LOL--Again, so my mother. She only wants them to know if she gets a compliment out of it ie, I can't believe your a grandmother.

[My2Cents]

That's a good one. I'll suggest that to my wife, who's called "Gammie" by our 15 month old grandson.

[Clemenza]

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."

I'm sure you've been pinged on this already, but methinks there are many people into pottery (and organic farming and yoga) in Ithaca.

[cupcakes]

LMAO--same here. My paternal grandmother was always Grandmom(said with a Baltimorian accent) and my British grandmother was always Nana or grandmother.

[Jemian]

sitting around in rocking chairs baking cookies."

I have never tried to bake anything while sitting in a rocking chair.

[Clemenza]

Thanks for the ping. My boomer parents have no problem being called grandma and grampa. My brother-in-laws mother on the other hand is against it.

Boomers: The generation that refuses to accept mortality and aging.

[joesnuffy]

Ah get used to it....you probably made fun of the old farts when you were a kid...

and now you are one & only getting your just paybacks....enjoy it...

It aint all that bad...& its a lot easier to stay out of trouble these days....lol

[cupcakes]

A grandchild that comes up with a name that just ends up sticking is different then grown folks insisting that their grandchildren call them something than what they already are.
My mother got her wish only because her first grandkid, my daughter, called her Mi-Mi since she was one year old. It just kind of stuck, fortunately enough for her;-) She did try to get her to call her something else though, but it didn't work out;-)

[mabelkitty]

I can't wait for their children to start asking them about "living wills" and "quality of life" issues.

[jocon307]

"Baby Boomers should just be put in mass graves"

Easy there, fella! Like most other places we've probably got a majority of baby boomers on this site. I'm one. No genocidal advocacy of my b*tt on the threads, please!

We do Nana/Pop-pop and Grandma & Grandpa. Everyone got the name they preferred with no arguing!

When I was a kid we addressed both Grandmas as Grandma (we didn't really have Grandpas, only one and he died with the oldest of us was 4) but we made up names to distinguish them when we spoke about them. We had a serious meeting (we were so little, I still can't believe we did this, but we did) and decided on Daddy-ama for my dad's mom and Mary-ama for my mother's mom, 'cause Mama-ama didn't sound so good to us.

But I imagine someone might like it, if so, feel free. Another LOVELY name I heard once, for a woman who wasn't the kids grandmother, but a very close, elderly (can you still say that!) family friend, "Lady Grandma", and it really suited her too, a very elegant woman.

[cupcakes]

Well if she can't accept she's old, then she'll need to accept that she's disabled. My 28 yr old brother needs a cane still after a hip and leg surgery that has not healed.

[jwalburg]

No. Wouldn't be safe. And what's all this baking cookie bashing anyway? Cookie baking in my book is a whole lot better than paper shuffling. At least kids can eat the cookies.

[muggs]

You got that right.