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AIBU?

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AIBU to expect relatives to learn to spell and use DDs name?

204 replies

Bella5C · 26/05/2025 19:04

my Dd is almost 2. I am a single parent with grown up children as well. Dd doesn’t know her biological father. He’s not in the picture. However, his family are. They see her weekly/fortnightly or less if they’re on holiday or have medical issues.
Dd has an Irish spelt name. It’s probably one of the harder ones to spell/pronounce. I love it, I learned immediately how to spell it. I have no concerns that she will struggle. As far as I’m concerned once you know how to spell it, you know? People still spell my name and my grown up kids names wrong so I look at it like, with it being quite a unique name, you are going to learn it so you’re not getting it completely wrong.
my Issue is that her relatives (not mine) refuse to learn how to spell it and just refer to her as ‘the wee one’. I easily picked up on this in their texts and didn’t think too much of it. Accepted it really, but then, her Grandmother said to me ‘oh he (her partner) saw a woman holding a child at the end of the road and stopped and said he thought it was Bella5C and the wee one’
she obviously heard herself as she then said to me when leaving, I call her the wee one because I don’t know how to spell her name? AIBU to assume she doesn’t like her name and is refusing to use it? I can understand not spelling it in a text if you think you’ll spell it wrong but to not say her name out loud and use that excuse is surely, a load of crap? Just looking for opinions really, although I may eventually say something?

OP posts:
Cherrysoup · 26/05/2025 19:09

Write it in messages frequently so she sees it. They say it takes 9 times for most things to sink in (Gian Franco Conti, big language teacher guru, swears by this) Maybe they have no idea. If they still don’t use it, I’d politely ask them to learn it. How will/do they address her face to face?! Idid chuckle when my student teacher called a student ‘Neem’. I bet you can guess her Irish name!

Springadorable · 26/05/2025 19:07

Some Irish names are very hard to say. One friend's name I still can't say properly (sounds ok to me but apparently I'm doing it wrong). Maybe she's worried about getting it too wrong?

BallerinaRadio · 26/05/2025 19:05

I think 'wee one' etc is a lot more common than you might think and probably nothing to do with the name

Shesellsseashellsnotinmystreet · 26/05/2025 19:05

Buy dd a t-shirt or bag with her name.... Has she seen dd's name written down? Maybe she genuinely can't spell it and is too embarrassed to say..