Am I a laughing stock?

You grey rock your mum because you don't think her jokes are funny?

Yeah I would keep saying Towers loads around your sister now to wind her up.

Sounds like she was quite mean. Have your fun OP!

My Mum will do that re repeating “in jokes” from her family from when she and her sisters will young.

Callinf something by her younger sister’s baby name for it etc. It’s not funny if you weren’t in on it at a the time!

And then if she says it in conversation and you ignore it, she’ll keep repeating it to get a reaction!

I don’t think OP sounds like that though.

OP - I mentioned this thread to my teenager and she thought it sounded funny and obviously a joke, and not cringe at all.

Jeez you guys sound so miserable and judgey. Don’t you have any silly family traditions you dredge up year after year?

I think if you stop hosting as much they'll have to step up and then you can tell them how cringe their efforts are! Your sister sounds mean spirited and jealous tbh.

Oh, OP. I would double-down on it now you know. Just to tighten the screw.

Eh?

My dad is very similar. Taking words I mis- said as a toddler and still saying them 40 years later. And he even went through a phase of telling people what I’d said as a toddler even when I was in my 20s!! But nobody was interested really. I mean who cares about what someone else’s toddler said decades before!

I do feel that people who do this sort of thing are looking for some sort of approval. It was funny and worked once and got people laughing so let’s do it again to try and make people laugh and be seen as likeable. I do feel that op is behaving in a similar way. The issue is that when done over and over and over again for years, it not only becomes not funny, it becomes extremely irritating and annoying.

I try to avoid people like this (although I can’t avoid my dad), especially in the op’s case because I feel it has some sort of childish element and that maybe they haven’t quite grown up or that they seek approval and attention from people and it’s too much like hard work for me to keep laughing at their jokes that after many years, are no longer funny.

People are being harsh. It’s just your little joke and I applaud you. There’s not enough silliness in the world. Also you sound like a lovely host. It seems like some people in your circle have lost their sense of humour. Your mum and sister sound spiteful - laughing at you while still accepting your hospitality. You don’t need to stop having a name for your home, but next t8me make it clear anyone who thinks Surname Towers is wanky can stay home.

I have an acquaintance mainly FB ‘friends’ now), who says this EXACT thing (“X Towers”) but about her parent’s home. I find it insufferable, but that’s 99% because she and her whole family are insufferable rather than the phrase itself. She/they think they’re amazing, but most people agree that they’re pompous self righteous twits.

Definitely don’t blame your sister for this!!

My brother does this , but with his and his partners surname combined & ‘manor’ on the end , their house is rather grand but it is definitely a joke ! To my knowledge nobody has took the piss …

Ahh you sound like my mum.

This will sound harsh, but she generally isn't considered a "funny" person. Kind in her own way, but not really life and soul of the party. But one the rare occasion that she does say or do something witty or amusing, she then repeats it, over and over, for years.

It is usually deliberately mispronouncing a word. Or calling something by a nonsense name. Company might chuckle, but then she will never use the correct word or name again. I have started grey rocking because I just can't respond anymore.

There is a bright green one near me ( think 1960s Neopolitan(?) ice cream with 3 colours) and it's quite useful in an area where few properties have numbers.

When Amazon get lost we say, go past the green ice-cream bungalow and turn left ....

I think it's fun...some people have zero sense of humour or are too unintelligent to see that you are joking.

The British used to be renowned for this type of self deprecating wit. What a shame we have become so literal and joyless

This is so cringe.
I’d roll my eyes and snigger too. Is this out of character or are you like this in other ways. Maybe your friends just overlook this because you’re otherwise not David Brent-like. I’m not surprised no-one has directly told you to pack it in because you might have felt hurt.

This with bells on.

I would stop inviting them to your place to be honest.

If they ask why, say that they have made fun of your home for the last time, and maybe they like to go to a restaurant and pay-through-the nose for hospitality?

As I said I don’t believe she thinks it’s a joke, she bought a PLAQUE, she used it on invitations and phone calls. Most of her family and friends were just going along with her to not hurt her feelings but now they’ve had enough.

You had a plaque made? Omg, OP. I’m embarrassed for you.

If you lived in a proper old, large mansion with turrets then go ahead and name it Towers. But you don’t. You live in a bog standard house.

Loads of houses have names instead of numbers, or both. So naming a house isn’t unusual. My house is Rose Cottage. I didn’t name it that, it’s been that for a very very long time. But the name suits it, and I didn’t name it after my family’s surname. The whole thing you’ve done is very cringey, especially writing it in cards and invitations as if it’s an actual venue or well known, old property.

My mum also grew up on a farm and the house had a sort of “estate” name. She told me a story from when she first started school and the teacher had them write down their addresses. She wrote hers. Teacher shouted at her because “houses have numbers and streets, not names” and actually called my gran in about it! So, houses do have names and have for a long time. But… yours is weird and naval gazey and embarrassing, as made clear by your mum, sister and friend.

Rather bitchy of your mother and sister to take delight in making you feel stupid. Unkind . It could be worse . An acquaintance of me lives in a cul de sac that for some reason thinks probably as they were self built on the past is somehow an exclusive club we should aspire to . Constantly referring to her female neighbours as The Orchard Mums . Cringe .

As a joke or a one off as a joke is fine but if it's a regular thing, depending on what you're like generally it might come over as a bit Hyacinth Bouquet-ish.

Just ignore your sister though. Sisters have the uncanny knack of managing to put the boot in where it stings most (mixed metaphor but you get the drift).

OP's got upset because she thought it was still a joke and her family and friends shared that joke with her. She's now discovered otherwise and in a rather unpleasant way - that's why she's started this thread.

When I got home I rang my friend and asked her if the towers name annoys her and she said “no course not” so I asked if she knew if it annoyed anyone else to which she hesitated and then said “not annoy as such”. She wouldn’t elaborate further.

^ This is the key bit because it shows that your friends or wider social circle thinks it is cringey.

Personally, I'd cut your sister and mother some slack her because with things like that when it starts it's not a problem but when it becomes a 'thing' that has been going on for ages, it is very VERY difficult to address it because you know it is likely to upset the person and be awkward so you let it slide. Then you don't want to raise it simply because it has been going on for SO long.

Those kind of 'I should have said something years ago, now its too late what can I do OOPS ITS ALL ERUPTED when I lost my temper/had a bad day/finally couldn't take any more/family crisis happened AND THEN I blurted it all out' situations aren't unknown.

Yes it's not great they were laughing about it but you can see why.

There's no big issue here really. It's trivial. If it upsets you, just stop doing it and then in about 12 months it will be forgotten unless you make a big thing of it. Or if you like it and have the courage of your convications, ignore it and carry on.

Imagine you had a major family crisis tomorrow - cancer or terminal illness diagnosis, someone was killed, limp amputation, lost job and income - how likely is it that you would care about any of this. Perspective is the key!

I think l would have struggled to keep quiet any longer at the point you started abbreviating it to 'The Towers'. ...as clearly your sister did. Can't explain why, but it's almost like reinforcing it , by giving it it's own abbreviation,. when it was clearly already annoying your sister and others enough.

She sounds like the kind of person who has a “you don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps!” sign in her office.