Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want DC to use Nan/Nana

294 replies

treehousepicture · 10/08/2015 09:52

I have just never liked this word and think I prefer grandma or similar but is it up to the person what they are called?

OP posts:
minilegofigure · 10/08/2015 10:23

Just changing the subject a bit but my kids were watching a show where there was a grand uncle. On the programme they called him Gruncle. From that my kids decided, when our time, came my DH should be a Gruncle and me a Grunty! Lol! Hopefully they will have forgotten about that when the time comes.

maybebabybee · 10/08/2015 10:23

SetPhasers I call my grandmother Nanny and always have, that's what she likes to be called. Who are you to dictate what other people should or should not call their relatives?

Lookingforwardtoholiday · 10/08/2015 10:25

I can't stand Nan or grandad and my parents feel the same. They are grandma and grandpa. I find it funny that people think that grandma and grandpa are old, I feel that nan and nanny are really old lady terms. My IL's are nana and papa, I'm not keen on either of those but they kind of evolved. I will definitely be a grandma and never ever a nan.

OnMyHols2015 · 10/08/2015 10:25

I can't tell you what my DM is called (by some of the GCS as it would completely out me - it's nothing at all like any of the proper names

I HATE it, (it makes me cringe ) my dcs call her by her fist name or nothing at all, which is kind of odd when they want her attention they have to go to her and tug on her sleeve or something

Redshoes55 · 10/08/2015 10:26

Rhine snobbery on mumsnet?

Seriously!

. Oritenan, we goin up town orite! Grin

ReganHero · 10/08/2015 10:27

Guilty - a female goat is a nanny goat.

I don't like Nan/Nanny/Nana either and would prefer Grandma or Granny but I think the 'gr' noise can be quite difficult for young children to make so I understand substitutions.

maninawomansworld · 10/08/2015 10:28

*I loathe Nana. Absolutely bloody hate it. Of course, my mil decided that's what she wanted to be called.

I had to suck it up. But I still can't stand it.*

Yes we had that too... Except I didn't suck it up. I informed MIL that acceptable choices were Nan, Granny or Grandma. She went with Nan after a lot of 'cats bum' faces.

My kids, my rules, if you don't like it then you know what you can do....

EatShitDerek · 10/08/2015 10:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

EatShitDerek · 10/08/2015 10:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bettercallsaul1 · 10/08/2015 10:31

If it's a close relationship, "Nanny/Nana" starts when the baby can put sounds together and speech is starting. Then the Nicknames start and the child settles on what it wants to use.

This is lovely and, if my child had done this, I would definitely have gone with it! (And how could Nan/Nana/Granny/Grandma possibly resist?!)

SamJohnsonsBoy · 10/08/2015 10:31

It's up to the person concerned IMO (DW hates "Nana" as much as you do - she was resolute that she's to be "Gran").

Heels99 · 10/08/2015 10:32

When children refer to nanny I never know whether they mean grandmother or paid child carer nanny e.g nanny is picking me up. Could be either gran or child carer type nanny

Sunshineandwaves · 10/08/2015 10:32

Think yourself lucky. My MIL (who I do get on with) decided to call herself "honey". I agreed as in my opinion it's her decision. However I really can't stand it. I'm waiting for my kids to reach an age where they decide to rename!

Icimoi · 10/08/2015 10:33

I don't think it can be solely up to the grandparents concerned, if only because of the problems if they both want to be called the same. In our house in effect DH and I dictated it, if only because our children unsurprisingly learnt most of their speech from us. Granny and Grandma for us - a nanny is either a goat or someone paid to look after children.

HeyMicky · 10/08/2015 10:34

The DCs' grandfathers are Pa and Poppy. I loathe both of those terms but mine aren't the first grandchildren and that's what they wanted for themselves.

I sympathise but you just have to suck it up

Sootgremlin · 10/08/2015 10:35

nanny is a job not a relative!

I actually find that quite snobby, coming from a family where grandmothers are always "Nanny" or "Nan" and one in which the idea of paying for a professional "Nanny" would have been ludicrously out of reach (and still is, come to think of it)

We have a Nan on one side and a Grandma on the other - she is the first Grandma on her side. It was left up to them to choose, as they had to be called it, and I really didn't care either way. (Although one did try and get herself called "Ma" by the back door, in a fit of new grandparent excitement, that was shot down quickly...)

Nan is able to be said a lot earlier than Grandma I've found.

Heels99 · 10/08/2015 10:36

I like pa and poppy!

Fishwives · 10/08/2015 10:37

I've just remembered a moment in a seminar when it became clear that a student reading out an essay had completely misunderstood a key scene in the novel we were discussing (Molly Keane's Good Behaviour, with some scenes set in a grand English country house in the early 1900s) because she thought that the character called 'Nanny' was the children's grandmother, not the aged family retainer.

Despite the fact that the character was ordered about by the children's very grand mother, wore a uniform and lived in the night nursery next to the servants' quarters with the younger children...

ILiveOnABuildsite · 10/08/2015 10:37

When my mil became a grandmother she didn't want to be called Nanna as that what what her mother was to dh and mil said it sounded terribly affected (her words and opinion) so she wanted to be Granny. So we all called her granny even though Nanna felt more natural to us, a few months later she changed her mind and wanted to be Nanna so we all changed, no matter because dd couldn't speak yet so no hardship for her. In the end it didn't really matter, as soon as dd started talking she decided to call her Sweetie and Sweetie she has remained since, we now also have a son who will most likely call her Sweetie as well.

I think you can say what you would prefer but sometimes children have ideas of they're own.

My mother is known as Mamie to my children, it's the French speaking side of my family and Mamie was also what I called my grandmother.

BertrandRussell · 10/08/2015 10:37

"Yes we had that too... Except I didn't suck it up. I informed MIL that acceptable choices were Nan, Granny or Grandma. She went with Nan after a lot of 'cats bum' faces.

My kids, my rules, if you don't like it then you know what you can do...."

You know, I have never heard the expression "my kids my rules" used by anyone who wasn't, to a greater or lesser extent, a dick.

Mulligrubs · 10/08/2015 10:38

I think it's up to the grandparents, it wouldn't have bothered me if they wanted the same names or anything.

My parents are granny and granda, my in laws are nanny and grandad. My DPs nan and grandad are also called nan and grandad by our DS and his cousins.

Those are the names they all wanted, my parents and in laws are only 47/48 and DPs grandparents are only 67/68 so not ancient! I don't think any grandparent nicknames sound "old" as some people on here do though.

MrsGentlyBenevolent · 10/08/2015 10:39

To me, all English words for Grandmother sound... well, old. Granny/grandma sounds like someone with a blue rinse and shopping cart, Nan/Nana are the ones on the Shreddies advert, love their knitting! My in-laws will be Grannie and Grandad, unless the kid chooses otherwise (obviously not to wind up mil, oh no Grin).

maybebabybee · 10/08/2015 10:39

You know, I have never heard the expression "my kids my rules" used by anyone who wasn't, to a greater or lesser extent, a dick.

This.

Redshoes55 · 10/08/2015 10:39

Manina bet you are a hoot at parties though. Smile

Sunshine honey??good grief that's hilarious.

Heels seriously children really refer to their au pair or childminder as the nanny are you kidding me. Around here the kids usually use the first name for a child carer.

CaptainHolt · 10/08/2015 10:39

If your parents and ILs already have other grandchildren then the names that they are called may be ready established and may be the same. Surely lots of people have 2 Grandmas/Nans/Granddads and manage to not be confused by it.

My kids, my rules, if you don't like it then you know what you can do

Your kids but not your name. Insisting that your children call someone a name they don't want to be called makes you a massive twat.

Confused by the concept on Nans/Nannas being younger than Grandmas.

Swipe left for the next trending thread