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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wish people wouldn't use the word "nana"

675 replies

IDoughnutKnow · 26/07/2023 19:25

Unless you are a toddler and are talking about bananas.

People never used it back in the good old days of MN.

OP posts:
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6
RitzyMcFitzy · 26/07/2023 20:34

In fact, don't think I know anyone with a 'nanna' in Ireland.

Original poster
IDoughnutKnow · 26/07/2023 20:34

DonnaDonna0 · 26/07/2023 20:31

I hope it was a joke that your grown up kids still call you mummy, I find that far more desperate and annoying than nana. 😂

It was absolutely not a joke. As I say, though, I know it's frowned on in MN circles.

OP posts:
MrsWaterMelon · 26/07/2023 20:34

We always called my mums mum Nana.
My dads mum, we called Grandma.

My mum is Nanny (my dd started calling her that as soon as she could talk)

If I’m fortunate enough to be a grandparent one day, I’d much prefer to be called Nana!

stopbeingacunt · 26/07/2023 20:34

OK Grandmama. I imagine you being 70 and your kids still calling you Mummy and Daddy 😂

BettyBallerina · 26/07/2023 20:34

My dear mum was a wonderful Nana to my dc.

Gerrataere · 26/07/2023 20:34

Tulips2507 · 26/07/2023 20:31

Is there any word for grandmother that is acceptable on Mumsnet? Grandma too old, mama to similar to mum, and now we can't have nana?!

I had a Nain and Taid but obviously nowhere outside of Englishland even comes on to most of MNs radar 🤣

Original poster
IDoughnutKnow · 26/07/2023 20:35

AnorLondo · 26/07/2023 20:31

Well at least you admit you're a vile stuck up snob.

Show quote history

I'll admit to being a snob, but not to being vile.

OP posts:
HunterHearstHelmsley · 26/07/2023 20:35

stopbeingacunt · 26/07/2023 20:34

OK Grandmama. I imagine you being 70 and your kids still calling you Mummy and Daddy 😂

If your adult children are calling you mummy, they definitely want money 🤣

BeardyButton · 26/07/2023 20:35

You prefer ‘Grandmama’? Are you the gentry OP? Like the Bridgertons? If not, are you verrrrry aspirational? Your posts come across as a bit pathetic, really!

Barold · 26/07/2023 20:36

HunterHearstHelmsley · 26/07/2023 20:29

I'm from dinner and tea shire too.

However, I now use them interchangeably for maximum confusion.

Sometimes dinner and tea, sometimes lunch and tea. If I really want to blow everyone's minds then i have dinner and dinner.

I hope you're suitably shook.

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😂 I do this a bit too! I was just about to say ‘never dinner and dinner though. That’s too much.’ but I think I do that on Sundays that involve a roast!

Original poster
IDoughnutKnow · 26/07/2023 20:36

@QueSyrahSyrah I love Cheeky Doylem!

You are making my head spin, @MargosMangos Grin

OP posts:
Housefullofcatsandkids · 26/07/2023 20:37

IDoughnutKnow · 26/07/2023 20:20

There are actually some very lovely names for grandparents on this thread. So it's not entirely just 'snobby'. One of my (mainland European) grandfathers was known as Grompère.

As in the French word 'Grand-père'?

Original poster
IDoughnutKnow · 26/07/2023 20:37

And you, @HunterHearstHelmsley

OP posts:
TheaBrandt · 26/07/2023 20:37

Never! Was what my lovely working class granny wanted to be known as and will always be known as. One of the best people who ever lived. RIP. Politely op you can fuck right off.

Original poster
IDoughnutKnow · 26/07/2023 20:38

Housefullofcatsandkids · 26/07/2023 20:37

As in the French word 'Grand-père'?

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Yes, but pronounced by one of his small English grandchildren (my brother). It stuck.

OP posts:
Gerrataere · 26/07/2023 20:38

IDoughnutKnow · 26/07/2023 20:34

It was absolutely not a joke. As I say, though, I know it's frowned on in MN circles.

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Sorry op, I do try not to judge as I come from a culture that is often taken the mick out of and it’s horrible. But even I cannot hear a plum English adult refer to their parents as ‘Mummy and Daddy’. It’s just so so cringey to hear. I’m sure I’ve heard Jack Whitehall call his parents the same and I wonder how how he doesn’t get ripped to shreds by his non nepo friends.

jannier · 26/07/2023 20:38

I'm 60 I had a nanna in Surrey and a nain from Wales my friend has a nonna from Italy I definitely wouldn't want to be called memaw or granny or grandma

Rachie1973 · 26/07/2023 20:39

IDoughnutKnow · 26/07/2023 19:53

@AnotherThingToThinkAbout That's actually an interesting link, and it surprises me (though maybe it shouldn't). I thought everyone in real life used "Granny" and it was only on MN that people use Nan or Nana-pronounced-Nanna.

Granny is for really old ladies.

Original poster
IDoughnutKnow · 26/07/2023 20:39

HunterHearstHelmsley · 26/07/2023 20:35

If your adult children are calling you mummy, they definitely want money 🤣

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🤣🤣
This is invariably true.

OP posts:
Riv · 26/07/2023 20:39

In the”good old days” Nana was definitely used as a name for the mother of a parent. My mother and her mother used it for their relations (so going back to at least 1900 when my nana was born)
For our family (and the wider neighbourhood where I was brought up in North East England) Nana usually refers to the mother’s mother and Grandma to the fathers mother. There are rules about forenames and surnames added after title if someone wants ignore the convention and have all the grandchildren use the same title!

ASGIRC · 26/07/2023 20:39

When you say the good old days... exactly how many days ago do you mean?
Because in the Peter Pan book, published in 1911, Nana was already used...

Gerrataere · 26/07/2023 20:39

BeardyButton · 26/07/2023 20:35

You prefer ‘Grandmama’? Are you the gentry OP? Like the Bridgertons? If not, are you verrrrry aspirational? Your posts come across as a bit pathetic, really!

I know someone very much like the op. Wannabe Poshos, or Delusions of Grandeur if you want to be nice.

Yorkshiredolls · 26/07/2023 20:40

My kids have got a Nain, cos they’re a Welsh family, is that Ok with you Grandparent police?

PollyThePixie · 26/07/2023 20:41

I had Nana’s and I’m I’m now a Nana to 8.

I love being Nana.

TheDogsMother · 26/07/2023 20:41

Both mine were Nana's and one was Irish, one Scottish. I'm 60