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

[IDoughnutKnow]

Unless you are a toddler and are talking about bananas.

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

Mine too but this was the name her mother chose for her grandchildren to call her. The eldest was born 1941 so well before MN. Wasn't the dog in Peter Pan called Nana?

I don't like it myself, but I don't care what other people call their grandmothers. I was mixed pleased/not pleased when my adult stepdaughter suggested that her children might call me Nanadelilah though. She was adult when I met her so I have always been very careful not to impose myself as stepmother or grandmother, thinking that that must come from her. I am Granny to my own grandchildren but will be very happy to be Nanadelilah to her children.

My daughter is 19 and calls me Mummy. I have told her that people might laugh at her if she doesn’t change to Mum soon. I suggested we start practising with Mum. She refused point blank. How can I save her from being mocked as an adult??

You can't.
You don't know she'll be bullied. People might just think she's really posh. 😁

I will send her for elocution lessons and find some battered tweed on eBay.

What?! There are loads! (Spelt 'nana' tho).

Some adults do say mummy/daddy. My nephew in his 30's does and no-one bats an eyelid - mind you he is 6'5" and enormous!

I like the way some Irish friends will talk about their mammies - I think it sounds lovely. Both of mine switched to mum by 12-13

I find it odd that she didn’t switch like her friends did. Her friends don’t mock her at all. Maybe it will only happen when she is older and posting on MN ;-)

I agree, it's horrid. And must make the woman feel totally ancient.

You probably need to get out more / get a job.

@LaMaG

and your Mum becomes Gran.

I'm Irish in Ireland, lots of connections with different parts of the country.
I don't think I've ever really heard 'gran' used here.

@JMSA

I agree, it's horrid. And must make the woman feel totally ancient.

Unlike grandmother/grandma then? 🤔

Such an odd comment!

You can't honestly think that only Irish people or members of the Travelling Community use this word?!

(And it's not massively common in Ireland either, just certain parts, and many other words, including as Gaeilge (Irish) are also used.)

🙄

I like the way some Irish friends will talk about their mammies - I think it sounds lovely.

I still say 'Mammy' (and called my dad, 'Daddy' when he was still alive)

My own DC call me 'Mammy' too, but now coming into teens, the boys find it embarrassing but can't make 'Mam' or 'Mum' work ... they are calling me by my name instead, at least publicly & I quite like it. My 16 yo DD happily uses Mammy still.

You probably need to get out more / get a job.

😂😂😂

I love this thread so much

it’s like the old days. 😙😍😍😍😍😍

What a weird thread. I had a nanna and my mum is nanna to my son. What's wrong with nanna? My mum's mum was grandma but she liked to call herself grandmama 😂

Thank you for that info, Float. That fits very much with the geography of my maternal family and I'm pleased to hear of its prevalence there. It's a lovely word.

My nana and grancher spoke in a wonderful west country dialect. Rich and round. And no object was an 'it'. Everything - kettles, chairs, whatever - was 'he'.

All the words for grandparents are lovely, and many of them seemed to be used in patchworks across the UK, rather than being confined to a single region.

(I don't really believe that the op is as hostile to nana as she claims. How could anyone be? Just having a bit of a laugh.)

I think if she made it to 19 she'll probably be ok, teenagers are the worst for bullying.

This is a class thing......

Honestly there's are some ridiculous comments on this thread.
ITV families 🙄

This is an utterly batshit thing.

You've got to be a special kind of twat to object to a child's word for grandmother.

Result!

Great work OP. 🏅