to be gobsmacked and rather offended!

[hollyandnoah]

I dont evan know how to start this!

I was on the bus today, off to meet another lovely mntter.
Has ds in his buggy. Another buggy got on, a bloke who lives around the corner from me, i see him at least everyweek, know him by first name. He always says hello as do i, and we've never passed by eachother without him saying hello and speaking to ds - putting money in his pram when he was born blabla.

He is in his 40's i guess.. got on with his daughters(shes young-15- thats all im going by with his age) new baby. I was talking to him and asked how he was liking being a papa.

My dad is called papa.. didnt think anything of it, it's just natural to me to say papa because both my grandfathers were papa to me.

To which he replied.. I'm no papa, i didnt know you were a fenian, farking pape catholic. And so on...
I waqs so stunned all i could say was.. oo what do you get called then. bloody idiot i am never usually left stunned!

WHAT was that all about? What does calling a grandfather papa have to do with religion? I was stunned. I felt reallllly silly.

he is a nutjob

he sounds a rather scary man who is probably best avoided

YANBU

Oo and to make my bus trips worse! On the way home, i offered a pregnany lady my seat next to the buggy because she was standing, asked her how long she had to go...and she wasn't even pregnant!

Where are the black holes when you need them!

oh, we call our dad 'papa' .

whats a fenian?
maybe he was upset you thought he was the childs father?

xpost sorry.

No no i know he was grandad, lol, i call my grandad papa :s and my dads paps to ds.. I knew who he was.. A fenion is something to do with irish nationalists.. i believe!

i always have to talk about how where i come from people respect pregnant women and offer seats to them (very loudly)on public transport. i would have appreciated your seat if that makes you feel any better.

Are you in Northern Ireland and do you come from that area originally.

All I can think is that you live in an area where catholics call non-catholics "papa" as a term of abuse.

You in your innocence were unaware of this. I'm just guessing. I'd be gobsmacked too.

papa not paps lol

I can't say I've heard that the term to be used by any particular religion. He's a loon.

I'm in Scotland, yeh, could have different meanings :|

A fenian is a degrotary term used by Prodestants Loyalists to Catholic Nationalists.

He sounds like an obnoxious bigoted arse.

www.catholicoutpost.com/holymoly/?p=19

The pope must be referred to as Papa some places. I googled it :

Oh, strangly enough, parts of Scotland, even today, still have strong anti-catholic communities. It wasn't so very long ago that in parts of Scotland you had to put your school down on application forms even for very very menial jobs (as an unofficial way of rooting out the catholics). You wouldn't believe it would you?

Fenian

:| I obviously didn't mean that he was the babys pope though :S He might not have heard that some grandas are papas.
Ah well.. what a freaky man! Think i'll be crossing over next time i see him.

Having said all that, I do think it was unkind of you to refer to him as "papa". Why on earth did you say that?

I have never ever heard of any grandfather being referred to as papa.

Really?

I went to St Frances rc primary, and then St Mungos high!
I woulda stood no chance! I'll need to remember that next time i apply somewhere.

Yes I just posted a reply to say that some catholics refer to the Pope as Papa but pooter crashed and I lost it!!

YANBU, complete arsehole, ignore him and his ridiculous prejudices. I am not catholic and my Dad is Papa to my DS. Know plenty of other non-catholic Papas too...

What if YOU had been catholic tho? He was completely out of order to be so offensive whether you are or aren't. Shame he is your neighbour but I would ignore him from now on.

I just asked,

"How are you enjoying being a papa then?"

I was in no way being unkind. I just meant like, is he liking it, because it is his first grandkid.

My mums father, and my dads father were known as Papa to all of us ( and there is a fair few!)

Also my dad is 'papa' to my ds and dn.

I know lots and lots of people who call their grandfather papa. More than i know grandads.

I didn't set out to be unkind, infact i was judt being friendly, or so i thought

One of my grandads was Papa and my dad is Papa to my ds. It's quite common round here (as a name for grandads) and I've never come across any religious divide in it. (I'm in Scotland too). I certainly don't think you were wrong to call him that.

Nametaken, I posted a thread a while back saying that I hated FIL calling himself papa to DD (I'm Catholic btw so no religious issues, just think it's poncey). I was inundated with mnetters who use the term for male relatives so it's a lot more common than you'd think, especially it seemed in Scotland.

sparkletoes - thank you! lol i got a bit worried at 'nametaken's reply there.. lol i thought maybe my family were mental!

When I stared going out with DH my MIL came to the door at 8 am to ask if I had "any Papal blood in me?" .