Tiger was a cat!*
Gosh, I swear I have written about this before, but can’t seem to find it!
Growing up (and now!) what did (do) you call your grandparents?
Ours were the traditional “Grandpa” and “Grandma.” Only, we didn’t call them by Grandpa paternal/maternal last name and Grandma paternal/maternal last name, we called them by their pet’s names! Grandpa and Grandma Tiger, and Grandpa and Grandma Pete**. Those names were easier for us to remember, and even after Tiger and Pete both passed away, we still called them by those names. Even to this day, it’s “Grandma Tiger” and “Grandma Pete.”
It wasn’t until I had cousins that I even realized that kids call their grandparents things other than Grandpa and Grandma. I remember the first time my cousins called our grandpa “Papa,” I thought they were talking to their dad! Ha ha.
So I am curious to hear what you called/call yours! Or… if you are a grandparent, what you are called! I was talking to Gina about this during our recent visit and she said their parents had very specific names they wanted to be used, which I found interesting!
I’ve been thinking about my paternal grandpa (Grandpa Tiger) a lot recently. The Longest Day event is coming up toward the end of June, and I am raising money for the Alzheimer’s Association with Rachel and her team (see my donation page, here). Grandpa Tiger did not have Alzheimer’s – he had Lewy Body Dementia – but I am still participating in this event with him in mind. I think research on all dementia is important, as well as care for those who have it, and support for the care takers. I bet too many of you can relate to a family member having dementia, and know the pain of seeing someone you love slip away more each day as the dementia takes a stronger hold.
Whoa! I didn’t mean for this to get all sad. I have actually been thinking of all the good memories of Grandpa Tiger. And it makes me very happy to be on this team, and promoting the research. If you want to donate to my page, please check it out, here!
*Tiger was actually a dog*** (so was Pete) but I like to insist Tiger was a cat cause it makes my snister nuts. Love you, Snistina!!!
**pronounced Petey
***Kind of funny that we called them after a pet who I couldn’t remember anything about! I am not even sure if all of my siblings met Tiger!
Themocracy
We called my maternal grandpa “Donkey Grampa” – all of his grandkids did. He would do this silly thing with his hands to make donkey ears and I think that’s how it stuck. Grandma was just Grandma…my father’s parents both died before we were born so we didn’t have to differentiate between the two sets, though in reference we do call them Grandma and Grandpa Bovin.
I never realized that people called their grandparents anything other than that until I was older too…nana and papa, etc etc. Kim’s kids call her mom Busia (boo-sha) which I think is Polish for grandma.
I love that you called yours after their pets. Grandpa Tiger is such a cool name!
Ahh! That is awesome. Please tell me you have a pic of him doing the donkey ears?! And what a bummer you never got to meet your father’s parents! 🙁
Busia! Aww. Wait. So does Kim know all about Śmigus-Dyngus?!?!?
We call Adam’s stepfather “Pupup” (phonetic pronunciation). And there’s been some disconnect on how to spell it. His stepdad wanted to spell it “Pop Pop” but that wouldn’t work well with a phonetic pronunciation. =D
The name “Grandpa Tiger” sounds so bad-ass! He must have been a very inspiring man!
Pupup! That is fun! Ha ha. So how do you address him in writing?
He was! He was one of those guys who would tackle ANY project. I can totally see where my dad got that from. My grandma says she knew something was up when he went to fix something in the house and said he couldn’t remember how. 🙁
Heh, if we called my dad’s parents by pet names there’d be like 10 of them. They had ALL THE CATZ. Seriously, there was always a minimum of 3 cats in their house (and one dog in the 50’s, apparently). They were just Grandpa & Grandma, or G&GS. My grandma on my mom’s side has always been “Grammy,” so nothing too exciting.
Ha ha. Luckily, they both just had one pet at the time we named then. Then later on they had more but the names were stuck! You would have had to pick a favorite pet, I guess 😉
My mom’s parents were Nana & Papa when I was growing up. I started calling them grandma and grandpa probably once I was in high school and college, though.
My dad’s parents were Grandma and Grandpa Van (shortened version of our last name) and then when Grandma Van died my Grandpa married a woman named Bertha and we just called her Bert.
Jason’s mom’s grandkids call her Choo-Choo Grandma and her husband Papa Tom.
Why did you decide to switch was you were calling them?
Ha ha! Choo-choo grandma! Is this because she sometimes arrives on train, or…?
I think when we stopped going to visit them as often I didn’t feel a connection with them so I felt weird calling them by pet names.
She gets called Choo-Choo Grandma I think because one of the first things they remember about her is that she had toy train sets in her house (courtesy of her husband). And I think she gave herself the nickname, truth be told.
I called my maternal grandparents Grandma and Pap. My paternal grandfather was Pap LastName. We didn’t see him as often so we made the distinction with the last name. My dad’s mom passed away before I was born so we never gave her a name.
My mom wanted my brother’s oldest child to name her when she was old enough to start talking. She now goes by NeeNee and my dad goes by Pappy (and it will likely switch to Pap when they get older). It’s interesting to me that your cousins called your grandparents names differently than you. I have been wondering if I should encourage my kids to call my parents what their cousins call them or if they can pick their own names.
I love the idea of the pet names! My parents don’t have a pet right now but they would be Grandpa and Grandma Dakota if they had gone that route when the first grandchild was born. Grandpa and Grandma Tiger sound awesome!
Aww, NeeNee is cute. I love the names little kids come up with. And I am curious to hear if you go with your brother’s kid’s names for your grandparents or do something new! Grandpa/ma Dakota sounds cool!
It has always fasinated me what others call their grandparents!!
My maternals were Gezie and Pop Pop. The paternals were Grandmom and Granddad Schmidt. Sadly the have all passed away. One passed when I was only 4. My other Grandma was called Memere, which is French for grandmother.
As a nurse I’ve seen first hand how dementia can break down a family, especially if the adult child doesn’t have any siblings. It is heartbreaking. Thank you for supporting this cause!
Aww, Gezie and Pop Pop are fun 🙂
Oh gosh, you mean if the adult child caretaker doesn’t have siblings for support? I wonder if the hospitals have support groups for those sorts of things. It is a lot to take on on your own. I think Steven’s mom was in that position, with her mother 🙁
Yes, many hospitals and long term care facilities have support groups for adult who are an only child. When you don’t have a sibling or another close family member to support you in making decisions for your aging parent, that can be frightening and immensely overwhelming.
Oh boy. I am not going to make a lot of friends with my comment!
My grandparents were Grandma Makransky and Grandpa Workman (Mom’s parents), and Grandma (my last name) and Grandpa (my last name)(Dad’s parents). My cousin called her grandparents Grandma Irene and Grandma Midge, and Grandpa Ray and Grandpa Bill. Makes sense to me.
It drives me CRAZY (like, it is A MAJOR PET PEEVE of mine) when kids are encouraged to call their grandparents Meemaw (my cousin’s kids name for Grandma) and Pawpaw or Mimi and Pop pop or Geegaw and Poppi (all of these actual names I’ve heard) or whatever strange combination of sounds they come up with. I think it bothers me because it sounds like baby talk and after a certain age I think it’s silly.
But, again, I know I am in the minority. I don’t know why it is such a pet peeve for me, but at least I’m honest about it. Ha!
Is Makransky your mom’s maiden name? Or Workman?
LOL! Yeah, if they can’t say it to start with, and the grandparent likes the goofy name, I suppose it sticks 😉 Are you not a fan of goofy sounding nicknames for adults, as well? 😉
This is a fun post! My aunt’s granddaughter calls her “Grandma Tootie” because that’s my aunt’s cat’s name. Funny! I didn’t know anyone else did that. My kids call their grandparents “Grandma ____” (insert first name).
Tootie! Ha! Awesome! And yeah – I now know someone else who does the same thing! 😉
I love the name Grandpa Tiger! We called my grandparents Ginny (my grandmother’s name was Virginia) and Pop (that’s Howard, the one you are running for) – and I have no idea why we called him Pop! My other grandmother was also named Virginia but we called her Grandma Crawshaw, which sounds very formal now that I think of it, but we weren’t as close to her. And my grandfather on that side died when I was 2, so we didn’t really have a special name for him, either.
Here in Belgium, most kids call their grandparents Oma and Opa.
How interesting that both your parents had moms with the same name! And that one was so formal and one was not. I think grandchildren/grandparent dynamics are so interesting. Our grandparents always played a large role in our lives, and my grandmas still do. But I have heard so many stories of these relationships being cold.
Oma and Opa! Cute!
And so happy to be running for Pop! 🙂
I called my maternal grandma plain old Grandma. But I called my paternal grandma NiNi and I don’t actually know why. I think it was supposed to be Nana, but her mother was still alive and called Nana. So my great-grandma was NaNa and my grandma was NiNi.
I love learning what people call their grandparents. So funny that your cousins called your grandparents different names – all the cousins call ours the same!
My maternal grandma is, very originally, Grandma. My maternal grandpa is Pops. And my paternal grandma was Mommers.
My nephew calls my mom Titi Abuela, haha, kinda a mix between both me + her, I guess, because we’re always together? Hm… now I realize I don’t know how she got her name! I need to ask my mom how she came to be, basically, Aunt Grandma. LOL.
Mommers! LOL. I like that.
Does your nephew speak Spanish? 🙂
My grandmother died of Alzheimers. I donated $10 – sorry it’s so little, I think I’m your smallest donor, but I have literally 4 people fundraising right now to donate too, eep.
Don’t ever apologize for donating “too” little! Every little bit helps and I GREATLY appreciate it!
We have signs at the event to recognize people who’ve had dementia – do you want us to put up a sign for your grandma?
What funny nicknames! We’ve always called my grandparents by Grandma/pa with or without firstname. And all my cousins have gone by the same thing. Sometimes I would differentiate the two by grandpa & grandma versus grandma (my grandpa passed away when my mom was young).
When my grandma sings things she signs “Gramma Rita” which I think it kind of funny and cute.
Now some of my cousins have kids and they call my grandma Grandma Mary and my aunt Grandma Gayle. All this is making me think about my great grandma. Even though I didn’t know her that well, I do miss her.
I would feel weird calling them by their first name! I am not sure why. Ha ha. That is what I do with my aunts and uncles.
Aww, what was your great grandma like?
I called my grandparents Abuelita and Abuelito. That is also what my nieces and nephews call my mom too , except the two youngest ones, they call her Mama Sofia. I think it is because they’re the youngest and they would hear us call our mom “Mama”.
Are Abuelita and Abuelito kind of nick names, or is that common (I am thinking, instead of Abeula and Abeulo)?