What Is A Mom Mom?
Grandmother By Another Name: The Significance of Grandmother Names like “Mom Mom”
Exploring the process of choosing a grandparent name, my personal story of how I became "Mom Mom".
What is a Mom Mom?
Mom Mom is pronounced “MUM MUM”
Grandmother By Another Name: Mom Mom
I consider myself, a hip, “cool” grandmother. Don’t we all! My grandkids call me “Mom Mom”, which has been the beloved “grandmother” moniker in my family for generations. The name gets strange looks and is not fully embraced in Tennessee. At one point, not even me!
Too Young to be a Grandmother
Prior to the first grandchild, I tinkered with “what should I be called?” The basic “Mom Mom” just wouldn’t do. After all, the grandmother of today is different from our past. It seemed a bit of a renovation was needed on the grandmother stereo-type. I toyed with “GiGi”, “NaNa”, “B” and a few others. I just didn’t look like or feel like a “MOM MOM”. Much too young, for one thing! (Right? LOL) Then, I recalled how my grandmother was not your typical Mom Mom either. On my 13th birthday- she gave me a red satin bra! She was unique and also a young Mom Mom. For that matter, she probably didn’t think she looked like a Mom Mom either.
My indecision of what to be called went on for weeks. Time was running out. I knew whatever the name… it would be my forever nickname.
Natural Grandfather: Pop Pop
It happened, the beautiful new addition was here! It was time to travel to meet our very first grandbaby. It was exciting, a new chapter. Me, a grandmother? My husband on the other hand, was like “Yep, I’m a POP POP!” (pronounced “PUP PUP”) He was all over it! And his family, did not even use this name for “grandfather”. It was my grandfather’s name and my great grandfather’s name and my great, great grandfather’s name. You get the idea. How could he be so sure?
And just like that!
When we arrived to meet our grandchild it was surreal. I knew in that instant! Surprisingly, the love I’d shared with my grandmothers filled my heart all at once. As, I held him in my arms and peered into his precious sweet little face I said, “Hello, Baby Boy, I’m your Mom Mom”. It flowed off my lips like I had said it 100 times before. How could I be called anything else? It was a love thing…not, a name thing. And, just like that I was a MOM MOM.
As, it turns out I look just like a Mom Mom and coincidentally, my husband looks just like a Pop Pop. Funny, how a new life changes everything.
Take a GRAND look of potential names to get your juices flowing:
What do your grandkids call you? I’d love to know!
"Love is the greatest gift that one generation can leave to another."
Richard Garnett