Relativity

 

Four generations of family: Christmas 2016

This week, the resident hound asked, “What forms of address do you use in your family?” I found this topic difficult to expound upon. It’s not because my family members call each other weird names, but because we don’t. So I’m afraid this post is going to be quite short.

I guess our family is quite traditional. We don’t have any unusual forms of address for anyone that I can recall. We call people in our own generation by their first names, and people in generations older than us get the appropriate label, sometimes with the first name attached to it – Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kay, Uncle Jim, etc. Our kids basically do the same, even our sons and daughters-in-law.

My grandkids have a small variety of ways to address me. My older grandkids (children of my stepson and stepdaughter) have four sets of grandparents, so they call us Grandma or Grandpa along with either the first name or last name. The two youngest ones call my hubby Grandpa, but I’m Regular Grandma, since my mother is called Grandma and her last name.

Here’s Mike/Mac/Mark/Mick/Mork – uh, my sweetie, along with the littlest guy who calls him Grandpa.

The only time I hear family members not use names or a label is when someone is addressing his or her spouse. My two married daughters both call their husbands either by their first name or “Babe.” My husband, when speaking to me, usually goes with either “hon” or “sweetheart.” I often call him a name that starts with the same letter as his actual name but unfortunately isn’t his name. No, it’s not a bad word – it’s a male name that’s not his. I have this odd tendency to forget his name at the most inconvenient times. I guess I should have learned to call him something less incriminating, like “honey.” Fortunately, he’s gotten used to it. Now he just turns to me, holds out his hand to shake mine, and introduces himself.