Irregular grandmas

I’m an “irregular” grandma. Don’t know what that is? Let me tell you. I married a man with grown children and young grandchildren. At first, I was “Grandma Kathy” but that didn’t sit too well with my husbands ex. I told the grandchildren that they could call me Kathy and it would be just fine. We could love each other no matter what names we used.


That worked for face to face contact but the kids got confused when trying to refer to Grandmas not there at the moment. One of the 4yr.olds began calling the other grandmother “my regular grandma” which made me the “irregular grandma”. I loved it and that’s what I am. And overtime they started alternating between Grandma and Kathy. I answer to both.

Why do we make things so difficult? We need to take lessons from the children around us. We as adults seem to think that we are in competition for their love and affection. We concern ourselves more with being CORRECT than with what’s RIGHT. Children just see more people to love them and the more the merrier.

A few years ago we were helping one of our son’s family move into a new place. His children are only a few years younger than my youngest two girls. Things got a little confusing when the landlord stopped by and asked my youngest to get her dad. She brought Brent. It took a few minutes to straighten up the family tree. My daughter finally grabbed Jon and said, “This is my BROTHER not my dad!”

Another of my grandchildren has it all figured out too. Whenever his family would spot my car they say, “There’s Kathy’s car, everybody wave.” And they all would.

However, when they were headed over for a visit, they’d say “We’re going to visit Papa Brent and Grandma.” One day, the children were at my house and my husband had to run an errand. Jacob, the toddler at the time, came running in the house calling, “Grandma, Grandma, Kathy’s car is GONE!” See how simple it is?

That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?