Grandma By Any Other Name....

Some people go through life as a grandparent with one name that their grandchildren call them. There are Nannas, Grammys, Memaws...... you get the idea I'm sure. I don't fall into this classification as a one name grandparent. Each of my Yankee grandchildren have given me my own unique name. Alley Oop called me Mammaw, with T~Bear I was Bammaw, Britt called had always called me Grandma until she became a teenager and then changed it to G'ma. Riley called me Gummaw and just recently has changed that to Grandma. Seth hasn't given me a name yet, but I am sure it will be as unique as the others. Oh and did I mention that Riley calls for me every time he gets in trouble and is about to be punished. I think it goes something like, "I WANT MY GRANDMA!"

The story I am about to share with you started when Riley was about 3 years old. We had all gathered at Chris and Melody's house for some sort of important celebration. I can't recall what it was, but I do recall a lot of people there. Riley loving the outside like he did, kept wanting to go outside. Chris told him he could go outside, but he wasn't allowed to leave the front porch. With Riley that was like throwing a bone to a dog and then telling him don't chew it. I happened to look out the window and sure enough there was Riley out in the yard having a grand time digging a hole.

I didn't want to be a snitch, but thought Chris needed to know that Riley was not on the porch. Chris walked outside and asked Riley who told him he could leave the porch. Riley is a smart child. Right away he figured out that Daddy had given him a 'fill in the missing name question'. The first name that came to mind was of course Mommy. Hmmmm.... Dad decided he needed to play this out, so he told Riley that he was going to go ask Mommy if she had said that. I was standing on the porch during all of this and saw Riley squirming around as his daddy disappeared inside the house, not knowing if Mommy was going to cover for him or not. I personally believe that Chris didn't even ask her. He soon reappeared and informed Riley that his Mommy said she didn't tell him he could leave the porch. Then came more truth searching by asking him if he was sure someone told him he could leave the porch. Riley's answer was "Yes!" Well then WHO told him that he could leave the porch. There was that fill in the name question again. Immediately his eyes fell on me and just one word came out of his mouth....... "Gummaw!" I know that I should have said something, but His big brown eyes were fixed on me and they were almost pleading, "Help me out here Gummaw, Pleeeease." I said nothing, but of course Chris knew I hadn't told Riley he could leave the porch. Still I said nothing.

It wasn't long that I started to regret not saying anything on that day. It also wasn't long before Riley developed a knack for spurting out nasty words. I am pretty careful about what I say in front of the grandchildren. As Riley was going through this phase that most children go through, that question was asked of him again ...... "Who did you hear saying those words?" Can you guess the answer Riley gave to his Mommy and Daddy? Ahhhh Haaaa..... It was "Grandma". This threw them because I was Gummaw, Melody's mom was Grammy and her Grandma was of course Grandma. It was a pretty far reach to think that he had heard his Great Grandma at the age of 88 cussing like that. The next question they asked was "Which Grandma?" Well it was the one that lives past the lake. Since the other two live in 'Tucky' that pretty much left me as the culprit that needed my mouth washed out with soap.

By keeping my mouth closed that first time, I had become Riley's partner in crime. Riley attended a Christian Preschool and they have a nice collection of playground equipment for the children to play on. One piece of playground equipment is a wooden ark. I don't recall if I mentioned this before, but during this school year, Riley and one of his friends took crayons out for play time in their pockets and proceeded to color the ark. Of course he did get in trouble for what he had done. To this day I have wondered if he told his teacher that "Gummaw told him he should do that!"

Grandma by any other name will always be Grandma, and I wouldn't trade being a Grandma for anything else in the world.

Wishing you a day of blessings. ~Jo