• SirSamuel@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Too right.

      It’s crazy how many people in this thread either didn’t understand how endearing these pet names are or think a nickname for a family member = uneducated or some such nonsense.

      My nephew called me ពូSam (pou, uncle) and I loved it. My BiL is Cambodian, I’m not. ពូ means nothing to me but when my little buddy said it it meant everything. He got a little older and one day I went to their house and he just called me “Sam” and a little bit of me broke, NGL.

  • restingboredface@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    I never understood this, as my grandparents were always grandma/grandpa, or granny (in my paternal granmothers case she preferred it).

    Then I moved to the south, and met my husband’s family and friends. Every single one of them had weird names for at least one of their grandparents. A lot of them called grandmother “meemaw” and my father in law is papaw to my neices and nephews.

    I took it as a cultural thing, but it still feels a bit strange to me.

    • TheSlad@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      I fucking hate meemaw/mamaw and papaw with a passion. Partly because me ex’s white-trash family uses them, but also they just sound stupid and I hate saying/hearing them

      • hazeebabee@slrpnk.net
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        1 month ago

        I get that your anger probably comes from the frustration of a bad relationship. I also want to encourage you not to use bigoted terms. Just refering to them as your ex’s family, or ex’s fucked up family would have gotten a similar message across.

        It really undermines your point, draws focus away from what youre trying communicate, & makes you look like a biased and unreliable narrator.

        I hope that ex is out of your life & you’re in a happier place now.

        • TheSlad@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          I thought it was dumb the first time I ever heard it.

          They are literally the picture perfect stereotype of white trash I call it like I see it.

          And no, we have two kids so she will never be out of my life. I am however in a happier place. Well actually the exact same place but now without her narcissistic gaslighting and constant put-downs :)

          • hazeebabee@slrpnk.net
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            1 month ago

            Ah co-parenting with an ex can be super tricky. It sounds like at least a half win though, you aren’t in the same house any more :) congrats on the break up, I know getting out of toxic relationships takes it’s toll

            & I get that the word is part of your vocabulary, I can’t change that, just encourage some reflection. It’s a term that’s been used against me so I’m perticularly sensitive to it. Here is a link to an article in case you or someone else is interested in the history of the term.

          • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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            1 month ago

            I’ve heard the term, but the only meaning for it I can think of is that they’re trash because they’re white.

            • TrousersMcPants@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              It’s actually kind of a fucked up term but a lot of people don’t consider it, it’s both super racist and classist. I don’t really think less of anyone for saying it because it’s such a common term but I personally don’t like using it. The original implication is that poor white folks are “trash”, comparing them to enslaved African Americans.

              • letsgo@lemm.ee
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                1 month ago

                I always read it as referring to people who are (a) white and (b) trash, without either adjective implying all A are B or vice versa. Like: I’ve got a red cup on my desk, but that doesn’t mean everything red is a cup or that all cups are red.

                • TrousersMcPants@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  The Wikipedia article even describes it very much like how I did. Like I said, I understand how people view it but the word at the least has very nasty roots

                • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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                  1 month ago

                  You make a good point, but I don’t think that holds in the case of combining insults with people groups. Consider “jedi scum” or “filthy thieves” for example.

              • hazeebabee@slrpnk.net
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                1 month ago

                I also find it to be a derogatory, distasteful, and bigoted term. I definetly think less of people I hear who use it, & hope eventually it will be dropped from the cultural conciousness like other bigoted terms.

                It’s a way to police what “whiteness” should be, and is a term I’ve only ever heard from well off and judgemental people.

                • TrousersMcPants@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  I’ve heard a lot of poor folk use it too, it’s basically just a derogatory term for a redneck in the Midwest where I live. I don’t think a lot of people really understand it’s implications.

            • jaybone@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              The term usually refers to white people who are poor and uneducated, often live in rural areas. This is to group them with the traditional stereotypes of ethnic minorities who are stereotyped to share a similar socioeconomic status. And to separate them from the good respectable white people who have money and jobs and education.

              • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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                1 month ago

                Oh wow, that’s worse than I thought. Honestly, I was half expecting a “yeah, that’s what it is, but it’s actually okay because…”

    • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      It’s definitely a cultural thing because I had the same experience. Although, It think it’s become more common to use different names for grandparents up north in recent years. My mom and dad, who have lived in Wisconsin their entire lives, are “Nana” and “Papa”. Growing up I don’t remember hearing anyone call their grandparents that.

    • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It’s wild down here. Thanks to a convoluted family tree due to adoption, divorce, and remarriage I had a total of 11 grandparents. Most of the men were Pawpaw <first name> to distinguish them except one who refused to be called anything except Grandfather and another we called pappy. Every one of the women had a different name loosely based on a mispronunciation of Granny.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        1 month ago

        It was always gran for my English grandma and grandma for the American one in my house. “Grandpa” to the faces of both, but their names if they weren’t around. But it was always grandma or gran no matter if they were around or not

  • cokeslutgarbage@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    My grandpa’s life partner came into his life after my dad was an adult but before I was born, so she’s been in the family longer than I have. She never wanted to be called anything other than her first name, but by all measures, she is my grandma, and I love her. So I’ve had the typical grandma/grandpa names for mine, but I also have an Izzy, and that’s really special to me.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Ha! This happened with my mother-in-law! She wanted to be called grandma, but when my daughter was a baby and first learning to talk, she pointed to my wife and said, “Mama!” and then she pointed to my mother-in-law and said, “Momo!” She’s been Momo ever since.

      • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Let’s number the characters and let you decide

        “Ha! This happened with my(1) mother-in-law(2)! She(2) wanted to be called grandma, but when my(1) daughter(3) was a baby and first learning to talk, she(3) pointed to my wife(4) and said, “Mama!” and then she(3) pointed to my mother-in-law(2) and said, “Momo!” She’s(2) been Momo ever since.”

        I interpret characters 2 and 4 as women, 1 as a man (assuming this because there is no mention of adoption), and 3 as a female child.

        So not counting the baby, 2 women, unless (1) is a woman.

  • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    “This is my pee pee and my poo poo! The guy’s 95 years old, he fought in WWII, stormed the beach at Normandy, now his name is Peepee?? What are you doing to the man?”

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    My nan was called “smelly nan” until the day she died. I think it was because she wore a gallon of perfume to cover the smell of fags.

  • Turious@leaf.dance
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    In my part of Appalachia, all grandpas in the family are “pap” which was very funny when my grandma married a man from England. He refused to let us call him that. For reasons.

      • Turious@leaf.dance
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        1 month ago

        I should apologize, actually. As a young, young kid, my parents didn’t explain it to me for a long time. As a teenager, they explained it was in reference to a “pap smear” which is a gynecological thing. But it’s weird, you asking made me search it up. I’m not finding anything specific to England.

        I think you just accidentally changed a story I’ve been telling myself for my entire life.

        • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Do you feel shaken in your foundations ?

          Perhaps there’s still someone alive you can ask ?

  • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    We rescued a kitten about a month ago, immediately named him Pipo (or Peepo, same thing). I have never seen a cat wear his name so well. I heard Pipo is a famous character in italian children’s jokes

  • Gaspar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    My paternal grandmother was the opposite of this - apparently she really wanted a grandparent nickname and didn’t care what it was. So there’s, IDK, 2 year old me running around and I saw she was wearing big old sunglasses, and I said, “Cool Dude!” And it stuck.

    Miss you, Dude.

  • BoofStroke@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Interesing to see this at the top of my feed after watching Redbad last night. Poppo was his son. Similar enough to make me think of it.

  • 30p87@feddit.de
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    Babies don’t have it better tho. My name is Ian (Don’t ask what my german mother living in germany thought), and some random ass neighbour of the allotment gardens of my aunt mispronounced it as “Ui/Ue”. So that’s my name for my aunt and sometimes mother now.