Actually, I'm not. The truth is that my husband is a grandfather, which makes me the wife of a grandfather, not a grandmother.
I'll bet some of you are wondering why I make the distinction. Well, it's because I'm too young to be a grandmother. Not really. I make the distinction because as someone married to a man with two adult children, a teenager, two grandchildren and an ex-wife, I'm careful to "stay in my lane."
My husband's grandchildren have a grandmother already and I have no desire to usurp that role, or dilute it by staking ownership to the title. I'm not sure how I'd feel if the roles were reversed. Would I want my grandchildren calling my ex-husband's wife, "Grandma?"
At some point, we're going to have to decide what name the grandchildren use for me, but we have a while for that since they're still very young. Maybe they could call me "Angel," short for Angela. I sorta like that. I'm from the South so children addressing adults by their first name is a definite no-no.
What do you think? How should my husband's grandchildren address me? Are any of you in a similar situation? How have you handled it?
Published on January 22, 2012 12:46