Dallas Couple Of The Day: Glamma And Papa Doc

Posted on January 23rd, 2009 3:24pm by Eric Celeste
Filed under Local News

Ann Zimmerman at the Wall Street Journal has a nice front-pager today about how Boomer grandparents want cooler names than Grandma and Grandpa. (My father is a perfect example: He wanted to be called grand-pere, even though he’s of Italian descent. My daughter calls him Grandpa Mark, which I’m sure drives him nuts.) The couple featured in the article hails from Dallas. Susan Kandell Wilkofsky goes by “Glamma” (for “glamorous grandmother”), and her husband Steven, a doctor, goes by “Papa Doc.” My favorite was Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, who gave his grandson the option between “Lefty” or “Sheriff.”

7 comments

  1. Yup. Boomers are focused on the important things.

    @ 3:30 pm on January 23, 2009

  2. When my 8 month old son can talk, he must not call me Dad, lest I feel old. Any suggestions? Rad dad? Daddio? ATM?

    @ 3:45 pm on January 23, 2009

  3. Jesus. Pronounced either way.

    @ 3:47 pm on January 23, 2009

  4. Reminds me a friend mused on the same issue and determined he wanted to be called Buddy. His wife asked what she should be called. “Why, Budd-ette, of course,” he replied. Definitely not, said she. “Can you imagine the kid getting lost while he’s shopping with me? He’d probably yell at the top of his lungs ‘Hey, Butt-head!’”

    @ 4:35 pm on January 23, 2009

  5. I can’t wait until I make my grandchildren refer to me as a despotic former ruler of Haiti.

    @ 9:15 pm on January 23, 2009

  6. My in-laws chose “Ninja” and “Yoshi.”

    @ 5:04 pm on January 25, 2009

  7. my inlaws are a peculiar breed, though not so different than some of the other stories i’ve recently read…they live about 8 hours away, and everytime we’ve ever seen them (over 4 years ago at this point) it’s been us going there, us calling them, us e-mailing them, etc…
    we decided to move there (4.5 years ago) and long story short i saw exactly what kind of inlaws i had inherited, and promptly moved my family back to my hometown (where mom-mom and pop love their grandchildren dearly)
    i haven’t spoken to my MIL in over 4 years, and only get bits of info., when my hubby shares something…she never asks about any of my 3 children (one of which she’s never met), and up until recently that bothered the hell out of me…
    now, i know it’s her that’s missing out, and not the other way around…
    my children are better off without a woman like that in their lives, and i thank God every day for the grandparents they have in their lives who love them as dearly as they loved me and my sister…

    @ 9:02 am on March 15, 2009