Titles

I was reading my mom's forum when someone posed a dilemma in what to refer to someone who is not married into the family [there was more to it than that but I'm paraphrasing]. It really made me start thinking how many g-rents my kid has and how confusing it all is going to be! How am I going to explain to him that Daddy has both a mom and a dad and an extra dad and a kind of extra mom [his dad has been dating the same woman forever but won't get hitched again] but Mommy doesn't have a mom or a dad but has a step dad. Then there's the great grandparents. Unlike Adam my step dad was around basically my entire life so I have a closeness with his family that Adam doesn't quite have with his new step family. Granted, he did have a step family prior to this one and I didn't so that may make a slight difference. Who knows? I digress...
So not only is there grandpa [or whatever my kid comes up to my call my step dad] but there's a great grandma on my mom's side, a great grandma on my dad's side, and a great grandma and grandpa in my step dad's family. That's 5 in my family. Now on to Adam's: Nana, Papa Rick, grandpa [Adam's dad], then his great grandpa on his mom's side and two great grandparents on his dad's side. So we have 6 in Adam's family so all together Vik will have 11 people in his life to refer to as a grandparent in some sense of the word. Sheesh. That's a lot of people! Way to go blended families.

I gotta say though... the idea of explaining it all doesn't thrill me. I want my son to call my step dad something along the lines of grandpa. Even though everyone [including my sister's kids] call him by his first name. And I absolutely detest the thought of explaining my lack of parents and Adam's surplus of them. If it weren't for the fact that I think it would confuse people or would be just disrespectful to my biological father and his family I would just refer to my step dad as my dad. But alas, since I never called him that and was never pressed to call him that it'd just feel weird to do it now at 25. Besides, I think being a step dad and referred to as such with extreme fondness is almost better than being someone's biological parent. Sure the bond and love is different but nothing expresses true, deep, sincere, love better than acting as a parent when you have no obligation to do so. It amazes me that he was able to step into our lives and act as a father without over stepping boundaries of our actual father. It amazes me even more that he stayed involved in our lives even after our mom passed. This man has no blood or legal obligation to us but he treats us as his own. That is just incredible. It's nice to know that I still have a parent...