My Groin, My Groin!

When my nephew, my parents’ first grandchild, was born, they put a great deal of thought into what they would like to be called by their grandchildren. We don’t use the traditional labels of "Grandma" or "Grandpa" in my family, so the names had to be somewhat unusual. My mother chose to be called, "Gran" and so that is what my children and my nephew call her.

Unbeknownst to her at the time, Gran happens to be a very hard word for small children to say. My nephew called her "Gee" for a long time. Pronounced like "Ghee" (rhymes with key), not like "Golly-gee" or the letter G. My brother and I got a huge laugh out of calling our mother, "Oh, clarified butter! Come here, clarified butter!!"

Well, my little girl can’t quite say Gran either - it sounds like "Groin." In the end, this turns out to be much funnier than calling my mother clarified butter. Last night, the three of us were looking at some pictures and my little girl saw a picture of Gran and said, "There’s Groin!" My son thought that was funny and reached toward the picture to grab it. (His language skills are not as good - he said, "Ugh!") Thinking he was trying to take Gran away from her, she yelled, "NO! MY GROIN! MY GROIN!!"

Neither one of them understood why I was laughing so hard. All I could picture was my brother and I lying on the floor, clutching our lower stomachs and yelling, "My groin, oh, my groin!"