Oh no.........I become a grandfather

Your tradition sounds wonderful. I love that you are so close with your family that you feel the children in your family are yours and you feel like a father to them. Enjoy the new baby Gramps:)

LOL. I am a grandfather not a great uncle according to our tradition. Well i am happy for that addition because now i got someone to play with again. I know what you want to say about children. Because i already have 4. Not mine but my cousin's. We live close so i play with them.

Gramps

It does not work like as you said in my country. I am a grandfather not a great uncle.

I understand now. Thank you for clearing that up for all of us.And congrats to you all on the new baby.

Thanks for that. All of us are going to have fun with the baby. Ahh my grandchild.

In my country it is different. We don't have a great uncle. We simply promoted to grandfathers. How sad

Actually the relationships between aboriginal people in Australia are not he same as between us Europeans and it is a little hard to follow so I guess it could be the same in "Grandfather's" country.

Oh I see it now! One thing's for sure - I always be older than you but not old

My mistake. She is my niece. In my country according to our culture we don't differentiate in daughters & brothers daughters. So in that way i become a grandfather. But i am not old like you said. Becoming a grandfather does not make me old. Because i have a long way to become old. I doubt i will ever be.

I suppose that is good and bad depending on how you look at it. You are called a grandfather early but on the other hand you can play with your grand children. Your tradition sounds magnificent, it makes me feel as if the families are closer together in your country then in my own! Have a wonderful day!

We don't have the great uncle tradition. According to our tradition i am directly promoted to a grandfather.

Thanks for the story. It is a nice story. But again i am a grandfather. In my country it is the tradition. We don't have the great uncle tradition. It is the difference in cultures that is making me different. Many said that i am a great uncle but i have to clear that. The best part is that i did not know the great uncle thing. Thanks to this discussion now i know. Also i have got more ideas about other countries traditions.

I see, from what you have written elsewhere, that the word that you (presumably) translate as 'grandfather' also means 'great uncle' and that there is no separate way of saying the relationship (without explaining in detail that the child is the son or daughter of your father's sister's child - even that could be difficult if you make no distinction between siblings and cousins!) I am aware that this situation exists in many countries. It depends, really, on how important exact family relationships are in a particular society. In English speaking countries we have many more terms to describe relationships presumably because, at one time, it was necessary to know whether someone was your first cousin, second cousin (child of your parent's aunt or uncle) or third or fourth cousin, even. It often had a great bearing on how property was inherited, so it was important to know! I expect that there are, conversely, distinctions that your language can make about things for which we have no separate words in English!

I don't mean to criticise your English, of course (which is very good) but when you say "My nephew is just 2 years younger than me & recently she gave birth to a child. It was a boy. Now she made me a grandfather." you show just how tricky it can be to translate from one language to another. Please don't be embarrased! It looks as though you have one word which means 'nephew' (male) and 'niece' (female) and possibly other relationships as well, so 'nephew' may be the translation you find in a dictionary. I would be interested to know just what words you have and use to describe relationships in your language. Do you have separate words (or variations) for male and female? Presumably you do for mother and father - most languages do, though we also have 'parent' and 'cousin' and 'sib[ling]' which can mean either. In English, 'aunt' can mean either the real sister of one of our parents OR the wife of the brother of one of our parents (and 'uncle' may have a similar meaning). It's also sometimes used more loosely to refer to anyone of our parent's generation who has taken a caring interest - a good friend of the family, for example, who is closer than usual. (Often people would add '... but she's not my real aunt.') Cousin almost always means first cousin (son or daughter of parent's sibling) but is sometimes used for second cousins. In earlier times it was often used for anyone of one's own age that one grew up with, whether they were blood-related or not. If you study Shakespeare or Jane Austen, you might need to know that! It used to be fairly common, too, for any older man to be called 'grandfather' or 'father' or 'uncle' as a term of respect rather than relationship. You don't hear that so much these days, sadly. It's either a sign that the idea of the nuclear family is disappearing or that there is less respect now for older people than there was. Either way, it's something lost.

I have a idea,.. how about beat your grand son playing playstation? that would be cooLLYou need to practice now

Grandpa OK then i think i have to take dancing lesson.

Good idea. I would have the advantage then.lol

As I said genealogically it is impossible but any honorary title is possible.

In my country we do not have the option of becoming granduncle. We have the option of becoming a grandfather. So i have become a grand father.lol

poohgal I agree with you.

NO in my country we don't have grand uncle. We are directly promoted to grandfather. I hope the nephew of your have a child soon.LL

Nice dadu!

Dadu

Oh that's not going to happen. I told my niece to teach my grandchild to call me brother but neither she nor any member of my family is going to do that. They make fun of me. And told me when he can talk they will teach him to call me Dadu ( grandfather).

OK I don't beat you're age but lol you are an old man compared to my daughters. In your country they became grandmothers when they were 11, 12 and 14.

OK so you were a grandmother on your age of 25. That's early. But not early as me. You gave me a new idea. That when i will be a grandfather of my own children then they will get better affection from me. Thank you for giving me this idea & sharing your story with me.

Ah, I don't think a child can ever get too much love! I think I would have been a bit confused as well if I hadn't read the other posts. But after I read about your tradition then I understood! I hope you enjoy being a grandfather!

You are right. The children gets too much love from all of us. Because there are plenty of everyone who is there for that child. Thanks for underestimating that. I made a mistake that i forgot about others. So everyone is thinking that i am mistaking granduncle with grandfather.

Well, in our culture a grandfather has a very special status and privileges. They can be a father all over again but without having to discipline the child; they can be as silly and childish as the child himself without losing any respect! As a result, I think, children can learn more from their grandparents than they do from anyone, including their parents. If you are a grandfather then you have a responsibility - almost a duty - to become a child again!

It does not work like this as you said in my country. I am a grandfather now. According to our tradition we do not have the grand uncle title. We directly promoted to grandfather for that. So it is allright.

Nice thoughts. Thanks for sharing this with me.

It is a bit confusing. From the thought of many other countries i am supposed to be a grand uncle. But in our culture i am the grandfather. We don't have the grand uncle tradition. I did not know about the grand uncle thing. Otherwise i would have included it in my discussion how i became a grandfather.

Well i was also become an uncle at the age of 11. You know i did before at the age of 2.lol. Then i was also happy for that i got someone to play with. That was not all after that i have become an uncle twice more. It was not the end. You will understand why after a few while.

LOL. You gave a nice response. I really liked it. Also The last two lines were the best. I also think like you.

Yes it is true.

No i am a grandfather. We do not need to have a child to be a grandfather. According to our tradition when our brothers or sisters or cousins children give birth we also are promote to grandfather.

Oh i understand well in that case congratulation's lol.