Should I use my son's chosen nickname when his full name honors my father?
Parenting"Please don't shout Martin across the playground. Everyone calls me Marty." My nine-year-old said it quietly before I collected him from football.
Martin was my father's name. Dad died before my son was born, and choosing it felt like bringing something of him into our family. When my son first asked for Marty, I said it sounded like a cartoon character. Yesterday he told the coach that's why he hadn't asked me again.
I hadn't meant to mock him. I had meant to say the full name mattered to me, but that isn't what he heard. The school already uses Marty in ordinary conversation. He isn't asking to change documents; he wants me to stop using the name his friends don't use.
My mother says a nickname doesn't erase Dad. I still feel a small sting every time I say it. How do I explain the family connection without giving a nine-year-old the job of keeping his grandfather's name alive?