Grandparents Try to Convince Couple to Change Baby's Name — Now Family Holidays Are in Jeopardy

Mar. 15, 2025

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After a woman’s in-laws attempted to convince her to change her child’s name, Christmas and Thanksgiving are now in jeopardy.

In a post shared toReddit, the anonymous 26-year-old woman says that she and her husband’s parents have always been close — but that changed with the birth of their son in June.

Writing that her in-laws “have a tradition where each generation alternates the grandparents' names for first and middle names,” the woman adds: “My husband’s middle name is his grandfather’s first name. [Father-in-law] has his grandfather’s first name as a first name.”

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In order to keep the tradition alive, the couple’s son was “meant to have the father-in-law’s name as his first name. Or this is what my [in-laws] hoped for.”

“But my husband and I wanted to choose names that we liked,” she adds, noting that her husband “actually hated his name.”

So, she and her husband chose a name for their son that her in-laws “didn’t like or approve of which made the whole thing more tense.”

“They spent weeks trying to convince us to change it and my husband shielded me from hearing most of it, but I was still aware he was experiencing their attempts on a pretty much daily basis,” she writes. “He ended up blocking them from our phones for a temporary period. He calmed down and told them they were not to bring it up again and he was not going to tolerate them pressuring me.”

“My husband told them no. Then his family mentioned Thanksgiving and Christmas. We were supposed to host and they brought up how awkward it would be with tension lingering. My husband said they’re right so we won’t host or join them this year because it wouldn’t be good for me or our son,” she continues.

Now, the woman writes that she feels torn — the in-laws continue “begging” both her and her husband to host the holiday dinners, but she feels “worried they will turn it into two miserable experiences when I’m still not at my best.”

“I don’t want it to turn into family holidays where everyone talks about how much they hate the name and how we made the wrong choice,” she adds. “But a part of me feels guilty for my stance because we don’t have another extended family and we got along so good before this.”

Reddit commenters overwhelmingly side with the new mom, with one writing, “As a Grandparent too, I agree. It’s not our decision, it’s the parents and we should be there for love and support. Nothing else.”

source: people.com