A Word for Grandparents Who Move to Be Near Their Grandkids

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. We got an email from Julie and Harv Busta, who think that they’ve identified a hole in the English language that needs to be filled. They just moved to Duluth, Minnesota, and they write, we’ve been searching for a word that describes the migration of grandparents to the location of their children and grandchildren. We and many of our friends have begun this migration, none of us knows a specific word that describes this event.

Many folks we know have moved far away, such as from Minnesota to New York City. And if there’s not already a word for this, we propose grand date. It’s a combination of migrate and grandparents. So for example, you’d say there’s been a significant grandation to the Midwest, or are you grand dating to be closer to your kids?

And they end the email by saying, what do you think? Let’s make this a word.

Maybe. Let’s just call it what it is. Free babysitting relocation.

Yeah. I think the term needs to be cuter. Reflect the fact that you’re going there for adorable children, right? Baby magnets, baby satellites, pudge migration.

I don’t even know. But you’re going for the little cuties.

So the verb would be pudge migrate to them.

Yeah, pudge migrate. That sounds naughty or something.

I don’t know. I thought it sounded kind of august. But I do think that they’ve identified something that we really could use a word for because I have friends who are already planning the move to Oregon, even though their kids don’t have babies yet.

Well, I think this is something that we’re going to have to crowdsource. Does grand date work for this, or is there another word for grandparents migrating to where their grandchildren live or planning to?

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