Nicknames

What we call someone says a lot about who that person is. For instance, in the Bible, names weren't just picked out of thin air...they were chosen for a reason. I have found that children are extremely picky about what they are called.

I joke with my kids all the time. I call them stinkers and turkeys and all sorts of colorful descriptors. Once I was calling one of my kids a muscle woman because she did something that took a lot of strength. She looked at me with an exasperated look on her face and said, "I'm not a muscle woman...I'm a muscle girl." Duh Coach Rockstar, I mean SERIOUSLY.

I had a boy try my class several weeks ago for the first time and he came out with a name tag that said "Ian"...only the "Ian" was scratched out and "Sergio" was written in its place. This one "Sergio" informed me that his full name was actually "Sergio Monster Truck" but I could just call him Sergio.

One of my classes has 2 Sydneys in it. I asked if I could call one of them Sid so as not to get them confused with one another. Of course they both wanted to be called Sid, so I had to convince one of them to keep her full name for convenience sake. The next week, Sid no longer wanted to be called Sid but now wanted to go by her formal name of Sydney. Unfortunately, by now Sydney did not want to be called Sid either. I ended up having to resort to the first and middle name approach (thank goodness those were not the same!)

My team kids seem to think it is a fatal faux pas when I forget to call them by their nickname. It's almost as if acquiring a nickname is a sort of rite-of-passage. We have Skipper, Fiz, Dorito, Cottage Cheese, Chicky, Jellyfish, Falarah, and Rocky (just to name a few). Sometimes they are totally random (like Dorito and Cottage Cheese). Sometimes they are an adapted form of the child's real name (like Falarah and Fiz). Sometimes they have to do with a certain identifiable characteristic (Skipper is flexible like a Barbie doll, Jellyfish is kinda wiggly and sweats a lot). Sometimes it's their last name with a "Y" attached to it. Whatever the origin might be, nicknames are highly sought after and coveted by all.

Maybe that's why I like it when the kids call me Coach Rockstar...