Make Your Parents Happy. Have a Baby!

... that is, if you're married! Because, we all know what it means to most Greeks families to bring a baby home if you're not married. The usual order of things is first for your parents to annoy you to get married before your "expiration date" nears and then for them to annoy you until you have a baby.

Of course, it's worst if you're a woman. However, nowadays Greek families frown upon their girls getting married before their 30s. It's usually because the moms project their own wishes on their daughters and they don't want them to enter the "vasana" of marriage too early, like they did. Although this may be true for families in Greece, for most other Greeks around the world (at least in the U.S. and Australia) getting married early is seen as a good thing.

I have a feeling it's a boy...

Sometimes satisfying your parents is a never-ending battle. Just when you stopped hearing things like, "When is he finally going to propose? Do you think he's just taken you for granted and wants to avoid marriage for as long as possible? What if he's using you?" from aunts and mothers, you start hearing about having babies. If they don't see a bump the next few months after your wedding you start to hear sob stories like: "When am I going to become a grandma? When I'm 80?" You just can't win!

Some of you in more remote areas of Greece, or with relatives from remote areas of Greece, get wishes such as "Hopefully, the first one is a boy." And, "why" may I ask? Because, the boy will carry the family name till eternity and it will make his grandfather (of course from the father's side) very happy! Why, the grandfather from the father's side in particular? Because you're going to give your firstborn boy his name! Hello!! It's been done for years. Why do you think we've ended up with 1 million Yiannides and Yiorgides in this country? We keep "dipping" into the same pool name.

It's all in the name

This issue of naming children has brought full-on war to some families. Parents don't talk with their children any more, because they refused to baptize their kids with their (the grandparents') names! I have even heard of instances when the husband swore to divorce his wife if she didn't accept naming their first two children after his parents. And the latter is an example from a couple of months ago, not from the 1920s as you may have initially thought. People like this are the reason that a family may end up with 5 Nikos's: little Nikos, middle Nikos and big Nikos from 3 different brothers who decided to each give their dad's name to their son.

Issues like this are truly silly when you observe them as an outsider. It's just one of those traditions that I hope will either go out of style or disappear in the next few years, because imagine "having" to name your girl "Lemonia" (which means "lemon tree") or your boy "Epaminondas"! They're names that can scar your kid for life!

*Image: http://www.balancedlivingmag.com/

Visit allthegreeks.com for more "issues" Greeks face around the world!