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Mom wonders if she made a mistake giving her baby an 'adult' name

The name isn't currently matching his "squishy baby" personality.

baby names, unique baby names
@_heatherel_/TikTok

What's in a name? A lot, actually.

The namesĀ parents give their children make a profound impact on their livesā€”for better, or for worse. And the different strategies for picking the right nameā€”including spending upwards of thousands of dollars for professional helpā€”is a hot topic of discussion for well intentioned moms and dads.


It wasnā€™t too long ago that one mom went viral for encouraging parents to give their kids ā€œadult namesā€ that they wouldnā€™t outgrow. However, another mom who tried that tactic is having some second thoughts.

In a video posted to her TikTok, Heather, known as @_heatherel_ opened up about her mixed feelings since naming her son Reed four months ago.

"Since the beginning, I'm not convinced I like his name ... even though I like his name," she says, laughing at herself.

Heather goes on to say that she intended to give her son an ā€œadult name,ā€ but is still ā€œhaving a hard time connecting it to him because he's a little squishy baby,ā€ leaving her unsure as to whether or not she actually likes the name at all.

The experience left Heather wondering if any other moms who gave their kids, particularly their sons, more ā€œtraditional adultā€ names felt the same sort of ambivalence.

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Ā @_heatherel_ Just me?? #boymomĀ #momtokĀ #babynamesĀ #babyboynamesĀ #adultnamesĀ #regertsĀ #momlifeĀ #workingmonĀ #needadviceĀ #babytokĀ #babyboyĀ ā™¬ original sound - HeatherĀ 
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While she did get a few who commiserated with her situation, Heather mostly received a whole lotta advice and encouragement.

ā€œI have a Thomas, Henry, Levi and Woody. They all took some time for me to connect their name with them! But they all fit now!ā€ one mom commented.

Undoubtedly the main tip was to incorporate a squishy baby-friendly nickname.

ā€œMy grandson is a Reed. I LOVE his name. When he was a baby I would call him Reeder, Reedster, Reedmanā€¦Just playing with him,ā€ one person wrote.

ā€œI named my son Reid and I love his name! Heā€™s a young adult now, but when he was a squishy baby we just nicknamed him,ā€ another added. ā€œSometimes we called him Reido, sometimes we called him Reidie.ā€

Another mom chimed in to reiterate that changing a name is perfectly okay.

ā€œMy son was supposed to be Daniel. It just did not fit him at all. We changed his name to Joseph. Fits him much better,ā€ she commented.

Since Heather told People in an exclusive interview that the name Reed has ā€œsentimental value,ā€ there wonā€™t be any plans of changing it. But now, with a little support, hopefully she can feel more confident in her decision.

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Joy

Dad shares the hilarious conversations he has with 5-year-old daughter and folks are cracking up

"Why do people congratulate you when Mom is making the baby?

via James Breakwell/X

All parents have had similar convos with thier kiddos.

Raising kids is tough, but there's a lot of laughs along the way. Especially when actual conversations start, as kids begin trying to make sense out of the world around them, ask questions, and test mommy and daddy's resolve.

Back in 2018, comedy writer and children's book author James Breakwell, with four daughters who were all under the age of eight at the time, shared their hilarious conversations on X. From these tweets, it looks like comedy runs in the family. Here's a sampling of some Breakwell's funniest kid-inspired tweets.

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While Breakwell's 7-year-old wasn't as heavily featured, when she was quoted, the sarcasm was palpable. Which makes sense, considering that kiddos begin understanding this mechanism around that age.

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Kids really do say the darnedest things, and we love them for it. It one of the many, many ways then bring so much joy to the world. It almost makes up for the headaches and sleepless nights, doesn't it.

This article originally appeared seven years ago.

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Author Ray Bradbury noticed a specific trait that made Walt Disney tremendously successful

This is how creative giants understand one another.

via Alan Light/Wikimedia Commons and Wikimedia Commons

Walt Disney and Ray Bradbury.

The worldā€™s greatest innovators think and behave differently from us mere mortals. They have a unique view of the world and are dedicated to their craft in ways that most would deem obsessive. But without that type of dedication, Steve Jobs could never have given us the Macintosh, Michael Jordan would never have been able to fly, and Michelangelo would have never painted the Sistine Chapel.

Itā€™s hard for the average person to understand what makes a cultural innovator tick, which is why an interview with groundbreaking author Ray Bradbury on Walt Disney is so inspiring. It lifts the veil on what great artists see in one another that most of us canā€™t. Bradbury is the acclaimed author of classics such as Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, who was a friend of Disney and worked with his legendary company as a creative consultant.

What did Ray Bradbury think of Walt Disney?

In a 2004 interview, Bradbury explained where the incredibly ambitious and creative Disney got his drive and determination.


ā€œIf thereā€™s any secret at all, itā€™s because Walt, like myself, is not an optimist but an optimal behaviorist. Which means that every day of your life, if you behave well, you begin to feel well,ā€ Bradbury said. ā€œSo thatā€™s not false, thatā€™s real. You get your work done every day, and at the end of a week, a month, a year, youā€™ll turn around and say, hey, look what I did. So you feel good. Thatā€™s real optimism. Optimal behavior.ā€

ā€œHe could look back at the end of each year and see his behavior, and it made him want to go on. A lot of people are pessimists because theyā€™ve never done anything,ā€ Bradbury continued. ā€œIf you go to bed every night having not done anything, youā€™re going to wake up unhappy, arenā€™t you? So the answer to that is do something every day. Be busy, for Godā€™s sake, be busy.ā€

Ā walt disney, disney world, mickey mouse, disney company, disney theme parks,Ā A statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse.via Paul Beattie/Flickr

What is a behavioral optimist?

Although ā€œbehavioral optimistā€ isnā€™t an official psychological term, itā€™s one that Bradbury often used to describe himself. ā€œIā€™ve learned that by doing things, things get done. Iā€™m not an optimist; Iā€™m an optimal behaviorist. We ensure the future by doing it,ā€ he said. ā€œOptimists and pessimists are blind. But Iā€™m not either. Iā€™m an optimal behaviorist. In other words, I behave at the top of my lungs every day. Thereā€™s no guarantee, but youā€™re going to have a heck of a lot of fun. Youā€™ll come to the end of your life with the secure knowledge that you tried everything.ā€

There are just two critical things in life, he said, ā€œBeing in love with your wife or husband and being in love with your work. And then everythingā€™s fine.ā€

If youā€™ve always dreamed of living a life like Walt Disney, using your imagination to entertain and uplift humanity, you can start by looking at life in the same way. Big goals can often seem too lofty when we think about the finished product. Instead, take small, consistent steps every day towards achieving your goal. Writing a 300-page book may seem like too much work, but if you write a page a day, youā€™ll have a book before the end of the year. The key is to stay focused and consistent, just like Uncle Walt.

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'Wicked' author says one line in 'The Wizard of Oz' inspired Elphaba and Glinda's backstory

Gregory Maguire says he "fell down to the ground" laughing when the idea hit him.

Public domain

The two witches in "The Wizard of Oz" clearly had a history together.

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book or listened to a piece of music and wondered, "How did they come up with that idea?" The creative process is so enigmatic even artists themselves don't always know where their ideas come from, so It's a treat when we get to hear the genesis of a brilliant idea straight from the horse's mouth. If you've watched "Wicked" and wondered where the idea for the friendship between Elphaba (the Wicked Witch) and Glinda (the Good Witch) came from, the author of the book has shared the precise moment it came to him.

The hit movie "Wicked" is based on the 20-year-old hit stage musical, which is based on the novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" written by Gregory Maguire. While the musical is a simplified version of the 1995 book, the basic storylineā€”the origin story of the two witches from "The Wizard of Oz"ā€”lies at the heart of both. In an interview with BBC, Maguire explained how Elphaba and Glinda's friendship popped into his head.

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Maguire was visiting Beatrix Potter's farm in Cumbria, England, and thinking about "The Wizard of Oz," which he had loved as a child and thought could be an interesting basis for a story about evil.

"I thought 'alright, what do we know about 'The Wizard of Oz' from our memories,'" he said. "We have the house falling on the witch. What do we know about that witch? All we know about that witch is that she has feet. So I began to think about Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the Westā€¦

Ā glinda, elphaba, wicked, Ā In "Wicked," the two Oz witches met as students at Shiz University.Ā Ā Giphy GIF by WickedĀ 

"There is one scene in the 1939 film where Billie Burke [Glinda the Good Witch] comes down looking all pink and fluffy, and Margaret Hamilton [the Wicked Witch of the West] is all crawed and crabbed and she says something like, 'I might have known you'd be behind this, Glinda!' This was my memory, and I thought, now why is she using Glinda's first name? They have known each other. Maybe they've known each other for a long time. Maybe they went to college together. And I fell down onto the ground in the Lake District laughing at the thought that they had gone to college together."

In "Wicked," Glinda and the Wicked Witch, Elphaba, meet as students at Shiz University, a school of wizardry. They get placed as roommates, loathe each other at first, but eventually become best friends. The story grows a lot more complicated from there (and the novel goes darker than the stage play), but it's the character development of the two witches and their relationship with one another that force us to examine our ideas about good and evil.

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Maguire also shared with the Denver Center for Performing Arts what had inspired him to use the "Wizard of Oz" characters in the first place.

"I was living in London in the early 1990ā€™s during the start of the Gulf War. I was interested to see how my own blood temperature chilled at reading a headline in the usually cautious British newspaper, the Times of London: 'Sadaam Hussein: The New Hitler?' I caught myself ready to have a fully formed political opinion about the Gulf War and the necessity of action against Sadaam Hussein on the basis of how that headline made me feel. The use of the word Hitler ā€“ what a word! What it evokes! When a few months later several young schoolboys kidnapped and killed a toddler, the British press paid much attention to the nature of the crime. I became interested in the nature of evil, and whether one really could be born bad. I considered briefly writing a novel about Hitler but discarded the notion due to my general discomfort with the reality of those times. But when I realized that nobody had ever written about the second most evil character in our collective American subconscious, the Wicked Witch of the West, I thought I had experienced a small moment of inspiration. Everybody in America knows who the Wicked Witch of the West is, but nobody really knows anything about her. There is more to her than meets the eye."

Ā wizard of oz, wicked witch of the westĀ The Wicked Witch of the West has a story of her own.Ā Ā GiphyĀ Ā 

Authors and artistsā€”and their ideasā€”help hold a mirror up to humanity for us to see and reflect on who we are, and "Wicked" is one of those stories that makes us take a hard look at what we're seeing in that mirror. Thanks, Gregory Maguire, for launching us on a collective journey that not only entertains but has the potential to change how we see one another.

This story originally appeared last year.

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Her adoptive mother secretly wrote to her biological mother for 17 years. She had no idea.

What an amazingly kind gesture.

@aliciamaeholloway/TikTok

What an amazingly kind gesture.

Closed adoptionsā€”meaning adoptions with no contact between the biological parents and adoptive familiesā€”offer privacy, protection and emotional closure. However, it can understandably still be incredibly difficult for biological mothers to instantly and drastically remove their biological child from their life, even if they know they are doing what's best.

This was the case for Alicia Mae Hollowayā€™s biological mom. In a video shared to her TikTok account, the dancer and television personality shared that her adoptive mother, Evelyn, ā€œsaw how hard it wasā€ for her birth mom to give Holloway up for adoption. So Evelyn came up with a kind gesture that Holloway dubbed ā€œthe sweetest thing.ā€

ā€œShe was like, ā€˜okay, Iā€™ll make you a deal. Every six months, Iā€™ll send you a picture of Alicia and a little update in a written card of how sheā€™s doing.ā€™ā€

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Ā @aliciamaeholloway She watched me grow up my whole life but never I just never knew itšŸ„¹šŸ¤ #adoptionĀ #momĀ #adoptedmomĀ #birthmomsoftiktokĀ #birthmomĀ #adoptedĀ #adoptedchildĀ #adoptedcheckĀ #adoptionjourneyĀ #biologicalmotherĀ #biologicalmomĀ #bestmomĀ #bestmomeverĀ #morgantownwvĀ #morgantownĀ #wvĀ #westvirginiaĀ #momisasuperheroĀ ā™¬ Sad Emotional Piano - DS ProductionsĀ 
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Getting those biannual letters out wasnā€™t as simple as dropping them off in the mail either.

As Holloway explained, she had been conceived during an affair her birth motherā€”a white woman, married to a white man, with three white childrenā€”had with a Black man. Not only could Hollowayā€™s birth mom not afford a fourth kid, she feared what her ā€œracistā€ family might do upon seeing a biracial baby, and told everyone that it was a stillborn.

All this to say, Hollowayā€™s birth mom didnā€™t want the letters arriving at her home, potentially risking anyone from her family seeing it. Evelyn would therefore need to send the letters to a friendā€™s house.

But sure enough, Evelyn kept good on that promise. For 17 years, Holloways' birth mom got to celebrate milestones in her daughterā€™s life. Meanwhile, Holloway had no idea this exchange was happening.

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Ā @aliciamaeholloway She did what all mothers should do: Whatever is best for their childšŸ„ŗšŸ¤ #adoptionĀ #adoptedĀ #adoptionstoryĀ #morgantownwvĀ #pittsburghĀ #birthmomĀ #biomomĀ #biologicalmotherĀ #biologicalmomĀ #adoptedcheckĀ #adoptionjourneyĀ #adoptionstoriesĀ #adoptionrocksĀ #adopteesoftiktokĀ ā™¬ Sad Scene BGM Piano Instrument(313618) - HomeMadeGarbageĀ 
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ā€œI get chills when I think about how she was watching me grow up and I had no idea,ā€ Holloway told Today. ā€œShe knew I was a dancer and that I was doing beauty pageants and that I was a good kid.ā€

Holloway added that just before her 18th birthday, she was made aware of her adoptive momā€™s kind gesture. And they even went to meet Hollowayā€™s birth mom, an event Holloway that noted was in many ways more emotional for her two moms than it was for her, recalling that both women ā€œhad a long, long, long embrace and were both bawling their eyes out.ā€

As for Holloway, she told Today that she feels no ill will towards her biological mom. Rather, she sees the decision as ā€œan act of love," that set her up for a truly ā€œamazing life.ā€ At the end of their meeting, after the important questions pertaining to family health history and whatnot, all she had to say was ā€œthank you.ā€

And from the looks of it, she is as happy as ever living life with her adopted parents, who honestly could pass for her biological parents any day.

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Ā @aliciamaeholloway I look EXACTLY like themšŸ„¹šŸ«¶šŸ½Even more now that im an adult!!! #adoptedĀ #adoptionĀ #interracialcoupleĀ #greenscreenĀ #interracialloveĀ #interracialmarriageĀ #whitemomblackdadĀ ā™¬ My Little Girl - Tim McGrawĀ 
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It's interesting to think about how none of us know our full life story, how many things both bigs and small remain mysteries. But when we are lucky enough to discover hidden truths, we unlock yet another part of ourselves.

This article originally appeared last year.

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'The Tiffany Problem' explains why people think historically accurate things are wrong

Anachronisms aren't always what they seem.

Ali Shaker/VOA, Tylwyth Eldar/Wikimedia Commons

The name Tiffany goes way back to Tiphaine Raguenel, who lived in Mont Saint Michel in the 1300s.

Depending on what generation you belong to, when you hear the name Tiffany, you might think of the famous jewelry store, the teen singer from the 80s or the much-less-in-the-spotlight daughter of President Trump. Most likely, you don't think of a woman who lived in the Middle Ages.

In fact, if you were listening to an audiobook set in medieval times and the narrator introduced a character named Tiffany, you'd probably get yanked right out of the story as your brain would say, "Wait, why is there a Tiffany in this story? Isn't that a much more modern name?"

Ā tiffany, 1980s, the name tiffanyĀ Tiffany was a popular nameā€”and singerā€”in the 80s.Ā Ā GiphyĀ Ā 

It's actually not, which is exactly why The Tiffany Problem is called The Tiffany Problem.

The Tiffany Problem refers to the fact that people in modern times will sometimes see something as anachronistic when it's not. It's something writers, filmmakers and other storytellers have to be aware of, as it can feel like there's a historical problem even if there isn't an actual historical problem.

Abraham Piper explains the dilemma and how it was coined:

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As Piper shares, fantasy author Jo Walton coined the term "The Tiffany Problem" and explained it:

"Your readers are modern people and know what they know, which is fine except when what they know isnā€™t actually right. For instance, the name Tiffany sounds extremely modern to us. It feels jarring when we read it as a character name in a historical setting, where weā€™d be quite happy with names like Anna and Jane. But our instinct is wrong, because Tiffany is a form of Theophania, and it was fairly common in medieval England and France. It went out of fashion later, and itā€™s because we donā€™t have seventeenth to nineteenth century examples that it feels modern. But you still canā€™t use it in a fantasy novel set in the exact time and place when the name would have been historically accurate, because it will jerk the reader out of their reading trance. They know itā€™s wrong and you canā€™t tell them that what they know is wrong."

Ā you know I'm right, schitt's creekĀ People often don't realize that what they think they know is wrong.Ā Ā Giphy GIF by Schitt's CreekĀ 

Piper had also shared that "ha ha," which seems like a casual, modern colloquialism, is actually very old, with the first known use coming from a monk 1,000 years ago. He also mentions "OMG," which was used by a World War I admiral in a letter to Winston Churchill in 1917. And "hubby" as a slang term for husband? That goes way back to the 1680s. Who knew?

It's a bit ironic that writers who strive to ensure their historical fiction works are historically accurate can find themselves stymied by people being just flat-out wrong about what's accurate and what's not. Humans are interesting creatures, aren't we?

For more info about the name Tiffany than you ever thought you wanted to know but will be delighted to learn, CGP Grey created a whole video about the name that has 4.7 million views. Tiffany exploded the 1980s, but CGP Grey goes all the way back to the year 300 to uncover the origins of the name. It's genuinely entertaining. Watch:

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If you're still here and want to take an even deeper dive into the history of Tiffany, this other video from CGP Grey is an incredible rabbit hole that will make you appreciate the work historians do and marvel at how much digging Grey actually did to provide the original Tiffany history video. We're talking trips to the deep dark corners of The British Library, the largest library in the world, and hours and hours of paging through books just to find the original source of this one poem that includes the name "Tiffany." It's a journey, but a fascinating one.

Enjoy "Someone Dead Ruined My Lifeā€¦ Again":

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This article originally appeared two years ago.

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