What will your grandchild call you?

Aging Baby Boomers are in the midst of a grandbaby boom, and they're struggling with a bunch of issues. 

How to be attentive grandparents while having a busy career and, increasingly, caring for their own elderly parents?

How to stay close to the tykes while living far away?

But one of the most vexing issues they face is deciding what they want to be called by their grandchildren, lest it make them sound and feel old.

Experts in the field of aging are not surprised that Baby Boomers are seeking creative ways to avoid wrinkly sounding labels.  "That whole generation is reinventing old age," says Tom Nelson, chief operating officer of AARP. 

Boomers will play their grandparent roles differently from previous generations.  Just as many boomers were so involved hovering over their own children that they earned the name "helicopter parents," they will insert themselves in their grandchildren's lives in new ways, as well.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2009