Mom Slams Stranger for Shattering Child’s ‘Self-Esteem’ by Pointing Out Glaring Name Mistake

A woman on Reddit was confused after a mom scolded her for correcting her on the pronunciation of her daughter's name.

The British woman explained the awkward moment occurred when she struck up a conversation with an American mom and her young daughter.

"The mother mentioned that her daughter's name was 'Grain' so I assumed for a while that she was another mother who wanted something 'special' to call her child. I remarked that it was a unique name and that I'd never met anyone called Grain before," the woman wrote.

The little girl piped up saying that she was named after her great-grandmother, and that the moniker originates from Ireland.

"At this point, the alarm bells are ringing in my head because I've realized that the kid is called Gráinne (generally pronounced as Gro-nyuh, or thereabouts). I tried to be very tactful, and I was like, 'Irish has such an interesting alphabet. How is her name spelled? Irish names can be tricky,'" the woman wrote.

That's when she informed the mom and her daughter that her name wasn't pronounced like "Grain." Trying to do her best not to offend, she added that it was "an old school name and a more modern pronunciation," and that in Ireland they "typically pronounce it like 'Gro-nyuh.'"

"Her face went red and [she] said that I shouldn't have said that the pronunciation was wrong in front of the kid because now she's going to grow up knowing that her name is wrong and feel bad about it. I apologized for causing offense and restated that it's a lovely name in both ways and a fantastic nod to her heritage," the woman continued.

"She told me that I 'ruined her daughter's self-esteem' and that her 'life [was] ruined' by me saying that 'her existence is wrong.' I didn't say that, by the way. I said that her name was pronounced atypically ... The conversation was maybe five minutes long, but I managed to ruin this kid's life," she concluded.

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Users were baffled by the mom's response.

"You didn’t embarrass the child, you embarrassed the parent, who frankly should be embarrassed she named her kid a name she didn’t know how to pronounce. In reality you did the kid a favor by pointing this out early on so the mom can deal with it. She would have found out eventually and it could have been when she was old enough to be legitimately embarrassed," one person wrote.

"It's better for the kid to learn the correct pronunciation now rather than face it later with potential bullying. The mom needs to take some responsibility here," another commented.

"She can either spell or pronounce it differently or even change it. She’s in an awkward position now, but at least she can do something before school. She should have thanked you," someone else chimed in.