Mr. and Mrs.

[Ronstar]

I use Ma'am, Sir, Mr, Mrs a lot, usually to people that I'm not acquainted with. This happens less now that I'm retired. I address relatives by first name except MIL. I call her by the nickname we came up with several years ago.

[marko]

When we were late teenagers, we started calling Mom by her first name, even in public. Not sure how that happened.

A few weeks ago a plumber was over her house and I was there. Not wanting to sound inappropriate (or confuse the plumber) I called "Mom!" to her up the stairs. She didn't answer so I called again. She finally said: "you calling ME? You haven't called me that in 40 years!"

[txtig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Payin-the-Toll I'm definitely not a racist, so don't flame me. Years ago, black family who lived next to us had 4 kids and they always called us Mr. Mike or Mrs. Martha. Drove me nuts. Couple of weeks ago had a young black guy selling magazines door-to-door (I never buy this stuff). He called me Mr. Mike and I brought him up short and told him if he wanted to improve his sales technique that he could call me: Mike, Mr. Hines , or anything else but Mr. Mike. I find it degrading to both parties involved.

I don't think this has anything to do with racism. I grew up I'm the south ( still live there) and this is very common. I think it's actually a nice form of respect. Maybe a bit less formal than Mr./Mrs. Last Name, but I don't see anything remotely degrading about it. My son's friends (all about 21 years old) all use this form of expression for both me and my wife.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marko When we were late teenagers, we started calling Mom by her first name, even in public. Not sure how that happened.....

I have some friends who as late teenagers just started calling their mother, a widowed single mom, "Fred" (no real connections with her real first name). I think it started out as a joke, but for some reason, it stuck.

Interestingly, later she married a guy named Fred.

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski I have some friends who as late teenagers just started calling their mother, a widowed single mom, "Fred" (no real connections with her real first name). I think it started out as a joke, but for some reason, it stuck. Interestingly, later she married a guy named Fred.

That could get complicated...