Something that continues to drive me crazy is when people have their children or my children call them Mrs. or Mr. and then their first name! It drives me nuts! What ever happened to addressing an adult Mrs. or Mr. and their last name?
Obviously my kids are only 4 so when they started talking all I could do was the same thing other parents had their kids call me...Ms. Kathleen! I assumed that this was the new formal way children are too address adults. All of the dance classes, tumbling classes or anything up until this year they were involved in , they addressed the adult in this fashion. I didn't know any better, as all of my friends had their children doing the same.
I never felt comfortable having my children address people this way and some of my friends didn't care for when my children addressed them in this way either. In fact I have one friend who asked for the girls to call her a very cute nick name, I like this idea better to be honest. They still address her by this fun name and it seems for them to have a closer bond with her as well. Anyway, when the girls started 4 year pre-school this year they addressed the teacher as Mrs. Johnson! Not only that, but, Mrs. Johnson address' all the other parents by the formal greeting and their last name. My question is, if our children are still using formal salutations when they enter school, why the hell are we having them do the other? It just drives me nuts!
I know on the "driving me nuts" scale, this isn't a huge thing, however, I want my girls to address adults as Mr or Mrs Last name! Why is so hard for parent to do? Do we not know our friends, neighbors or soccer coaches' last name? Growing up there was only one adult that we addressed by his first name and it was because he did have a very hard last name to pronounce. Until this day when we talk about our old neighbors, we still call him Mr. & Mrs. Al, however, he is the only one.
I don't get this and really don't know when it started, however, it will be something my children will not do. In this day in age our children seem to be lacking so many manners and show little respect for adults. Maybe this is because we as parents have been allowing them to address adults by their first name. To me this seems to make an adult more on their same level, rather than as a more respected figure.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone's children are going to grow up as physco killers because they address' adult in thiw way, however, I think adults deserve respect from children and in my opinion I think starting with this may help. What do you have your children do? How do other children address you or your husband?
2 comments:
I really hate to be called Mrs. Cathcart. It's really long and hard for kids to say. I prefer to be "Miss Kelley" if parents want them to refer to me with some sort of formal tittle.
I think that children of my friends should call me "Auntie Kelley" and friends of my children can just call me Kelley. It is my name after all. I had one little one call me Kelleycart, which I thought was really cute! I just don't hold to formality. But teachers and Dr's and the like shoud be called by their formal names!
I like Kelleycart..very cute! My friend I was talking about, my girls call her Holly Hobbie..her name is Holly. The first time the girls ever met her, they thought she was the "real" Holly Hobbie. It was very cute.
I know a lot of people don't like being called Mrs. Last name, I know for a lot of friends it makes them feel like their Mother in law. Thanks for the input!
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