I've run into a new dilemma regarding the girls friends. Some of them call me Mrs. Schmidt. Clearly their parents taught them that this is the proper way to address an adult. Me? I never thought about whether they should address adults as Mr. and Mrs.
I don't know if we should have the girls call their friends' Moms "Mrs." or not. It's odd because when I was a girl, all my friend's Moms names began with Mrs. Yet, I cannot remember the last time I called someone Mrs. or Mr. The only people the girls call Miss or Mrs. or Mr. are teachers. I cannot think of another person they address like that.
On the one hand, it is a nice, polite thing to do. It shows respect and an understanding of how society works. On the other hand, it's a bit formal. I don't know that we live in that formal a society any more.
I don't know the answer, but I guess I need to start responding to Mrs. Schmidt. Right now whenever I hear it, I think my mother-in-law must be visiting.
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3 comments:
I guess I have always lucked out in that sense, because for most of my adult life I have worked at a child care center and have always been called Ms. Jacque. My kids friends call me that, since most of them have attended my center at some point or another and the majority of my friends have worked at my center so my kids call them Ms. Shannon, Ms. Sarah, etc. Maybe Ms. will work better for you than Mrs?
It is a conundrum. A friend and I were just talking about the fact that were not even "Mrs. (our last name)", we are simply referred to as "(our son's name)'s Mom". Rather than have my son say "thank you, Jack's Mom", I either try to have him say "thank you, Ms. Stacy" (using the first name) or "thank you Mrs. (last name)". We're still trying to figure it out too.
At school, the teachers require the students to use "mrs" when addressing the volunteer parents. It's easy and it works. But outside of school, I get a lot of "miss michelle". It sounds polite and it is easy for them to remember I suppose. As long as they are being respectful I don't care what they call me. :)
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