Manners and social etiquette have both changed over the years. There aren’t as many thank you notes being sent. Invitations to parties go out via email or Facebook. Parents must institute a “no technology at the table” rule which couldn’t have been imagined 20 years ago. I can’t even remember the last time someone RSVPd to a birthday party. It seems that not everything has changed.
Apparently, kids shouldn’t call adults by their first name. Stacy Graebner wrote a light-hearted post about why she doesn’t want kids calling her by her first name. It was a bit silly and she didn’t come across as too upset about it, but it was clear she never wants a kid to call her by her first name.
“However, a part of me still longs for good ol’ fashioned old school etiquette, especially when it comes to the way children interact with adults. In fact, one of my biggest pet peeves is children addressing adults by their first names. Although this is fairly commonplace where we live, even after 12 years of parenting I still can’t get used to it. It just feels kind of…wrong…like wearing black underwear with white pants, or ordering a steak at a sushi restaurant.”
Graebner didn’t give an alternative to her first name. She did note that adding a Miss or Mrs. sounds outdated. I guess her kids’ friends can just call her “so and so’s mom” or Graebner. It sounds to me like she’s really thinking too hard about this. She seems to think only her friends should call her by her first name.
My kids are 9 and 12-years-old. Their friends know who I am and call me Gwen, because that is my name. Friends, kids, the lady at Starbucks, my doctor all call me Gwen. I can agree with Graebner that I’m not ready for Mrs. to be tacked on the front of my name. Since that is the case I don’t mind kids using my first name.
Now, if I can just get them all to look up from their phone when they talk to me THAT will be a miracle.
