Do you refer to everyone as Aunt/Uncle to your LO even though they are just your friends? What about strangers/acquaintances? Are they Mr/Mrs/Miss First Name, or Last Name? I think it's important for my LO to address elders with respect, so just wondering how you ladies go about it!
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Our LO is still young but we won't make her use Mr/Mrs. Unless its her teacher. She will use respect when talking with people though! As in, please, thank you, excuse me.
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I've thought about this. My parents' friends were always either aunt or uncle, or Mr./Mrs, I never called adults by their first name. STILL, I'll call them Mr. or Mrs. But now I think about doing that with my friends and it seems really weird. I think we will be doing first names for anyone besides relatives or super close friends, who will be aunt/uncle. But, their friends' parents will probably be Mr./Mrs, if that makes any sense.
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Some of my friends will be Aunt or Uncle, while others we'll have her address as Miss or Mr. First Name. This is how both DH and I were raised. I still address some of my mom's friends as Miss So-and-so even though I'm an adult.
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Yeah same as @mrsjazz: close friends will be aunt & uncle and strangers will be mrs, miss, mr
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We do aunt/uncle and Miss/mister first name. I don't mind if other people's kids call me by my first name but I don't want my kids doing it.
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Same as @mrsjazz and @Mrsbells:. Close friends will be aunt and uncle while everyone else will be Mr./Mrs/Ms/Miss.
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We are in the south where kids almost always address adults as Miss/Mister First Name
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Only parents siblings and their spouses will be called aunts and uncles. For other adults it will depend on the relationship. I can think of some we will call mr/mrs last name, some will be mr/mrs first name, and some will be first name.
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For us, close friends will be Miss, Mrs, or Mr Firstname.
Aunt/Uncle is for aunts and uncles only.
Sir or ma'am for general people. -
In following typical Asian style, all our friends will be Auntie/Uncle. Neighbors/acquaintances will be Mr/Ms.
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I grew up in the south, too (Texas, and both parents were from Virginia) and we never called people Mr./Mrs./Miss first name.... Always the title with the last name. My mom, in particular hated the Miss First name. She said that started as a slave thing in the south (have no idea if that's true), and she wouldn't use it. I only ever saw it being used in daycares, for some reason.
In my husbands culture, they call EVERYONE older than themselves auntie or uncle, whether its a stranger or a friend. His parents told me to call them auntie and uncle, which was strange at first for me. Now I like it.
I'm not sure what we'll do with our kids. Probably teach them to use title+ last name, unless told otherwise, or unless the person is brown and older family, haha. Complicated.
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Where I grew up everyone was an auntie or uncle. My husband thinks its SO weird though. I told him he's weird!
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Miss or Mister first name
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God-parents will be aunt/uncle.
Older relatives (roughly my age+) will be Cousin First name, unless of course the person is a great aunt/uncle. Then, its aunt/uncle.
Friends and co-workers will be Mr./Ms. First name.
Everyone else can dictate first or last name, but Mr./Ms./Mrs. will precede.
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@Anagram: Interesting that your mom thinks Miss First name originated during slavery. I can imagine servants (slaves) having to address the mistress or master of the house in a formal way and their children. I was watching The Tudors and servants or people in the lower class would address the upper class as "my lord" or "your grace" besides their title of nobility.
I don't find Miss first name offensive, but I refuse to address envelopes as Master first name for a little boy as etiquette dictates.
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We have one close couple friend that get Aunt/Uncle status, but the rest of our friends will probably be addressed by their frist names. Other adults that are not as close will be Mr. and Mrs Soandso.
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Mr/Mrs First or Last name... Depending on the person's preference. We have several friends that use Aunt/Uncle with friends and Mr/Mrs with strangers to differentiate who is safe a and who isn't.
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Hmmm, not sure. I think my cousins will be referred to as Auntie/Uncle. My friends tried to get their kids to call me auntie, but it never stuck, so we'll see. Everyone else probably Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Lastname.
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Right now, his teachers are miss "first name", as well as other parents. My best friend is "auntie". When they are 5 and up, I'll teach them to say Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss last name.
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@MRS. LEMON-LIME:
I did some googling, but all I could really find was this:
In some American subcultures, such as the American South and some urban cultures, Miss is sometimes used irrespective of marital status with a woman's first name in direct or indirect informal address, as Miss Ellen from Gone with the Wind or Miss Ellie from Dallas. This form was also used in upper class households in some English-speaking countries by servants to address or refer to the unmarried ladies of the household, and occasionally in family-run businesses in the same manner, though more commonly it was used to address servants if they were addressed by title at all. This is also common with female child-care givers, small children will refer to their preschool teacher or nanny as "Miss" and their first name, regardless of marital status.
So my mother is probably thinking of female help in the house. I know my mom was raised with a nanny (although they didn't use that term) and my grandmother had a washwoman/kitchen help. And those ladies were referred to as "Miss-First name" (regardless of marital status) because they were lower status, whereas ladies of higher status (like my grandmother) would always be Mrs.-Last-Name.
So my mother doesn't like Miss-First name (even though she grew in Virginia and now lives in Georgia).
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@MRS. LEMON-LIME: Oh, i found one view. Maybe this is what my mom was thinking of: http://www.blackvoicenews.com/columnists/joseph-a-bailey-ii-md/43918-whites-calling-blacks-by-first-names.html
Anyway, my mother is more sensitive to this type of thing than most white people in the South. She was the first (and only!) white teacher at a "desegregated" all black school in Virginia in 1967, the year she graduated from college. People in the town would come up to her and ask ridiculous questions like, "Do you let the students hug you?" and stuff like that.
So she's very aware of subtle implications and origins, even if now they are widely used among all races.
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@Anagram: your mom sounds awesome. I was thinking solely abput how servants/ slaves would refer to their employers/ owners. Referring to a grown woman as Miss First regardless of her marital status or age was purposely disrespectful.
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