I had an enlightening discussion on the playground today with several other moms. We were talking about what we preferred to be called by our children's friends. This stemmed from LP calling another mom by her first name.
Several of the other moms stated their preference for being Mrs. So-and-so. It makes sense, since growing up my friend's parents were Mrs. Baker, Mr. Van and so on. In fact, I still do call them by these more formal names when I run into them. It just never occurred to me that I could or should command respect.
I am certainly on board with respecting other people's wishes when it comes to how they want to be known on the playground. I will admit it is endearing when she calls one dad, "Jer," his nickname, and when she goes into long explanations about which parent belongs to which kid and how she is married to this dad or that dad. That being said, I certainly plan on directing LP to call other parents Mr. or Mrs. Whatever until instructed otherwise. Just be a little patient with me while I get used to it.
And, please, feel free to call me Amy.
2 comments:
I had never thought about this topic until I moved here with lots of other families. We've actually picked up "Ms. Jessica" habit. I like it because it's not too formal for the kids and sometimes last names are harder to pronounce.
I usually go with Ms. Amy or Mr. Bill, etc. I got this idea from my old neighbor. It puts a little formality / respect in there without being too formal. For now LD just calls you "LPs mom" - DS
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