In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Thurlow Weed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >But now I'm curious: the tendency in the US of children addressing >elders by their first name; while I abhor it, I am curious to know if >this is the case in other countries as well. Is this a US phenomenon, or >does it exist elsewhere?
It possibly spread to England from the US, but when I was a Guide Guider, (the English equivalent to a Girl Scout leader) I would often find the girls addressing me as "Miss" (by which they were used to addressing their school teachers) once we got past the Guiding change from being Captain and Lieutenant (I was the latter) to being Guider and Assistant Guider - by which time I was married, but still only about 10-12 years older than the girls. My usual retort was that I wasn't a Miss, I was a Mrs, and my name was Jane - which is what I preferred them to call me. This was from the early 1980s through to when I finished in 1994. Like you, as a child, I was taught to address adults by their formal name - title and surname. My daughters address me as Mom, I insisted that only their true aunts and uncles were addressed as such, and where my nieces and nephew are concerned, I don't expect them to use the title aunt now they are adults. (They still do, occasionally, though!). What does annoy me more is when someone addresses me by my full name (particularly in the salutation to a letter, often a bulk mailed circular) with or without title - it should be either first name only (if they know me well, which this ilk don't) or by my formal name of Mrs Partridge. In the address line on the envelope, Mrs Jane Partridge is correct - this distinguishes me from my daughter, Miss Jenny Partridge (though we are JM and JL respectively, the dropping of the title and second initial can cause confusion as to who opens the envelope!). -- Jane Partridge To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
