What do your children call adults?

I'm in my late 40s. Some of my friends from childhood's parents have asked me to call them by their first names but it feels weird. I still call most of them Mr./Mrs. Whoever.

As for me, I'm not married and don't have kids. This seems to give license to friends telling their kids to call me by my first name when other adults who are married and have kids get called Mr./Mrs. I don't really mind but it's strange - like I'm a peer of the kids or not an adult because I'm single with no kids. I dislike the Miss/Mrs. First Name thing. It's nails on a chalkboard. One friend has tried having her kids do that with me. I haven't figured out how I want to handle it.

 

I never call PhDs doctor, mostly to tweak the ones who insist on it.

 

That happens the other way around, too.

My best friend and I have known each other almost 30 years, and his mom still doesn't know what my real first name is. He has always referred to me by the nickname I got when we were 14, so that's what she calls me, too.

He asked her one time if she knew my name, and she made a few terrible, wrong guesses and then just gave up.

 

My mom was an elementary school teacher, so if someone calls out "Mrs. (or Miz)" and our shared last name, I look around for her even though I know full well it's me. I introduce myself with my first name, or "Name-of-Newspaper lady." It's easier to remember than my name, and it gets rid of the issue with calling an adult by her first name. It usually doesn't bother me, but sometimes I can tell it bothers the kid!

I call most of the coaches I work with, whether older or younger than I am, "Coach." I think that's because, with my mom having been a teacher, I got raised in a "teachers don't have first names" world. I sometimes use "Sir," but I've never liked "Ma'am."

My childhood friends' parents did not have first names either. (Now that I think of it, there's one friend whose parents' names I don't think I ever knew to this day!) I called most of my mom's old friends by their first names, and I do the same with her new group of friends... but there are some people she taught with who I still call Mr. and Mrs., no matter how many times I've been corrected. It's like I'll always be 6 years old.

My friends' children call me Auntie PaperDoll. It's derived from "ayi," a Chinese term which loosely translates to "revered elder." (My first friends to have kids were Chinese-American, and it's transferred to everybody.) There's a little boy in my apartment complex whose parents (and caretaker grandparents) are all from China, and he calls me ayi too. I don't think he was taught that, and the first time he said it, I almost cried because it was just so unexpected and touching.

 

I've never called any of my aunts or uncles Aunt So-and-So, but my nephews and niece all call me Uncle KYSW.

 

Same vein: My second-best friend's husband is Chip, a nickname since birth. His mom craved potato chips after she had him, and he's never been called anything else. When I got the wedding invitation that said "James Smith," I was completely baffled.

I'm Aunt Kjim to her daughter, as I am to my best friend's son and my own niece and nephews. I have no idea what they call anyone else, though.

 

Big Pern agree now that it is more 1st names than when we were kids. One of my buddies has his kids call me and a few of our other buddies Uncle (1st name). Think it's because he and his wife only have sisters and none are married, so his kids don't have a blood uncle or uncle through marriage. Growing up, we just called a few of our parents close friends by their first name. Now it seems like we say Mr or Mrs first name to almost all friends.

 

You called them all by their 1st name? Were they only a few years older than you? Growing up we called all our Aunts and Uncles, Aunt or Uncle so-and-s0. Mrs J has older siblings so when we got married I had a couple nieces and nephews in their teens. I told all those little fockers, I am Uncle CJ. JK. they called me Uncle, probably wouldn't bother me if they just went by 1st name.

 

When I worked for the Devil Rays, employees, including senior executives, referred to the owner, Vince Naimoli, as Mr. Naimoli.

I'll never forget hearing my boss refer to him that way in a meeting. It was humiliating.

 

Why is it humiliating? It's a show of respect.

 

It's embarrassing when reporters call team owners Mr.....