<p>I tell everyone to call me by my first name. I didn’t change my last name when I married so I’m not a Mrs. “anything.” There is a really annoying regional custom in my area in which the kids call you “Miss” or “Mrs.” “first name.” Because of things I heard growing up in the South, I absolutely hate the way that sounds.</p>
<p>Most of my kids’ friends call me Mrs. because they’ve known me since they were in elementary school. Should they ever choose not to, that’s fine with me since they are in their late 20’s, early 30’s. I still call my parents friends Mr and Mrs. if I’ve known them forever. I sure don’t see the harm in it.</p>
<p>My first daughter in law had a hard time switching to something other than Mrs. since she’s known us since she was a freshman in high school. My second daughter in law has always called us by our first names since he started dating her when she was in her mid 20’s. Whatever they want is fine with me although right now, I’d prefer “Grandma” :)</p>
<p>^^^^^ Lol, 3bm103!</p>
<p>I never was comfortable being called Mrs milkandsugar. When my Daughter brought her teenage,now young adult friends over, I always introduce myself as “first name”. Even at work, when answering the phone, I always give my first name. My husband on the other hand, always uses Mr. Milkandsugar, it drives me crazy. i have to look up, I think my FIL is present.(he’s been deceased forever). Now,in my college teaching life, the student call me professor milkandsugar
and I have to stop and think, are they talking to me?</p>
<p>Here’s what drives me crazy: when someone calls me Liz Husband’s Last Name. You can probably guess my name is Elizabeth. Why does everyone want to shorten it to Liz?! And then using my DH’s last name instead of mine…I can’t even recognize myself.</p>
<p>I come from a long line of women who hate Mrs… I will never be a Mrs. so I won’t have that problem. My grandma always went by her first name because no one ever could pronounce her married name. My mother hates being called Mrs. Blah and is usually called mom by most of my friends and her first name by everyone else, even at work. </p>
<p>My dad hates being called Mr. Blah as well. We just like first names! Lol</p>
<p>When I worked in a school for a few years, the kids had to call me Miss First Name. I hated it.</p>
<p>Bethie, that’s funny. I have a friend named Liz (real name Elizabeth) and people try to call her Beth. Drives her up a wall and confuses the rest of us.</p>
<p>I have the opposite problem. Everyone wants to elongate my name to add an ie, y, lyn, herine, etc. (I’m sure you can guess my name now…) And they constantly ask me what my real name is. Because apparently my real name can only be a nickname. Then again, I’ve never actually met another person with my name.</p>
<p>How do you address your own parents when you are already an adult, a young adult or still a child (say, at your home while no other person is around)?</p>
<p>I remember I heard one of my coworkers called his dad Mr. when his dad visited him at work. </p>
<p>I remember at one time one of us by mistake addressed our college-age kid by the nickname we used when he was still a toddler. He was not very pleased and found the need to correct us (luckily, his friends were not around when this memory slip happened.)</p>
<p>I think it is incumbent upon me to tell people what to call me. If my D’s friends call me anything other than my first name, I just say “Please call me _____.” Not telling young adults to change the way they address you is what leads to what I consider the silly result of 60 year old adults calling 80 year old adults “Mr.” and “Mrs.”</p>
<p>See, to me it’s a hint about what someone wants to be called when they introduce themselves. That’s the name they want to be used. It’s fine to ask if you forget, but to choose a nickname for someone else is rude. I know it’s meant to be friendly or something. My son’s teachers I always addressed with a title. Now, years later, I can call some of them with a first name if they ask me to.</p>
<p>Cross-posted with cartera, but I can tell people repeatedly that I don’t want to be called Liz and it’s still what they want to call me. I know several lovely women who like to be called Liz and it suits them perfectly. It just isn’t me.</p>
<p>My kids and their friends call each other’s parents by Mr., Mrs. They would run up to me to give me a hug now as young adults and they would still call me Mrs. Recently D1’s BF, whom we like a lot and very friendly with, called me by my first name, it just didn’t sound right, so I asked D1 to tell him. I would prefer to go from Mrs. to Mom. I think it would be harder to go from first name then to Mom.</p>
<p>My grown kids still call me Mommy and H Daddy. When they refer to me in their conversation with friends, they say, “My mother…” and H as “My dad…”</p>
<p>I call my parents’ friends Mr. & Mrs or aunt and uncle. I always addressed my kids’ teachers Ms. or Mr., very rarely by their first names, especially in front of my kids. When in high school, my kids also called their teachers Mr. or Ms/Mrs.</p>
<p>My H doesn’t enjoy when new people he meets foist a short nickname on him for his first name. He answers, with a smile, “My friends call me CompleteFirstName.” Works beautifully and they do switch gears.</p>
<p>I was born on an artist’s commune, and most adults I know who want the kids to “call me Jake,” or whatever just remind me of that, and not in a “good way.” My husband has a very strong dislike of fathers asking other people’s daughters to call them by their first name. He thinks you need to keep that line very clear ESPECIALLY when the girls reach early adulthood.</p>
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<p>Yes, those people are either stupid or rude, or both.</p>
<p>As recently as ten years ago, I didn’t have parents of my students calling me by my first name. I think times have changed, as about half of the parents call me by my first name–without being asked to do so. It bothers me, but you need to choose your battles, so I let it go. At least the parents are communicating with me! ;)</p>
<p>I never called my kids’ teachers by their first names, even when they asked. You have to keep it professional… You never know what’s going to come up during the year and you don’t want to be stuck in some artificially “friendy” relationship when it’s really a professional interaction. JMO</p>
<p>I never called my D’s teachers by their first names either. If I were to interact with them now, years out of school, I would expect them to ask me to call them by their first names.</p>
<p>poetgrl–that’s what I mean about teachers. My son is one year out of college and I’m now sort of comfortable calling his elementary/ middle school teachers by first names if they suggest it. Not his high school teachers yet, if ever.</p>
<p>I guess that’s my issue, poetgrl. Glad someone understands what I’m saying. You too, bethievt. I don’t like it, but I don’t know how to change it; I value my relationship with the parents, so I just accept it as a change in the times we live in.</p>