<p>Where I live, everyone is known by first name. Even MOST teachers. Only the older people but then we only say Se</p>
<p>I like the Japanese Sensei for a teacher. Respectful and takes the uncertainty out.</p>
<p>I think maybe it would be appropriate to address the issue of first-naming teachers simply by stating at the go to school night, in front of all of the parents that you prefer to keep it a professional relationship since that is best for the kids. So, you will call them Mr and Mrs. and they will call you the same.</p>
<p>Also, if your interaction is in email, you can sign it, Mrs. or Ms. Sportsmama. That would send a message, imho.</p>
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What a nice response, there was a building department official who always called me by a nickname I detest, he was laid off recently, so I don’t have to deal with him any more, but I will keep it in mind. For some reason people think my name ought to be shortened, but no one ever shortens it to the only nickname I’ve ever used unless they knew me when that’s what I went by.</p>
<p>Our situation is the same as OldFort. It is strictly Mr. and Mrs. amongst the friends of our children, who are all in their twenties now. When one called me by my first name a few years ago after he had entered college, I was very uncomfortable and had my son privately ask his friend not to do that. I still use Mr. and Mrs. for my parent’s friends and would not be comfortable going to a first-name basis. If they requested it, I would probably do as a former poster suggested and not use any name at all. </p>
<p>The place it gets tricky is when it is a work relationship, in which case it is usually a first name basis. Although even then I sometimes expect the title. I recently saw a doctor and was surprised when her nurse referred to the doctor by her first name rather than Dr. last name. I happen to know the doctor socially and while I would use her first name at a party, I refer to her as Dr. last name in her office or in talking about her to my H or a neighbor in her professional capacity. She was referred to me by my neighbor as Dr. last name even though this neighbor also knows her socially.</p>
<p>Just this year, I moved on to calling the parents of my high school friend by their first names. I’m almost 60…it was time!</p>
<p>Many times, my students (third graders) have called me “Mom”. My children’s friends (ages 20-25) call me Mrs Limabeans. I don’t think it’s a big deal, and I wouldn’t resist, but it would feel weird to be called just plain old “Lima”. Even my 30-35 y/o nieces call me Aunt Lima.</p>
<p>Goodness, I would never call my aunts and uncles by their first name alone as do none of the twenty-one cousins. We are all in our fifties and sixties and the aunts and uncles are in their eighties and nineties. I am planning a 90th birthday party for my mother this fall and so have been exchanging emails with her siblings and they sign their emails Aunt x or Uncle y. Maybe it’s just a family tradition.</p>
<p>It’s was really sticky when I wanted to be called by my first name and parents of the children insisted their kids call me by my last name. Because of the situation of H and I having different names and the kids having a hyphenated name, these children always got my name wrong. And I am not a Mrs. anything. I asked the parents why, and they said they wanted their children to respect adults, but I wasn’t being respected, just the parents.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s a trivial issue, and I let the kids call me by a completely wrong name because I didn’t want to fluster them more already.</p>
<p>I tell my students they get an automatic F if they write Mrs. Mythmom on a paper instead of Dr. Mythmom. They know me well enough to know I’m just kidding, but it is part of sexism. Saying, “Professor” is the easiest thing. My favorite student of all time calls me Doc. It’s gotten to be a joke.</p>
<p>Interestingly, my older s still tends to use fomal titles/names whereas younger s uses first names. Not sure how that happened. I do find that I am equally ok with their friends referring to us either in formal ways or by first name.</p>
<p>Doc is like Prof is like Sensei. Respectful, as a good teacher or doctor deserves. For some reason, I have always preferred my first name, even from children. Complicated.</p>
<p>I’ve always preferred Mrs. Last name but now that my youngest is 19 and my oldest is 27, first name seems okay and that’s how I introduce myself to their new friends. However, their old friends ALL call me Mrs. Last Name. Actually, I would prefer Ms. last name, but that’s seems like too much to ask. My truly hated name is when things are addressed to Mr and Mrs. Husbands name. I took my husbands last name, but NOT his first.</p>
<p>One thing I find awkward is the teen volunteers we get where I work, many of whom I know from working in the schools as a volunteer. I do not want to be called by my first name by them, but most of my co-workers are okay with it.</p>
<p>I prefer my first name. After all, it’s what my colleagues at work – even the youngest ones – call me. It feels normal.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I will answer to whatever anyone wants to call me. I remember being called Mrs. Kidsname’s Mom by a friend of one of my children. OK. Whatever.</p>
<p>The only time I prefer to be called by my last name (or better yet, first name and last name) is in a doctor’s or dentist’s office. My real first name is one that is extremely common among women of my generation. I want to make sure that the nurse is calling the correct patient, and that the records that go with me into the examination or treatment room are actually mine.</p>
<p>I would prefer to be called by my first name, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get my daughter’s Alabama boyfriend to call me that. He’ll be here in a couple of weeks, and I’m going to work on him!</p>
<p>Actually, I love being identified as “My kid’s name’s Mom”. That’s how most students and teachers would remember me, if at all.</p>
<p>I really prefer that my children’s friends call me Mrs. Lastname and it irritates the bejeebers out of me when they call me by my first name as a matter of course. I had to respect my elders; I’m an elder now and I want the respect! This being the South, you hear a lot of Miss Firstname. I don’t mind that from kids, especially little ones, but I recently worked for a company where the majority of employees were African-American and I was often addressed by adults, especially the men, as Miss Firstname. I found it patronizing - I had to beat down an urge to shout “I’m not your ******* preschool teacher!”- but I realized it was a cultural custom and let it go.</p>
<p>My kids friends usually call me Mrs. hyphenated last name. </p>
<p>I worked as a Jr/Sr high school tutor for 6 years and realized my name was a mouthful. Both parts of my last name starts with an M, so I had the students call me Mrs. MM. Since we moved away from that job 4 years ago and most of the students I worked with are now graduated, I am friends with some of them on FB. They still call me Mrs. MM there.</p>
<p>It annoys me that my nieces and nephews don’t call me aunt. So, I started signing greeting cards and such with Aunt on it. So, they younger ones have started calling me aunt again. I don’t make a big deal out of it with the ones that are in their 20’s. I just make sure my kids use the aunt/uncle terms and their cousins have started to pick up on it.</p>
<p>When our kids were little in Dallas seems like little kids called the other Moms “Miss First Name”.</p>
<p>I think Miss firstname is a great compromise between familiarity of first name but the sometimes too formalness of Mrs. Lastname. Wish it was more common up here. It does seem to be something that’s commonly done with pre-school teachers.</p>
<p>I don’t really care what someone calls me, though I am more comfortable with my nieces and nephews calling me Aunt, not by my first name only. But I don’t like it when a young waiter/waitress or cashier, looks at the name on my credit card and says something using my first name, instead of Mrs or ma’am. It creeps me out, though I know they are trying to be personable, it is weird.</p>