Is "wife" demeaning?

conyat
Fri, 27 Jul 2007 22:07:53 +0000

I always have issues about what to call SO. (As you can see).

“Boyfriend” sounds silly after 40, and “my old man” is passe. So that leaves his name, except it’s very common, so I always have to add qualifiers like “XYZ-at-home” or worse yet, “my XYZ” to make it clear who I mean.

And even this is touchy because it still upsets my sister that he has the same first name as her late husband (she won’t call him by “her” XYZ’s name, she just uses pronouns).