<p>^ My son’s friends either call me Mama (lastname) or Mrs. (son’s name) Mom.</p>
<p>In our corner of the South, people generally use Mr. or Mrs. for adults until they establish some relationship. Young adults, whether friends of my kids or people who’ve worked on our home for some extended time, usually transition from Mrs. Silpat to Miss First Name (although the pronunciation sounds more like MizFirstName) for me and from Mr. Silpat to Mr. First Name for dh. Some will ask if it’s okay, while some will copy what they hear others do. Others stick with Mr. or Mrs. Silpat.</p>
<p>I like to be called by my first name and even my children call me by my first name, as have all of their friends since they were able to talk. Calling me Mrs. B reminds me too much of my mother-in-law, who is a nice person but that is her name!! If you are not too pretentious and enjoy young people’s company then why not? Do you call them Miss H or Master D?</p>
<p>A number of their friends have FB friended us, which breaks down barriers even further. Not that I always want to know all their social details.</p>
<p>Wow the regional or industry norms. So fascinating. Around here first names work very well among people of all differences, there isn’t a need to differentiate ‘status’ so much by title. Nor a formal distance between less known folks who might find firstnames insulting. Quite the opposite. In fact, we probably downplay it so as not to convey we think we have some kind of superior position over another. </p>
<p>My students call me by my first name, our administrative staff would call me by my first name…it would be insulting to them that I should get some special formality yet I call them by their first name. Who the heck am I? We just do different jobs. </p>
<p>As for kids, I always encouraged them to use whatever made them feel comfortable, based on their family/upbringing. I’m totally cool with first names and made that clear but I would hear the full gamut (from Mrs. Firstname, to Mrs. Child’s name’s mom, to first name, to, (jokingly I think), Dr. Starbright). I also told my kids to be formal with adults unless they got instructions otherwise.</p>
<p>Those in college are adults so unless they feel really uncomfortable with using my first name, I would insist upon it. Too weird to my ears otherwise. But I also feel an obligation to give them this information so they aren’t grappling around trying not to offend me when I couldn’t possibly be offended.</p>
<p>PS: For years my FIL insisted I call him ‘dad’ and i never felt that way toward him, and also felt, as a young 20-something, that it was a special name for my deceased dad and didn’t feel right using it with him. I never had the heart to address it openly when I was young but because I hadn’t and time went by… I continued to awkwardly avoid reference to him as a subject for 10 years! Crazy! It’s amazing what you can do without using a name and still avoiding saying “hey you”.</p>
<p>It’s weird because some of the folks on my board are both friends & collegues. One of them I have known since I was 12 & he’s the dad of one of my best friends so I just call him Dr. P because I have a VERY hard time calling him by his 1st name. I also have a hard time calling my MD by her 1st name, since I have known her as my MD longer than having her on my board (even tho she’s my age). I vacillate between what I call them but mostly use the Dr. and their last names. They don’t seem to mind or notice much one way or another (tho they have asked me to call them by their first name).</p>
<p>When I meet folks professionally & they call me by my 1st name, I tend to call them by their 1st name as well. If they’re my parents friends, I mostly call them Mr. & Mrs. It makes life sometimes awkward when they’re on my board.</p>
<p>I still call my folks mom & dad, as do ALL my sibs. Hubby calls them the equivalent of grandma & grandpa, as do our kids. None of our extended family call my folks by their 1st name–all call them mom & dad or the equivalent of grandma & grandpa or auntie & uncle, depending on the relationship.</p>
<p>My sons’ friends from HS and younger call us Mr. & Mrs. When we’ve met their college friends, we’ve introduced ourselves by our first names, but I don’t think any of their friends feel all that comfortable calling us by those names. </p>
<p>I, too, couldn’t call my inlaws “Mom” and “Dad”. That wasn’t the relationship I had with them. They became “Grandma” and “Grandpa” once my kids were born.</p>