Kids calling other adults by first or last names?

pickarooney

A child called me Mr. MyLastName earlier and it sounded really strange to me. My kids and all their friends have always called other parents by their first names. But then I remembered when we were kids we always did the opposite and it would have seemed really odd, disrespectful even, to use adults' first names!

Now I'm curious as to which do your kids do and which did you do yourselves as children.

Iron Hide

pickarooney wrote: »

A child called me Mr. MyLastName earlier and it sounded really strange to me. My kids and all their friends have always called other parents by their first names. But then I remembered when we were kids we always did the opposite and it would have seemed really odd, disrespectful even, to use adults' first names!

Now I'm curious as to which do your kids do and which did you do yourselves as children.

Pickarooney Mylastname, has a ring to it :P

Victor

I think it depends on the relationship.

My nieces (!'m 16 years older than the eldest) have always refered to me by my first name, to a degree because I was around them a lot as they grew up. However, they refer to my brother's wife as Auntie FirstName.

In conversation with others, as a child, I would have referred to my aunts & uncles as "Auntie FirstName", etc. My parents' friends would have been Mr./Mrs. LastName. These days, I would tend to refer to them as FirstName LastName (not least because there is a lot of shared first names). However, I would have been rather silent when addressing them directly.

While quite a few of my friends have had children in the last 2 years, they aren't yet at the stage of addressing me. However, a local woman told me that her daughter refers to me as "the man in the blue coat".

gossipgal08

My niece (2) the only young child I know calls me by my first name but calls her mothers sister Aunt X.

Wedgie

We grew up calling our parents by their names.

deman

None of my nephews or nieces call me Uncle xxx and never have.

wolfpawnat

I grew up saying Mr. X and Mrs. Y for my friends parents, but my neighbours were always by their first name, for the simple fact we were all quite close as a neighbourhood!

But my aunts and uncles were all aunty x and uncle y

Cavehill Red

http://www.classicmovies.org/sounds/callmesir.wav

Seriously, I prefer to be 'Dad' and for my kid to be respectful to adults.

stovelid

wolfpawnat wrote: »

I grew up saying Mr. X and Mrs. Y for my friends parents, but my neighbours were always by their first name, for the simple fact we were all quite close as a neighbourhood!

But my aunts and uncles were all aunty x and uncle y

Same here:

Mr/Mrs surname for friend's parents. Some parents went with it; some asked to go by first name which I did.

First name for neighbours.

First name prefaced by aunt or uncle for relatives.

Would find it very weird to be called by name by my own kids: definitely Dad or similar for me.

Fittle

Growing up, I called every neighbour Mr/Mrs X.

To this day, I still call them that. One of them recently (who is early 60's) asked me to call her by her first name, because she felt really old when I called her Mrs X. I used her first name, but I felt SO uncomfortable using it!! I can't explain...

My son calls everyone by their first name - aunts/uncles/my friends etc.

I think we have changed as the generations have moved on, and I think it's ok for children to use an adults first name when speaking to/about them.

I would draw the line at teachers though (and doctors, always using the term Doctor) - we still use Ms/Mr in my child's school, but I know of one school where the kids call the teachers by their first name...which is just a tad OTT in my opinion...but perhaps I'm just getting old:(

deisemum

My children call adults by their first name and all their friends call me by my name. I don't like other people calling me Mrs surname, prefer to be addressed by my name.

kelle

I HATE being called "Mrs" (might not help it's the same name as a wacky TV character!) - I always correct anybody that does it and ask them to refer to me by my first name!

All my children's friends call me by my first name, however as a child I did refer to a few parents as "Mrs XX" because that's how my mother addressed them.

It's a trend that seems to be dying.

Ickle Magoo

I get called by my first name - I didn't change my name when I got married but the kids have their dad's surname so it just gets confusing for kids to try to work out and remember my last name which isn't the same as my kids last name. I don't call them Jr so and so or Master whatever and they don't call me Mrs Magoo.

Our kids often call us by our first names so it leads to other peoples kids using those terms - I'm not sure how calling someone by their actual name can possibly be deemed disrespectful outwith the 1950s...

Edited to add: Sorry, I forgot to say what I did - I called my parents either by their names, mum and dad or nicknames - I called their friends by their first names....

matrim

I mostly called people by their first name growing up. I think the exceptions were teachers, doctors and priests.

Now I always call people by their first names

face2face

I called aunts/uncles by first name, friends of my parents by first name, teachers by Miss whatever, my children call everybody by first name including their teachers.

cynder

Were on a frist name basis for everyone except teachers and doctors.

rylie

A friend of mine lives in the states and her little one calls adults/her teachers miss/mr first name. It's so sweet I wish kids here did that!

Squiggler

Everyone is different I guess.

Baby Squiggler (and any others we might have) will be calling us Mother and Daddy (or some permutation of those), their Uncles and Aunts will be Uncle X or Aunt(y) X and we'd prefer if they call adults Mr/Ms/Miss/Mrs surname unless the adult in question specifically asks them to do otherwise.

In a business/professional setting you shouldn't automatically use someone's firstname and it is good training for a child to learn the difference between family and friends and other people.

It's easier to start a child out with good manners than to leave them struggling to break bad habits later.

Ickle Magoo

Squiggler wrote: »

It's easier to start a child out with good manners than to leave them struggling to break bad habits later.

I've never worked in a situation where I was required to call anyone Mr or Mrs so and so - I think that too is very old fashioned and by the time my/our kids are in work, even more so. :cool:

I think there's far more to good manners than cow-towing with old titles that derive from the days when superiors were referred to as master and mistress, tbh. You see plenty of bratty kids that can throw out the titles and have zero manners!

GHOST MGG2

My wife was brought up with the kids calling her parents by their first names.
Now she has my kids calling me by my first name and it really annoys the hell out of me.

face2face

I really don't think its a question of manners. In the school that my children attend, all of the children call the teachers and the principle by their first names. They all have enormous respect for each other, you can feel it when you walk in the door. Whether you address people by their names or titles, is no reflection at all of lack of manners or respect, people are just people. Respect is conveyed by how you conduct yourself and behave towards people. I feel that a lot of the abuses of the past in schools, hospitals etc in Ireland can on some level be attributed to the forelock tugging, respect for titles and the distance that can put between people.

we'llallhavetea_old

i called some of my friends parents mr/mrs x. everyone called my parents by their first names. my daughter calls everyone by their first names.

StupidLikeAFox

If ya really want to feel old work in a shop. I thought I was only a young lad but now its all "Be good or the MAN will get angry"