Monday, September 21, 2009

Miss Understood

I will probably offend some of you with this post...but I have to get it off my chest. I cannot stand being called Miss Kathryn. There. I said it. Whew, I feel better.

Growing up I always called my friends parents by their last name, i.e. Mr. Williams, Mrs. Hughes. We had very close family friends that we called them Miss Peggy and Mr. Todd, but that was an exception.

I heard the other day from a New Yorker that it must be a "Southern Thing" that kids these days call adults Miss/Mr. First Name. Well, it isn't. I was born and raised in the south, with a brief and unfortunate spell in Cincinnati, and this was not a practice in any city or small town that I lived in.

I must confess that I don't like being called Mrs. O'Donnell either. Not that I don't enjoy being Mrs. O'Donnell. It's just that whenever I hear it I expect to see Tod's Grandmother pop up with salami and cream cheese roll ups. And the only time I ever hear "Mrs. O'Donnell" is at the DMV.

One thing I do believe is that Miss First Name should be reserved for preschool and Sunday school teachers. It's appropriate.

So, in the event that I still have friends... it's Kathryn, Kat, or just Hey You will do!

6 comments:

megan said...

How about this one--all of the kids at Emily's school call the parents by whatever their kids' names are. So her classmates say "Hi, Emily's mom". Can my kids call you "Brady's mom" or "Jacob's mom"? I agree that the "Miss Kathryn" thing is odd. I definitely never called people by that when I was little--it was Mrs. O'Donnell if I was supposed to show respect or just the first name if we were familiar. No in between.

Amy J said...

i think I'm somewhat guilty of this. I never did it until the kids had teachers that did it... library storytime, preschool, etc.

I prefer to be called Miss Amy over Mrs Johnson, but you're right, I would most like to just be called Amy.

Now I'm going to be all paranoid of what the kids call various people. :)

cod said...

LOL.....I agree. I am not used to that greeting and it has a certain formality to it that makes me feel the kids can't relate to me.

Gran
Connie
Cod
Aunt Connie

Jennifer B. said...

It's a catch 22. Nowadays it seems too formal to say Mrs. O'Donnell yet it seems too informal to have a child just use an adult's first name. Now that I know you don't like it, I'll have Tyler call you 'Kathryn' instead of 'Ms. Kathryn'. I don't think anyone should be offended by what you wrote as you're just expressing your personal preference. However, I don't really feel comfortable when kids call me 'Jen'. Everyone has their own preference. :-)

Jennifer B. said...

Forgot to say, I agree that comment from the New Yorker is incorrect. In Phoenix, that's what a lot of people do, children call an adult Ms./Mr. First Name. I think a lot of people are trying to teach their children to add a title to an adult's first name without being overly formal.
(A lot of New Yorkers tend to be ignorant. That's why my husband moved away from there after growing up there and we will never live there!)

melissa said...

We agree with you all the way. In Utah we would call people by their first name name or Mrs. or Mr. Out of all the 5 states we have lived in..CHarlotte was the first place we heard of this whole Mrs. Melissa thing. it drove us crazy. When I brought up the subject to a few Southern girls..they were offended and though I was crazy and not be polite by doing so. I am lost in the subject. Not sure what to do. Now my kids call the neighbors by our nicknames for them..like.. "hey Scotty". Works for us. Melissa C