You're a Mrs. when you're a Mommy....

Tablepoetry

Fri, Jul 25 2014, 12:29 am

ElTam wrote:

My kids do NOT call adults by their first names. To me, it is a total lack of kavod, regardless of marital status or if they have children. If need be, we go with Miss or Mister and then the first name.

The one struggle I find is with women who used to baby sit for us and who are now married. I tell my kids, you need to call her Mrs. Ploni now, and the young lady will say, no, no, I'm Sarah or Rivkah or whatever still. I don't want the lady to feel uncomfortable, but I also do not think it is good chinuch for a child to call an adult by their first name.

You're contradicting yourself here. You say it shouldn't be connected to marital status, and then explain you have a problem when young babysitters get married. Wouldn't you have that problem regardless? If it's not connected to marriage, why didn't you just say it's an issue with every babysitter on her x birthday?

Does a 25 year old deserve a honorific because she has a man, or because she's an adult?

ElTam

Sat, Jul 26 2014, 11:33 pm

In my circles, young ladies marry young and so the marriage (if it is not someone they are interacting with through school etc., in which case, marital status doesn't matter marks the line between being in a quasi-child status of living at home with parents and being out on their own and thus being addressed as an adult honorific.