I started reminding children that I prefer they call me “Ms.Legend” instead of my first name at least five years ago. I suppose now I’m. really old.
True, but then there’s the risk of one’s braces (suspenders) slipping out of one’s enfeebled and arthritic hands and snapping back into place.
I started feeling old when nieces and nephews called me Uncle.
These are people that I could hang out with. Enjoy a lot of the same music etc. Just call me by my name, ok? There is no hierarchy here.
Oh, hell, no. It bothers me when my cousins’ kids call me “cousin”. Nope, I’m a generation higher, I outrank you and don’t you forget it!
How much of an age difference is there? I used to get annoyed when my uncles would use accidentally " Aunt Doreen" when talking to their kids. But they did that because I am between 12 and 18 years older than their kids - it wasn’t intentional. Lots of families have kids call any adult “aunt” or “uncle” but that wasn’t a thing in my family. In a lot of ways I was more like an aunt to them than a cousin. But my actual nieces and nephews don’t get to first-name me - and I really couldn’t hang out with any of them outside of a family event.
I am starting to feel old because I wake up early in the morning even though I have no reason to. And because have decided I want to move somewhere that’s all on one floor. I have no problem with stairs themselves - I’d be fine with a 2nd floor walk-up apartment. The problem is I’ve suddenly become afraid of falling down the steps even though I don’t have any balance problems.
I guess they could call you “once removed”.
Solid 20 years. Uncle is not my name. I feel it’s MORE respectful to call me by my actual first name. I guess I’m a ‘grand’ uncle now. No, I’m ‘enipla’.
I have a BIL that had a MIL and FIL that insisted that BIL address them as Mr. or Mrs. Lastname. That’s bullshit. Just shows insecurity. And a certain coldness.
I prefer to deal with anyone. Rocket scientist to unemployed using their first name.
As you might guess, I’ve never been in the military.
My kids had two uncles, one of whom was adamant that they call him just by his first name and the other of whom was just as insistent that he be called “Uncle,” so that’s just what they did.
My mom had cousins who were ten and twelve years older than her, and she always used first names, but everyone in my generation called them “Cousin Firstname.” If anyone had objected, we’d have just called them what they wanted to be called.
My own dad had some problems accepting he was a grandfather, so he wanted to be called “Opa” even though no one in the family spoke German or Dutch; we went with it with straight faces. His wife, who became my stepmother when I was 18, preferred the kids call her by her first name, and we did that, too.
My first regular job was as a door-to-door salesman. We were under orders to get the mark’s customer’s first name, and work it into the conversation as often as possible. If they think you are their friend, you can screw them out of more money.
Since then, I have been suspicious of people who demand instant intimacy.
Of course. But I’m talking family. People you have known for years.
My family runs young. My oldest Aunt is 13 years older and my youngest Aunt is four years older. My eldest Aunt married a younger man, so I have another Uncle two or three years older than me. And I still call them Aunt and Uncle!
I wish I could tell you it made me feel younger.
Last year we met my wife’s cousin’s daughter (~30) who has a two year old daughter.
The little tyke was instructed to call our then sixteen year old “Auntie” (in Chinese). Our teen was mortified.
There’s a theory that people just lurve the sound of their own name and will be made very happy every time they hear you use it. It’s not intimacy, it’s ego-stroking.
I have found that around here on the occasions I’m mimicking a member of the fatcat set I get called either Firstname, or Mr. Lastname a LOT. Apparently fatcats love that shit, and 3x per sentence is much better than 2x. That level of egotistical self-absorption probably has something to do with how they became fatcats in the first place. Spare me.
[quote="Mighty_Mouse, post:172, topic:991459"] Our teen was mortified. [/quote] I recall as a little kid thinking "all aunts & uncles are old people, and all cousins are kids like me." Which happened to be true for the subset of my extended family I'd met. I was soo confused when I later learned I had cousins older than my parents. It totally broke my kidly understanding of how stuff worked.
When I did finally become an uncle I was way past not understanding how the terms worked, but it still felt pretty aging to ~30yo me.
A couple who are close to us both fell on their stairs a few years apart. She recovered; he didn’t. I always hold on to the handrail. If I fall and get some bruises or, maybe, broken fingers or toes, that’s a whole lot better than head trauma.
I had a much older cousin who had the opposite problem. We’d call her “aunt” because she seemed so much older than us. “I’m your goddammed cousin.” Well, pretend anger.
I like to think of naps as Recreational Sleeping.
A LOT of debilitation comes from knee or ankle injuries. Head trauma is bad, but not the threat you should be most scared of.
Ohh, good one.
Like “recreational pharmaceuticals”…