So being southern to the bone I can't handle when people say "don't call me sir or ma'am because I'm not old" I want to scream at them it isn't about age it's about respect. I used to give the same respect to children that they gave me.
"Mrs Mandy can I play at this station now?"
"Did you clean up your last station?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Then yes sir/ma'am you may."
I never blinked an eye at calling children ma'am and sir nor did the children at being called that because in the south it is part of our culture and I think what makes our charm. Manners mean so much to me and I do get offended if I ask someone a question and they say "yeah" instead of 'yes ma'am" At my work I get called ma'am all day by all ages. I know it's just a matter of different cultures but I can't stand the yankee manners and find them very rude. One of my coworkers is from New York and the rest of us have to remember that she wasn't raised with our manners and she doesn't mean anything when she speaks the way she does.
With that said I do understand that with people being more comfortable being themselves some don't identify as one gender or another and that is fine but it makes southern manners difficult. I know this is my problem not theirs and will probably be the start of a slow death of ma'am and sir which makes me very sad but I understand people matter more than society rules. As for now if I can obviously determine the gender I will still use ma'am/sir. If I can't I will rephrase to try and keep good manners while not labeling.
"Mrs Mandy can I play at this station now?"
"Did you clean up your last station?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Then yes sir/ma'am you may."
I never blinked an eye at calling children ma'am and sir nor did the children at being called that because in the south it is part of our culture and I think what makes our charm. Manners mean so much to me and I do get offended if I ask someone a question and they say "yeah" instead of 'yes ma'am" At my work I get called ma'am all day by all ages. I know it's just a matter of different cultures but I can't stand the yankee manners and find them very rude. One of my coworkers is from New York and the rest of us have to remember that she wasn't raised with our manners and she doesn't mean anything when she speaks the way she does.
With that said I do understand that with people being more comfortable being themselves some don't identify as one gender or another and that is fine but it makes southern manners difficult. I know this is my problem not theirs and will probably be the start of a slow death of ma'am and sir which makes me very sad but I understand people matter more than society rules. As for now if I can obviously determine the gender I will still use ma'am/sir. If I can't I will rephrase to try and keep good manners while not labeling.
“What screws us up the most in life is the picture in our head of what it's supposed to be.”
Also if your signature makes my scrolling mess up "you're tacky and I hate you."
Also if your signature makes my scrolling mess up "you're tacky and I hate you."
