Quote Originally Posted by Medusa View Post
Oh I'm not saying that I always agreed w/the old word ways. LOL I was simply pointing out the differences between then and now. Believe me, the curtsy, etc. got to be tedious.

I agree w/you to a point but this isn't exactly what I meant when I referred to children. Toddlers are always testing their boundaries and they certainly can't be expected to behave as adults. I was referring more to school age children who, by the time they're old enough to sit still in a classroom, should have learned that there is a certain decorum that's expected of them.

This is an example of the point that I was trying to make and, apparently, have failed at it. I was raised to discuss w/out name calling because it's abusive. Words can harm and words can heal. I don't agree that adults are AHs and it isn't the adults that I was talking about. It's the standards with which we were brought up as opposed to how children are brought up today that I was hoping to discuss. We need only to watch the news or read the paper to see that there are some bad people out there but, again, this isn't what I was talking about.

Again, I agree w/you regarding bowing, etc. I wouldn't have wanted my son to bow to anyone either. However, I did teach him to call people by Mr./Mrs./Miss because familiarity breeds contempt, IMO. My neighbor's son still calls me Mrs. L and when I told him he may call me Mary his mother said "No, he may not. It's disrespectful." (Her words, not mine.)
I wasn't saying adults are AHs. I was saying we all KNOW adults that are AHs (or whatever word you affix) and that these people are long past the develpmental age, be it toddler or school aged children, and these adults SHOULD know how to act. My point, which apparently I did not express very well, was that even adults raised in the golden age still act inappropriately, and it wasn't just the younger generation, bringing up the youngest generation, with poor manners. It goes with my theory that children haven't changed.

As to what someone would call someone, if I specifcally asked someone to call me by my first name, and that person continued to call me something else, to me, that is disrespectful. We all should be permitted to be addressed as we see fit. Being part of the 'inner circle' extols a certain bond, a certain closeness, which to me, breeds respect. Strangers call me by my last name. Friends and family call me by my first. But, I have never been one all hung up on the Ms/Mr. thing. I get and give respect by my manners and my actions, not by what I call someone. I am sure we all have been called down by the use of formal addresses, and certainly there isn't anything respectful about that.