Wait a second!

[kijip]

When exactly did I become ma'am?!

Over the last 3 weeks or so I keep hearing people call me ma'am. At the grocery store. At church. At restaurants. At stores.

Ma'am with a nose stud and steel toed shoes, but ma'am nonetheless. Since I have not moved back to the south in so far as I can tell, I am starting to wonder what the heck about ME has changed in the last month. :P

I don't really care, it is nice that people are polite, but let's just say it is a bit of a change from people thinking I am Toby's teenage nanny.

My mother thinks it is because I have been wearing the pearl beads that she gave me. J thinks it is because I have been cranky with funeral planning and people take me as a force to be reckoned with. LOL. That and/or the blazers I have been wearing to dress up for work. Ummmm...

[Lynnie]

blazers and pearls

the trick is to go to a sports game and try to get a beer from a "kid" working at the concession stand. I am 40 and I swear I got carded. and she wasn't kidding. Yes, I tipped her, ma'am.

[kijip]

>blazers and pearls

Yeah, that is the only change as I have been wearing blazers since i started working in offices about 7 or 8 years ago. However I do have some new cute ones that I have been wearing a lot and are particularly snazzy. And the pearl beads. Sooooo not my style but when your mother who is stage 4 with cancer and in chemo gives you something, you just wear it. Lucky for me it was not a snowman sweater with glitter or similarly hideous item.

[ShanaMama]

There's a janitor at the local bagel store that I always say hello to, & ask him how he's doing. I always felt that just because he's a janitor doesn't mean he should get any less recognition than another person. Lately he started calling me honey. I don't know if I'm hypersensitive or he's a stalker, but I feel like telling him it's Mrs. or Madam thank you very much.
Don't take this the wrong way- I don't know the guy at all & I'm just trying to be friendly, but you never know who's a lunatic deep inside.
Sorry for the hijack, I somehow thought it was relevant when I started. I think I'd rather be called ma'am than teenage nanny, though. That's pretty funny.

[BaileyBea]

Yeah! Doesn't it stink when they start calling you Ma'am!

UGH! I've been putting up w/this for 10 years now.....

Funny but on a couple of occassions I even smiled when they called me that. Like "Yeah... that's right.. i'm your elder.. respect me darn-it! " har har!

Nancy

[kijip]

>I think I'd rather be called ma'am than teenage
>nanny, though. That's pretty funny.

Me too. I far prefer this to that. Appparently, I merely needed to buy some fake pearls or something to avoid 3 years of "No, this is MY child, thank you very much" conversations at the park. :P

[elliput]

I'll trade your ma'am for the miss I got a month or so ago from the woman behind me in line who I would swear was younger than me. LOL!

[crl]

Well, I became ma'am at age 26 when I married a Marine officer. It was hilarious to me! And I had to work so darn hard at not laughing at the enlisted Marines who were, after all, only doing what they were supposed to. (And my DH was enlisted before we got married so he really would have been pissed at me if I had laughed.)

Anyway, you think ma'am is weird, try getting saluated! (Driving through the gates in a car with a officer sticker, they salute you.)

Thank god we never lived on base and thank god DH got out before I broke down into giggles at some really inappropriate time.

[kedss]

It's better than being called 'Sir'! When I had a much shorter haircut and wore jeans and 'mannish' jackets, I was called sir a lot...now that I have hair in my face and down past my shoulders and usually pushing a stroller, they don't dare call me 'Sir'! LOL

big hugs

[Lynnie]

I also don't like being called MRS. DH's last name. I did take his name, albeit really only to shut him up, but I am not mrs. I am still a ms.

[buddyleebaby]

Katie, sending healing vibes to your mom.

I've been ma'am for four years already....

[elizabethkott]

It's better than being mistaken for a student at the high school you teach at...
Fortunately, since I'm pg, that mistake doesn't get made anymore - by faculty, staff OR students!

[JoyNChrist]

Hehe, this post is funny to me. I live in south Louisiana, and you become ma'am sometime around age 16, no matter what.

People got quite a kick out of me when I went to NYC for the first time a few years ago. :)

[saschalicks]

Lynnie,
Word for word exactly like me. I didn't want to take his name, but well I like to have peace in my home. So being Mrs. is seriously not who I am. I'd rather be Ms. MaidenName any time.

[Fairy]

It happened about the time I became ma'am, too. I get called ma'am, and I say, "Hey! My mother is ma'am. I'm Hey You before I"m ma'am!" Me no likey.

[casey0729]

I officially became Ma'am last Christmas at the ripe old age of 35. I did not know I was in the running for the title until it was bestowed on me by a male salesclerk at a store I couldn't name if you paid me and the music was so loud my kidneys felt bruised after I left. I am betting it didn't help that I went in there to buy clothes for my 15 year old nephew (after asking my brother what to get him) and I asked the guy "Where are the clothes you have from this Fifty Cent person?"

And thus, Ma'am was born.


KC

http://b2.lilypie.com/AWLtm5.png

[rlu]

I got ma'amed alot when I worked in the admission dept at a theme park. I was 16 (and in CA not the south).

When I was pregnant we lived in TX. The facility guy at work refered to me as "little momma". It was sweet, but kinda made me wince.

[bisous]

I had to post! No, I haven't been called Ma'am recently but I laughed because the last time I went to the student kiosk I was asked if I was a student. I am 30 years old now and was always used to people underestimating my age. (Heck my 24 year old fellow classmate asked me out last semester!) And now all the sudden my age must be catching up to me... To the OP I rather like Ma'am but I would be tickled pink to be called a teenage nanny. Must be the thirties getting to me. :)

[klwa]

*chuckles* Yep, here in NC, I've been a ma'am since, well, forever. I still remember my mom teaching me to use Ma'am and Sir at all times and me answering the phone. One of my 12 yo brother's friends called and I said, "One minute, Sir. I'll get him for you." Scared my parents to death that a Sir was calling Brian, but Cliff still thinks I'm just the coolest. :) Then one of the Indian gentlemen at work told me I had "said that which is forbidden" one day. It took me hours to figure out that he didn't want to be called sir and I hadn't offended him horribly.
-Kris

[cleo27]

Me too!!! Seriously, it was only to keep the peace.

[kijip]

I don't mind if people call me Mrs. HisFirstName LastName which is unusual now, especially for feminists like me. But they need to remember that LastName for BOTH of us equals my maiden name. :P