I hope that you are enjoying my posts from Linda’s Just Jot it January as much as I am enjoying writing them.

Here is today’s prompt word.

Your prompt for January 26th, 2018, brought to you by my fellow old-commercial enthusiast, John Holton, is “Address.” Use it any way you’d like in your post. And make sure you visit John at his blog, “The Sound of One Hand Typing,” to read his post and say hi! Here’s his link:  https://thesoundofonehandtyping.wordpress.com/

Do you have a certain way that you prefer to be addressed or ones that you certainly do not want anyone to address you by? I know that for some people, it is very important.

One of the things that we are taught as future nurses is to make sure that we address people by their chosen preference. For some, (in many cases older people), it is Mr,  Mrs, Ms or Miss and their surname. My mother is one of these people mainly if someone does not know her. I think it shows a certain amount of respect, and I know when I was young, all adults were typically addressed this way unless they were very familiar to us and then it was prefaced by ‘uncle’ or ‘aunty’ and their Christian name. Nowadays it seems a little too formal for some, and just first names are used.

Actually, for some, it is their middle name that they use, not their first. My father’ name was Alfred John, but when he was in hospital if anyone called him ‘Alfred’ he wouldn’t have a clue who they were talking to. Others like myself, prefer a shortened version of their name.

I am fine with this, although for me, hearing my daughter’s friends call me ‘Judy’ seems a little too casual, yet ‘Mrs Martin’ too starchy! Despite some of my nieces and nephews being in their 20s and 30s, I will still always put ‘Aunty Judy’ on their cards, and my daughter refers to my siblings as ‘Aunty’ and ‘Uncle’ as well.

One thing we are not supposed to do is to call people’ love’, ‘darling’, ‘pet’, ‘sweetheart’ or any other ‘affectionate’ terms as they may find this condescending or inappropriate. This is not difficult for me, as I never use those terms with anyone other than very close family. It’s not that I am uncaring, I just feel very self-conscious about it. It does not bother me if people address me as ‘duck’ or ‘dear’ as I know, it is just their way, particularly if they are older, and sometimes it is used to make you feel more at ease.

Calling people by their rank can be a bit of a gamble if you are not sure how it works, or you might upset someone. In hospitals, some consultants are ‘Dr’ and some ‘Mr’, and you don’t want to be getting that wrong! I am not that au fait with religion enough as to whether to call someone ‘Father’, ‘Reverend’, ‘Padre’ or something else.

Are you particular about the way you like to be addressed?

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