Reply to Having children say "yes sir" or "yes mam"

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[quote=Anonymous]I grew up in the NE, married a person from the South, we lived in DC up until a little while ago, when we moved to the South.

When my DS was 1yr old and starting to talk my MIL called me up and told me that it was very important to her and my FIL that our DS was taught to say yes ma'am and no sir, etc. That it was a sign of respect and that if we planned to move "home" our kids would be expected to say it in school, etc. Growing up in the NE, we never said that and only a pissed of sales person at a store would call you ma'am.  We were taught to say yes please, no thank you, call people Mrs. Smith, etc.
I was offended, and told her she needed to call her son, and have this conversation with him, since he had never brought it up.  It turns out he did have an opinion as well on it.

As a side note, we had a lot of southern friends in DC and 1/2 were raising their kids to say it and about 1/2 were not.

Well, 12 years later my kids say yes ma'am and no ma'am and if they don't hear you properly, instead of saying "huh?" or "What?" they will say "ma'am?" or "sir?".

We now live in the south and I was shocked by how few children say it, after my conversations with my IL's and politely reminding and instilling it in my kids up until now, they are often the only kids using it.  I do get lots of complements on how well mannered and polite my children are from other parents and their teachers.
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