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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I haven't seen anyone say they were personally offended by it.
If you are, what about it do you find offensive? If a child doesn't know what you want to be called and starts with sir or ma'am, do you feel it is some sort of insult? Is it denigrating in some way?[/quote]

Different people have different preferences and different beliefs and find different things offensive. If you acknowledge that there are people who don't like to be called Mr./Mrs. Lastname -- and you will agree that there are plenty of people like that, right? -- then it shouldn't be such a stretch for you to acknowledge that there are people who don't like to be called sir/ma'am.[/quote]
I know people who don't like being called mr/mrs last name and clear it up right away so everyone can proceed accordingly. But I'm not talking about preferences, im talking about taking offense. People tend to take offense when they feel they've been insulted or belittled or disrespected in some way, so I'm trying to understand how a child saying sir/ma'am  to an adult stranger, before knowing their preferences, fits into any of those categories? Not preferring something is very different than being offended by it.[/quote]

Adults can interpret a child saying "sir" or "ma'am" as being disrespectful, based on tone. Likewise, based on tone, a polite "sir" or "ma'am" should not give offense. If an adult is entirely unfamiliar with the form of address, as OP seems to be, then maybe every person saying "ma'am" to her is offending her, due to a misunderstanding.[/quote]

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