Yes! Making your kids call you “ma’am/sir” is a huge red flag for me. They’re your children, not your staff. They’re your responsibility, not your home-grown ego-massagers.
I kinda like doing that opposite of that. Using sir or ma’am for my kids always gives me a proper warm heart but I don’t make them use it in any context. For me the usage of sir/ma’am is reserved to show respect and deep fondness for someone (1 or 2 people total, not an “elder” thing). Kinda like some people loosely use uncle or grandma for someone that’s not even related but they’re still special to them.
It’s not really a thing in English but in my native language there’s an informal and formal way to say “you”. Once I was in a store, and somebody’s kid was being a little too loud/annoying for the parents liking, and she told her to be quiet using the formal “you”. It really irked me the wrong way, like you said it was like she was talking to an employee, but it felt even worse cause I’ve never used the formal you to my actual employer and vice versa
Yes! Making your kids call you “ma’am/sir” is a huge red flag for me. They’re your children, not your staff. They’re your responsibility, not your home-grown ego-massagers.
I kinda like doing that opposite of that. Using sir or ma’am for my kids always gives me a proper warm heart but I don’t make them use it in any context. For me the usage of sir/ma’am is reserved to show respect and deep fondness for someone (1 or 2 people total, not an “elder” thing). Kinda like some people loosely use uncle or grandma for someone that’s not even related but they’re still special to them.
It’s not really a thing in English but in my native language there’s an informal and formal way to say “you”. Once I was in a store, and somebody’s kid was being a little too loud/annoying for the parents liking, and she told her to be quiet using the formal “you”. It really irked me the wrong way, like you said it was like she was talking to an employee, but it felt even worse cause I’ve never used the formal you to my actual employer and vice versa