Family manners that matters

There are some mannerisms which are deep seated in our family. Our parents would never let up on us if we didn’t get them right. Today I want to share with you the family mannerism of greetings or address. Whenever younger children addressed or greeted someone older then the names had to be preceded by a “Mr.”, “Mrs.”, “Miss”, “Madam”, or “Sir”

If the person being addressed was a parent we were not allowed to call them by their first names. We had to say “Mama” or “Papa” which was our version of “mommy” and “Daddy”. On the other hand if we were to address an older sibling then we had to say, “Brother” or “Sister”.

I know that to some persons this may seem strange, but this longstanding family tradition helped to keep us honoring those who were older and was in fact a prelude to proper protocol.

These days as I hear a child addressing his/her mother by her first name, “Dionne” for example. I am not at all comfortable with it. Our parents riveted in our heads that such a behavior was an act of disrespect. Now that we are older and most of us are parents too. We address our parents by saying “Mama G” and “Papa G”. We have also reserved “Mama” for Grandma and “Papa” for Grandpa. For our children they call us “Mommy” and “Daddy”; certainly a family tradition worthy of passing on.