Diane says,

<< It took me a long time to be able to call my doctors, dentists,
 whatever by their first names with comfort.  Dropping the titles was a
 major part of a process that finally allowed me to see these people as
 my fallible employees, not infallible Oracles - no different from a
 plumber or lawyer.  Why would doctors be the only people in the entire
 universe of life skills who need a title? >>

I agree.  Recently my sister and I had to take my mom into the ER for an
unexplained seizure.  Mother is 84 and from the old school where senior
members of our society were referred to with respect -- as in MRS. Meyers or
MR. Renich or DR. Jones or....  So, as is the case in most hospitals, every
person there, from nurses to physicians to lab techs addressed her as
"Helen."  I would patiently explain that she much preferred being addressed
as "Mrs. Meyers."  All went well until we got a resident physician from
Bulgaria (in his 30s, maybe) who decided that he didn't care what Mother
wanted, he was going to call her "Helen."  I requested he call her Mrs.
Meyers as she desired.  He argued with mother -- "But Helen is your name, is
it not?"  Yes, but...  he continued to argue.  I finally said "Fine.  As long
as you continue to call her Helen, we all here will refer to you as Alex."
That was totally and completely unacceptable to him...and he, in a huff,
finally decided to call her Mrs. Meyers.

The point of all this is that I think it is important that we call people
whatever it is that makes them the most comfortable.  I am NOT comfortable
with my client's three year old children calling me "Jan."  So to try and
forstall it I introduce myself to the children as Mrs. Barger, and to the
babies as "Auntie Jan."  I do wish that up north here we had the wonderful
custom they do in the south where they refer to people of "advanced years"
(like me) as "Miss Jan" or "Mr. Bob".   OTOH, lots of other people don't
really care what they are called.   Interestingly enough, at the hospital
where I see moms here in the Wheaton area (western suburbs), all the moms go
by their first names.  When I see moms at the University of Chicago hospitals
which I do once a month, all the moms are called by their last names -- Mrs
or Ms -- as the case may be -- unless they ask us to call them by their first
names.

Guess it is all cultural....

Jan -- or "Auntie Jan" as the case may be.

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