Do your DC call their friend's parents Mr and Mrs (last name)?

Ops mil would be horrified by dogwalkers who meet each other briefly, and know each other as Spots dad and Rovers mum.
My mil had a series of childminders in the 1960s, she still calls them Mrs Anderson and Mrs Green etc. (Usually when someone has died...they are all very old now !)

Yeah, I agree with this and it's why the "Jack\s mum" thing started and why I actively tell children my name and am trying to teach DC to introduce me properly ie not "this is my mum" but, "This is my Mum, Mary." It was easier if you knew your friend's surname was Smith you could just say "Hello Mrs Smith" and be 95% certain of getting it right. Of course, I don't particularly mind if a teacher spontaneously calls me Mrs DS/DH surname at a school event or something, but I do expect to be referred to as Ms MyName when they're calling me formally and therefore can see my actual name on the system.

I think there are generational and cultural differences. I still called my aunt "Aunty" until she died when I was in my 40s, ditto my godmother remained "Aunty" until she died.

But I honestly haven't seen a child being asked to call an adult Mr/Mrs in an informal setting in years. Coaches etc get the "coach" honorific either alone or with their name attached, and DD's dance teachers are all "Miss Penny" etc. But it's certainly NOT rude for a child to call me Mary any more, or certainly not in my part of South London/Surrey.

Nobody who prefers title usage ever seems to have an answer for that question.

The Mr and Mrs norm came from a time when it could reasonably be assumed those would be the titles of the people in the household, and they'd all have the same surname as the child. That no longer exists, meaning there's potential for offence if assumptions are made. In order to replicate it, a person has to actively seek out information, which is not necessarily something everyone wants from an 8 year old.

They do.

Gosh, you'd die at DS. From toddlerhood, and despite a summit between his four grandparents as to what title each one would use, he always called all four by abbreviations of their first names.

I discourage this. If one of DS' friends calls me "Jack's mum" I reply with, "Hi John, don't forget to call me Penny". I think the "Jack's mum" thing is because they'r enot comfortable calling adults by thei rfirst name but either dont know or can't pronounce surnames and I think they need to learn to figure out a way to address people correctly.

Working class 80s childhood - friend parents were always (eg) Aunt Barb and Uncle Roger.

My DC's good friends always call me by my first name. Although ones I know less well would just call me "Sophie's mum". It's quite funny now they're turning 18 and now and again I'll hear a 6ft bloke call out "Hi Sophie's mum!" in the corner shop.

First names for us too!

Agree generational. I’m a similar age and my best friend always called my parents Mr and Mrs. I called her Mum Auntie Jane. My Mum would tell close friends of mine to call her auntie, but several of them stuck to Mrs, nobody ever called her by her first name only. I would have felt very cheeky calling an adult by their first name.
My children, 17 and 19, call all their friend’s parents by their first names.

In the 70s and 80s of my parents also knew them (so family friends) it was First Name, which was about half the parents I knew. If it was only me who knew the child it was Mrs Surname.

By the 2000s all the DC’s mates called me by my first name and my lot did the same.

I was taught to say Auntie X and Uncle Y growing up in the 80s. But also I had a SAHM and didn't go to nursery, so by the time I was actually interacting with friends' parents I probably did know what their names were. My DC are nursery age and they see friends' parents quite a lot and have no idea what their first names or surnames are, so it's 'Paul's mum' etc. Incidentally I think Mr and Mrs would be more difficult these days in any case as many of the parents we know don't use those titles.

I’m really glad that is no longer the case, truly unpleasant attitude to have.

In the uk it’s a generational difference I think. All my kids call their friends parents (and my friends) by first names. I was taught always to call them Mrs X (I’m 55). However in the US for example in general kids are still expected to call friends parents, and parents friends, Mrs X rather than first names. My kids have a lot of US friends for various reasons and getting them to call me by my first name when they were younger was a battle I really lost. They just weren’t comfortable with it. Now that some are mid-20s they are happier to graduate to first names. It’s very much the same as how I was brought up! Old fashioned.

South african in late 40s here. We always called friend's parents Mr and Mrs. Close family friends would be Aunty or Uncle. At some point, once you reached late teens/early adulthood, there was an obligatory period where you'd see Mr and Mrs Smith, they'd encourage you to call them Pete and Mary, you'd feel weird about it and demur or laugh... and then eventually at some point they did become Pete and Mary.

That all feels weird and old fashioned to me now. My children's friends call me by my first name, and they call their friend's parents by first name too. And the only ones who call me "Aunty" are my actual nieces and nephews. I have one nephew who does not call me Aunty and that is the one thing I don't like.

My South African friends are the same, here and in SA, but my Afrikaans South African friend still insists her children call me "Aunty". Bless her, she does not insist that my children call her Aunty though.

The one that I still struggle with a bit is school. We call the teachers Mr and Mrs or Ms. But I don't feel comfortable emailing them and signing off as "Ms Fid1" so use my first name, but then i also get very annoyed when teachers call me in person by my first name. If I'm calling you Mr Jones as a sign of respect, you can bloody well call me Ms Fid1 and not Triff.

My 17 year old DS calls his best friends mom Ms Surname….despite her telling him to use her first name. He just says it’s a respect thing.
Funnily his best friend calls me by my first name.

Always first names. I'm a teacher and last year did some relief/supply at DC's school. Some of the little ones call me Ms xxxxx when they see me, but if out in public I say 'it's ok you don't need to call me that - outside of school I'm just (first name).

I was born in 1960 and called both my friends parents and my parents friends by their first names- ‘Mr and Mrs’ - maybe elderly neighbours.

Not al all. Its mostly no name at all "Alex's dad" or "Chris's dad". Probably because the actual name is forgotten 😄.

I wouldn't consider having to use "Mr and Mrs" American at all. More old fashioned English families. Indicated by when introducing themselves, the name it's give as "Mrs Williams ". (Hopefully a woman callimg themseles "Mrs John Williams" is firmly in the past.)

All about bit weird, unfriendly and stuffy. Plus where does it leave single parent families and those where there's no "Mrs"?!

I mostly get ‘daughter name mam’ or my first name.

I worked in a nursing home in the early 90s and it fascinated me that women of the same age who saw each other at dinner and in the common room every day called eachother 'Mrs whatever'.

Generational difference. In the seventies and eighties I never called an adult by their first name. Mum's friends had the 'aunty' honorific. Friend's parent were Mr and Mrs.

My parents were old fashioned, mind you, but first names for adults still weren't commonly used by children.

Admittedly, probably born before most on MN, but it has always been unacceptable to call a grown-up by their first name.

It might have been considered impolite many decades ago but the world has moved on and people have grown to realise that actually stuff like this really doesn't matter. It's 2025 for goodness sake it is not rude to use a person's actual name when addressing them.

It is very rude to call a parent by their first name - I am English, so not just an american thing (and let's be honest, they do give us plenty to raise our eyebrows at!). Admittedly, probably born before most on MN, but it has always been unacceptable to call a grown-up by their first name.
I still call my (very) old Uncle, 'Uncle Pete' - I would not feel comfortable calling him just Pete!

Growing up we all called our friends mum and dad mr and Mrs whatever unless they told us to use their first names, which most of then did. Children of the 80’ and teens of the 90’s.

my adult children have always called their friends parents by their first names.