How old do you have to be for people to start calling you ' lady ' ?

[ladymumms]

25, 35 ? 45 ? 100 ??

I got my first ‘go ask the lady’ from a man to his small son when I was working on my mum’s market stall aged about 16, truly felt like I had made it.

Dd is 19 and works in a supermarket and she gets gets give it to the lady quite often. She came
home relaying her shock the first time
someone said it.

I think a bigger shift is when people start calling you "madam". I felt very old when that happened.

I don't think the word lady has anything to do with age but culture. It's supposedly polite whereas woman is impolite. So people use it if they are unsure of the situation and trying not to antagonise. Whereas if you know the person you'd refer to them as a woman nowadays, surely?

I was about 20 and in work where my name wasn’t obvious. “Give it to the lady”, like someone else said. I don’t think it’s an age thing but maybe it used to be?

Its when you get offered a seat on the bus you need to worry.

In my 20s, I used to teach in a (state) school where the kids called the teachers "Madam", instead of "Miss". That felt odd.

This has just reminded me of when my son who was 5 at the time (I was 34) had a friend over, friend couldn't remember my name so said "excuse me lady" and my son burst out laughing and said "that's my Mum she's not a lady just call her Jo"!

I'm 43 and feel like it's been happening forever but then I don't think it's an age thing I think it's just sounds gentler if your speaking to a child rather than saying woman maybe.

I had an older customer say to me that people tend to call her Lady..insert name here... after i said Ms as per usual. She was actually married to a Lord.I still called her Ms..insert name here... after that whether she liked it or not.
I know not applicable but just thought i'd put it out there because true story.

Why didn't you call her lady X if she was officially a lady though and requested you to?

I suppose because never come across this before ,wasn't prepared to do it,and she wasn't very pleasant when she stated it.

Do you think I should have called her Lady x?
Would you in that situation, just curious.

I think once corrected I would have done. The same if someone said to me I'm dr x or professor x.

I remember it was a moment when someone said it to be in my early 20s

When I started to be called Madam rather than Mlle when in France was the punch though..

Yes, obviously. You should call people what they want to be called.

I was "lady" at 16 walking to school. I went passed the local primary and someone stopped their child walking right in front of me with a "watch out for the lady"

I remember it vividly! It was pre sixth form as I was in uniform!

I don’t think there’s a set age, for me it’s relative to my DC’s age. Any woman who seems like a grown up, will get called ‘lady’ whilst they are still young. I wouldn’t be saying ‘give it to the lady’ to a 15 year old DC, like I would a 3 year old.

Just thought I'd add that she gave my hand a good slap when I took initiative repeating a small job she had asked me to do the week before..very nice lady.

I first felt properly grown up when a neighbourhood child referred to me as an aunty which would be the equivalent of saying "the lady"

Just thought I'd add that she gave my hand a good slap when I took initiative repeating a small job she had asked me to do the week before..very nice lady.

Well that wasn't very lady like Lady Twatface 🤣. I would probably be a bit "ok then" as it's a bit old fashioned now, I only asked because Ms has always made me cringe. Silly really as it's more appropriate if you don't know, I just don't like it and used Miss/Mrs instead.

I'm not great with titles to be honest, I know you can buy the title lady now and it's a bit old fashioned.

I don't think it's based on age. I will always refer to someone as a lady to my children, like the examples above 'go and ask the lady' etc. What would the alternative be? Woman? It's probably me, but that sounds rude.

I remember thinking it was very funny and sweet when a 5-year old boy I'd just met (when I was about 15) asked his mum 'Mummy, is Culture a Big Girl or a Lady?'

I've often wondered since then!

Yeah sorry I meant Mrs.She was quite nice up until that incident so it was a shocker.Any way I called her a fcuking nutter and got in my van and went..with her apologising profusely behind me.

Anyway I work for a good number of very,very nice ladies that feed me coffee and cake so there's that😀

yourjustnotfunny ·

I agree about Ms! I thought I'd never meet anyone else who didn't like it.

I think it's horrible - hard to say and sort of meaningless. I've always thought that all women should be Miss in formal or professional situations, so you just have Miss for women and Mr for men (er - OK, this is probably not inline with current gender politics...I'm not sure it would cover every case).

Hollywood stars were always 'Miss'. However many times LIz Taylor got married, she was always Miss Elizabeth Taylor. I think female barristers are always Miss Blank too. Formal and simple. I've never understood the objection to Miss as a universal equivalent of Mr for women.

Yes I definitely feel in the minority of not liking it 😂. Ms sounds like a bee farting Mssszzzzz.