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

[Emerald95]

My DC (9) was talking to his MIL on the phone about his afternoon at his friend's house and said 'Then Brian took us to McDonalds!'. MIL asked who Brian was, when my DC told MIL it is his friend's dad she said it was very odd to call him by his first name, not Mr (last name).

My DCs have have always called their friend's parents by their first name or '(friends name) mum' if they don't know their name yet.

Using Mr & Mrs (last name) seems very american to me and I could only imagin my children using that if their friend's parent was also a teacher at their school.

Is this a generational difference or maybe location dependent?

What do your DCs call their friend's parents? YABU - They use Mr and Mrs (last name)
YANBU - They use their first name

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.

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.

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.

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 !)

Dc’s close friends always called each others parents by first names.

But otherwise ‘JacksMum’ was common. Now my kids are young adults I can still be surprised in Sainsbury’s by some six-footer beaming ‘hello JacksMum’ or introduced as ‘this is JillsMum’ as if it is my name.

It was a small school that encouraged parents to be involved and all the kids knew who was whose parent.

Teachers and school staff were all first names too.

London community.

Haha we actually do use Mr and Mrs for dog walkers. Mr Charlie and Bella, Mrs Coco...

It's not American, it's generational differences. I was raised to call people Mr/Mrs Lastname (I'm 'only' 39) but would refer to them as X's parents if talking about them to my parents or my friends. I didn't call them all Mr/Mrs Lastname though, I remember doing it with my best friends mum and she laughed and told me to call her by her first name.

Why is EVERYTHING put down to 'generational differences'?

Why can't it just be that different families do things differently?

My DS is an adult now and he has always called everyone other than me and his dad and his grandparents by their first names.

I hated as a kid I was forced to call all of my parents close friends aunty and uncle despite being no relation and I always said I’d let my DS call people by whatever he chose.

Depends on how well we know the parents - its either Auntie/ Uncle First name or just first name or X's mum/dad.

I'm a 60s/70s child and it was always Mr & Mrs or Suzie's mum. My parents always called them Mr & Mrs in front of us too! Other people used Auntie Suzie & Uncle Suzie despite not being related. Because of the awkwardness of still calling my (real) Aunts & Uncles Auntie this & Uncle that when I was a grown woman, in the 90s I made sure all my nieces & nephews used my first name right from the start!

No that's very old fashioned. It's Brian and Steve now !)

I'm early 20s and always called Mr/ Mrs the first time but they always then said call me 'first name'. I think it's polite & it's like they do at school. My parents always said to do it for anyone more than 10 years older than you or in a professional environment. So I'd still call an elderly person Mr/Mrs first time even though I'm an adult now.
I actually don't like it when the bank/ hospital/ whoever call me and say "Hey first name". Feels a bit weird & over familiar but I appreciate that's the way I was brought up & not sometimes their intention

Same here. It always reminds me of the Kevin & Perry sketches and they are from the 90s.

First names. I always used to introduce myself to DCs' friends with my first name.

Because when I was a child, every single child called every single adult Mr/Mrs (or aunty and uncle) and now every single child I know calls adults by first names?

Dépends. We moved to France when dd was 9. The UK ones were first names, the French ones M and Mme X.

I see American children on tv use Mr/Mrs but my kids use X’s mum/dad as do their friends.

They went through a period where they were fascinated by the first names of adults like teachers so would call me by my first name but went back to X’s mum

No they weren’t brought up in the 50’s

Yes ours did. They were never instructed, just chose to.

I've got Dave's Mum in my phone.
So when I'm driving and ask it to call Mum it pulls up about 6 Mums

Mine call their friends' parents by their first names. Titles like Mr and Mrs aren't used in Finland at all outside of children's books (Mr Bunny etc.) So the only other option is calling them so-and-so's mum/dad which i expect they do with parents they don't know well. The friends of my youngest child usually call me DS's mum, I expect that'll change to first name in a few years

Teachers are called by first names too.

I'm actually surprised there haven't been more votes for 'awkwardly avoiding using any name at all'.

That's my tack for the ILs, definitely not M&D, they did suggest that NOooo, Mr & Mrs too formal, first name too casual.

I used to call friends' parents Mr and Mrs. I still do, to this day.
We never called people we were unrelated to " Aunt " or " Uncle". In fact, we called actual aunts and uncles by their first names.
My Dad called his mother and father by their first names. This suggests that they had a very relaxed and liberal relationship but this is not true at all. His brother called his mother by a completely different first name, I don't know why.