I have a real pet peeve. Why do telephone service reps refuse to address me as Ms? It seems to happen again and again. At the beginning of the call, the rep will address me as either Miss or Mrs. ___. That's fine, they're trying to address me in a polite and formal manner. But of course they don't know whether I'm married or not, so they may or may not have it right. I assume it is also polite for me to at this point let them know if I would prefer to be addressed differently. But when I say, "Ms. ___," they then switch and call me the other (Mrs. or Miss, whichever they didn't use the first time.) I can't figure this out! And if I correct them again, there is usually a brief silence, and then they will use Mrs. throughout the rest of the conversation! Why is my marital status so important that they can't just go with the preference I have stated? If the whole reason they use my surname is to be polite and express respect, why blow it on something so stupid? After all, it shouldn't change the service I get, right?.... Right?

in second grade my teacher was a Ms.

She explained it to us this way.

Miss means your unmarried.
Mrs. means your married.
Ms. means it's none of your business.

I went home and told my mom that and she laughed, although I didn't understand why at the time. Now, everytime I hear the title Ms. I snicker.

I'm a Mrs. personally, but because of my age (24) no one will call me Mrs. G., They call me Miss G. which is weird because that title is reserved for my husbands sister and I'm not his sister! I would prefer Ms. to Miss, definatly, but your right, it's kind of a dead title.

I still check off the Ms. box, I prefer it to anything else.

And whatever happened to addressing a young boy as Master? Only my mother addresses my son's cards that way anymore.

I always hear "Miz" - which is used for all 3.

I never hear "miss" at all, unless it's insulting - like "Little Miss Smarty-Pants" or "Miss I-Won't-Eat-Anything-But-Salad."

And I'm so glad that it's been several years since I've heard "Mizrez" for Mrs.

I get very offended whenever anyone addresses me as Ms.

Why is it that women get three different titles to use (Ms. Miss, Mrs.) and we just get one (Mr.)?

Hmmmmmmmmm.

It really doesn't matter to me. I have been called Sir a few times. Once in Walmart and once when I was a teller in the drive through. I suppose it is because I have short hair. If I was a guy though I would have the biggest set of B*t*h t*ts you have ever seen.

because women are defined by their relationship to men. (snicker)

FP, we're just more complex creatures than you men...that's why you are limited to just one title, Mr.

I have a funny last name so no one addresses me by it. They always use my first name.

It doesn't really bother me too much. I can be offended by a host of other things.

"Chick" isn't so bad, what's the problem?

Well it is really Cheek and I get called Chick, Creek, Chuck, and Check.

With the name Devil people don't dare mess your name up.

You are darn tootin'! I could, however, see some issues with Cheek...

Yea Yea...heard them all! And to think I brought children into this world. Name selection was a serious matter for us. No little girls named Rosie.

It could also be an error in pronunciation. Mrs. is pronouced "missus", Miss is "miss", but how do you pronounce "Ms."? Would it be "miz", or "mis", which sounds an awful lot like "miss"?

Whether it is Mrs., Ms. or Ma'am, it is a term of respect, rather than they immediately calling you by your first name, like they've known you for years. If the person on the other end sounds nice, I will say, "You can call me Nancy." (Only close friends like you guys can call me Nanwa!)

As long as their not cuzzin me out and referring to me in a negative manner... call me whatever...but what I hate is when people ask me how my children and spouse are doing.. talk about a shocker.. I've never been married..nor had babies...LOL...

In my professional life I've never felt comfortable using Miss or Mrs. unless I was certain as to the marital status of the woman.

I feel like such titles are used today solely as an attempt to be formal rather than out of true respect for the other individual. Many times I've had customers in their 40s say, "Mr. (insert last name) was my father. You can just call me Bob."

I'm 36 with two children, and I cringe whenever someone refers to me as Mr. _____ or "sir."

I have always used Ms, no matter my marital status. It's easier, but also, it's really none of "whoever's" business what my marital status is really.

I now fluctuate between Dawn and Jesse though when calling anyone we have accounts with. When someone calls and asks for either name, we both claim to be that person to save time. (Nice to have unisex names!). We're both able to reject a sales person on the phone, no matter what the title

Our friends Sherron and Kelly do the same thing. Both of us have decided to (or have) named our children with similar unisex names LOL Now if we could just deal with their future wifes/husbands to keep up the trend