From: dlm@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu (Deborah Maraziti (aka Spacee))
Subject: Re: Scout names for troop leaders
Organization: Institute for Astronomy, Hawaii
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 03:09:40 GMT

In article <Bv1oK7.3D9@apollo.hp.com> johnf@apollo.hp.com (John Francis) writes:
>In article <1992Sep22.233553.3632@news.Hawaii.Edu> dlm@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu (I wrote:
>>Aloha--
>>	Scout leaders:  how does your troop adress you?  My troop calls me
>>(their leader) by my first name.  Are you comfortable with this or
>>would you rather they address you by "Mr.", "Ms.", or "Mrs." or by
>>some other nickname?
>
>Similarly, troops where a leader is much younger often tend to use the
>informal mode of address because the leader is more likely to be known
>as an elder sibling (or a friend of an elder sibling).
....
>Interestingly enough, this is probably not entirely age-related.
>On the circle where we live [six couples, all roughly the same
>age], we are the only couple without children of our own. Our
>next-door neighbour has a six-year old daughter. We overheard
>her the other day talking to one of her friends, describing who
>lived in which houses.  All the other couples were referred to
>as "Mr. & Mrs. Xxxxx".  We were described as "John and Wendy-Ann".
>Our guess was that this was because we didn't have children and
>so had to be classified on our own merits, rather than put into
>the generic category of parents.  It certainly wouldn't have been
>taught behaviour - her mother would probably have been shocked!

Actually, I'm surprised and pleased at how many responses I've received
to my original inquiry!  I think of all of them, though, yours
strikes me as the most interesting.  I'm young (I guess) for a 
leader (23), and as I have no children (I'm not even married!)
I have no problem being called by my first name.  I see now, from
your post, why this might be more natural to kids--I'm not a "PARENT" so
I can be called by my first name.
	In my first post, by the way, I didn't mean to imply that my
troop doesn't respect me at all!  Only sometimes do I feel that they aren't
taking me seriously.  For example, on an outing where we were walking
down a trail by a stream, I had specifically told the girls to wear
sneakers.  One didn't listen and wore slippers (or flip-flops/sandals--
whatever you call them!).  She was swinging on a little bridge over
the stream and ignored repeated warnings from me that she would lose
her shoes doing it.  Well, she lost the shoe into a stream  of contaminated
water.  Sometimes I feel like if I were more authoritative they would
follow directions better.  Now, they treat what I say like friendly advice
(or ignore it entirely!).
	I know that where I stand with them is more like a friend than 
a parent or teacher.  Last night, I was really touched.  They pulled a 
surprise "thank you" party on me at a local restaurant!  Two tables
were set-up there when I arrived; one for the adults, and one for the
troop.  You can guess where my assigned seat was!  To tell the truth,
I would have chosen to sit with them rather than the adults, anyway!  ;)


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spacee                            ~     I'm conducting a search for a
dlm@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu        ~     planet made of chocolate.
(astronomer in lace)              ~     Funding is hard to come by...