Don't Call Me Mrs. K . . .

I ran into a teenager from church the other day. He greeted me by saying "Hey, Mrs. K.! How ya doin' today?" I was fine until I heard that. You see, I hate, hate, HATE being called Mrs. K. The full Mrs. K##### doesn't thrill me either, but it's better than Mrs. K.

Everyone who knows me IRL knows I am Melinda Maidenname Marriedname. (No hyphen, thank you. Like Anne Morrow Lindbergh or Hilary Rodham Clinton.) Ms. Maidenname is just fine. Ms. Maidenname Marriedname is fine too. I will even tolerate Mrs. Maidenname Marriedname and even Mrs. Marriedname (what I get most often at church from the kids). Mrs. K##### still makes me think of my mother-in-law, not me, but like I said, I tolerate it. It initially made me feel as though I was losing my own identity to be Mrs. K#####, but it is good now to have the same last name as the kids.

But for some reason, since I've had children, teens and some of the neighborhood kids have taken to calling me "Mrs. K." The teens call Matthew "Matt," not Mr. K, so they aren't getting it from that. I really hate it, but I don't know why. Perhaps it reminds me of Happy Days, the 70's TV show. I don't want to be seen as motherly and matronly like "Mrs. C," as Marion Cunningham was known. Or maybe it's just that our name is simple and easy to pronounce. If it was Szczepanek or Dyfydd or something else weird or complicated, I could see shortening it.

Maybe I just need to lighten up.