[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: - Calling Names

[Aberforth's Goat]

I'm late on this thread, but I'm curious about another social conundrum:
what do you married people call your parents-in-law? Mom and Dad? First
names? My (Swiss) wife and I have been married for six years now, and I
still haven't figured it out. Younger Swiss parents would want to be called
by their first names, whereas the traditional solution would be Mom and Dad.
Sue's parents are fairly traditional and in their early 70s, so I *think* I
know what they'd like--but I just can't get the words through my larynx
without choking.

When we were married I couldn't speak enough German to request a first name
grant, so I settled into the habit of starting conversations with a two- or
three-syllable mumble-grunt. (It sounds something like an Albanian
translation of a bus accident between "Mom" or "Dad" and their respective
forenames.) Strange way of addressing an adult, sober human, but we've
actually developed it into an accepted protocol.

Anyway, since Sue and I have managed to produce two children, the whole
family (including my wife!) is presently shifting to Grossmeti and
Grossvati, which solves the problem. Still not the way I'd have liked to
have done it, but better than the status quo.

Is this a normal problem or a unique cross-cultural difficulty--or am I just
socially inept??

(On a related tack, deciding whether to use the formal or friendly form of
address with strangers is a pretty complex calculation in both Switzerland
and Italy. Each country - in fact, each region of each country - requires a
different social algorithm.)

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray)
_______________________

"Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been
bravery...."