Today, a clerk in a store called me “sweetie.” Twice
I get it. To her, who might have been as old as 19 or 20, I am old. After all, my childhood photos are now fuzzy black and white images with no color photos of me until I’m nine years old. So, yes, I am that old. I’m old enough to have had only a black and white TV (controlled by an antenna) until I was 15 when Dad finally broke down and bought a Magnavox color TV. I’m old enough to remember life with party-line telephones that sat on tables or were attached to walls, life before microwaves, and life before…well, a lot of things that are normal today.
But when she called me “sweetie,” I immediately felt like a white-haired lady with tight curls using a walker, which is not me at all.
I’m sure she was trying to be kind, but I don’t think she realized it is an insult. I know some people my age who don’t like to be addressed as “ma’am,” but after years of being a teacher and principal, I have no problem with that. It is a sign of respect, and when I started teaching at the age of 30, I needed that respect from high school students. Without respect, a teacher can’t manage a class.
But when medical staff and others address me as “honey” or “sweetie,” it’s not respectful. It’s patronizing. It’s what we do with small children to soften our words. They’re terms of endearment we use with those we love. But they’re not appropriate terms for anyone else.
At least they’re not to me. My mom, who lived to be almost 94 loved it when medical staff and others used those terms. I have a feeling, though, she didn’t feel that way at my age. After all, she was still working part-time at Walmart, maintaining a home, sewing, cooking, and keeping busy with family and friends.
If you are someone who uses those terms, please re-think your choice. In our culture, people 65 and older are lumped together as “senior citizens,” but there is usually a huge difference between a 65-year-old and an 85-year-old.
What this young woman didn’t know was my friend and I had just left the Wellness Center where I had done 45- minutes of weight training, walking, and stretching. She also didn’t know I had already walked my dog a mile before going and that I was coming home to walk him another mile and a half.
She didn’t know I did a half-marathon (that was 13.1 miles jogging/running) at the age of 62 and did it again at 64 (all walking). She didn’t know I’m planning to do it again this December (walking) at the age of…well, never mind.
I know a lot of millennials and GenZ’s who could not, would not, and have no desire to do any of what I’ve done today, let alone the half-marathon accomplishments, so my advice to all is: please respect us but don’t patronize us. And now that I think about it, all of us older adults need to be careful about patronizing younger generations. Believe me, they are more capable than we are in areas of technology and other areas. They’re smarter in ways that didn’t even exist when we were younger.
Respect for each other. Maybe we all need to work on that.
Life As I know it 