Lots of confusion it seems.
It is Christmas card time, and the great name debate is on. How does one address Christmas/holiday cards for the more nontraditional households?
I admit, we're one of them, and it obviously is a source of confusion for everyone else as well. Our mailman must wonder who actually lives here, as we get cards by at least 7 or 8 name variations. I admit, it was confusing for us as well, and we started joking about this being "Chateau Sutton-Goar" shortly after we bought the house, and now it is so much easier than trying to come up with some other formulation of our names that I have now put it on our address labels. Besides, it's just fun to say.
The ones that really have me stumped are the ones where the woman hyphenated her name upon marriage, and the couple has children. Do I then use just the common last name for everyone, or should everyone get the hyphenated last name? Every year I try something different for these households. This year I gave up and just listed the first names only. Last year I dropped the hyphenated name and just used the main one, which I hope they didn't find offensive. I don't actually mind when we're called "Andy & Toni Goar" because it's a bit easier, but I admit that I simply hate the dreaded Mr. & Mrs. Andy Goar. To lose both my first AND last name at one whack gets my little feminist self quite riled up. Who on earth wants to be just an ampersand and an abbreviation???
2 comments:
Good question!
us being ridiculously boringly traditional (I think I'd make a different decision now about changing my name...but I was only 21, what did I know about my identity?) it's easy to go Smith Family.
I tend to use "family" and put all the last names in front of it. My aunt reverted to her maiden name when she remarried, so they are a three name household (her, her husband, her kids). It's much easier just to write The Smith, Jones & Hawthorne Family than any other (potentially insulting) permutation I might come up with on my own, or even with Emily Post's help.
And I'm with you: Mr and Mrs Micah Smith makes me want to shred the card without opening it!
What Dana said. We're a two name family (I was 40, when I got married, for heaven's sake, and have two degrees in my own name. Nope, not changing.) and I use both names on cards.
I must admit that once or twice I have referred to myself as Mrs. and my husband's name...when I was calling the vet and it was just easier than spending ten minutes explaining who I was so I could find out what the vet had to say about our test results. The open-mouthed double-take my husband gave when he overheard me was pretty entertaining too.
Post a Comment