Reply #159: Thanks for the laugh, tjdee!

[July]

I know how you feel!

I get what you mean about "we're all in this together," but think about families with divorced and remarried parents (and half-siblings or step-siblings), or even a family whose children marry and change THEIR names. The names don't define the family, even though they're a convenient shorthand. In my own case, where my husband and I have different names and have hyphenated the kids' names, we're good with variations on all the names, because we understand that people don't always know what everyone's name is or what to say when there are multiple names. My husband often is called Mr. Wife after I've made arrangements for some kind of service in my own name, and he doesn't mind that. Some fellow kindergartners in my younger son's class many years ago solved his long, hyphenated last name -- let's say it's Snoopy Abracadabra-Bunny -- to Snoopy A-B. I thought that was pretty clever of 5-year-olds.

I do object, as I mention in another post, to being called Mrs. Hubby by people who KNOW I have kept my birth name. That would be like people who know my name is, let's say "Margaret," and who know that I go by "Maggie," insisting on calling me "Peggy." It's just not my name, and though it's not a huge deal, relatively speaking, it does bother me. I reserve the right to determine what my own name is.