As I’m sitting at the rope park with my daughter, she is staring at me, wondering, what is Dad doing right now? Why is he speaking into his phone?

I told her that’s how I dictate and write my articles that I place on the Internet for people to read, and for them to Google. She understands the Googling thing.

She calls it, “The Google.”

We need to go find a place to eat, she goes and asks “The Google.”

So, when I was a little kid growing up, I used to go play at my friend’s house.

I would go hang out with my friend Brett (whose last name is Parker).

When I saw his mom, I wouldn’t say, “Hello, Barbara,” I would call her “Mrs. Parker.”

When I went to my friend Mark’s house (whose last name was Letterman), and I saw his mom or dad, I would literally say, “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Letterman.”

“Thank you for letting me sleep over, Mr. and Mrs. Letterman.”

Even though their names were Joan and Arnold, and I knew their names were Joan and Arnold.

I don’t know if it’s a California thing, which I’d love to find out, but when my daughter goes and plays at her friend’s house, well, she calls her friend Uma’s dad, Christin.

He’s not “Mr. Anything.”

When we went to a birthday party the other day, I said, “What are her parents’ names?” And she said, “Johannes and Robin.”

There was no Mr. and Mrs. there at all.

I used to go play at kids’ houses, like I said, and everything was Mr. or Mrs.

Yet, my daughter regularly calls all her parents’ friends by their first names.

Her teacher was Miss Christina. Christina was not her last name, it was her first name.

Her new teacher, she knows, is Miss Lillian.

They call each other by their first names.

When I went to school growing up, there was Mrs. Bogart.

Mrs. Kellman.

Ms. Fowdey.

Mrs. Edson.

There were no first names allowed. I was never allowed to call my parents’ friends by their first name, not even until I was probably in late high school was I able to call my parents’ friends by their first name.

But now, my daughter does it all the time.

She doesn’t even know any of my friends’ last names. They’re all just first names.

Now, does this show that this society now is disrespectful?

Well, no, not at all.

I actually always thought I should call my parents’ friends by their first names, because that was their name. The “Mr.” and “Mrs.” thing was thrown upon us during the generation that we were at.

So I’m curious, wherever you live, do your kids call your friends by their first name? Or are there still Mr. and Mrs. Somethings somewhere in this world, where there’s that old school respect.

Because I kind of like knowing that my daughter is going to play at Sean and Heather’s house.

Instead of Mr. and Mrs. house.

And like I said, I don’t even know any of the last names of any of her friends at all.

Because everything is on a first name basis. So I’m curious, where you are in this world, how do your kids and what do your kids call your friends, and how do they address you?

Because all her friends call me David. Not one calls me Mr. Wygant. I couldn’t even imagine that.

Can you imagine? As I look at her and think, can you imagine if your friend Uma said to me, “Mr. Wygant, can I have something to eat?”\

I don’t know who I would respond, because to me, Mr. Wygant was my father.