Am I your honey?

Honey, sweetie, dear, baby. When is a pet name offensive to YOU? For me pet names are fine when the person addressing me is someone I know and presumably like. I also don't mind it from a waitress or someone helping me in a store. If the waitress at Smiley's doesn't call me honey something is horribly wrong. The problem is when it comes from a a person I feel is condescending and trying "put me in my place". How do tell when he or she is sincere or trying to belittle? Am I just being an over sensitive whinging jerk? It's not that I want to be called your royal highness. But somehow sometimes poorly placed "honey"just pisses me off. When do I use pet names? My husband and any children under the age of say 14. No one else. It just feels wrong.

Can we each make our own rules? What is sexist language? Is it ok for a woman to call a man honey? How about woman to woman? What do I do about it when it offends me? Sometimes a return, "ok then sweetie" will work other times a plain "my name is Beowolf" works. Here is where I have trouble working out what to do. What if the offender is my customer? Yikes! I would never call a customer honey. Is ok for him but not for me? I don't want someone telling my boss I am snotty but then again don't I have the right to be addressed by strangers in my place of business with respect? I picked up a book at my local library this week and was glad to see the librarian had a name tag that said Mrs. So and So. No excuse for calling her honey. What about coworkers? At a previous job my boss called me a broad several times. I liked it!! Why wasn't I offended? Was it our fun and funny faux adversarial relationship? I believe I referred to him with another name starting with a B. What fun we had.

I also have trouble dealing with the whole girl thing. What is wrong the word girl? Nothing if you are an actual girl. I am 38 years old, I own a home, I am married and I have a college degree. I am not a girl. I am a woman and a person. For all the Little Britain fans ("But I'm a lady you see"). Would I refer to a 38 year old man as a boy? Absolutely not! Are men offended with dude or bro? Guy doesn't sound so bad but the equivalent gal is kind of cheesy. Gal makes me think of a rodeo. So how does it work man to man?

What are the rules? What are your opinions?

see you chicks later