Oh, Sweetie

- Sweet zinnia -

When my mom was making frequent trips to the hospital, the nurses would call her "Sweetie" and "Honey" instead of her name. It rubbed me the wrong way, especially knowing that my mother was not a nick-name-user type person. She addressed people by their actual name. I was offended for her when people called her Rosie, a shortening of Rosemary, even though she didn't seem to mind. She might have even found it endearing.

I get perturbed when I'm called Sweetie, especially by women, unless it is someone of a grandmotherly nature. I'm not sure what it is that causes a younger woman to address an older woman as Sweetie. There's been a girl at the convenience store that called me Sweetie, a young doctor that called me Sweetie (I yelled at her, she couldn't diagnose my problem so I felt I had nothing to lose), and more recently, a young woman mechanic who called me Sweetie.

Is this a way of disarming me? Do I seem like I need to be put in my place? Maybe I'm overbearing, although it seems to me that I'm so unimposing that it's hard for people to listen to me until the end of a sentence before they begin to talk over me or to check out of the conversation completely. Is it a way of distancing themselves, making them feel superior to me?

Maybe I should be glad they are calling me Sweetie and not something else. That may be it. Sweetie is a pseudonym and social mores are saving me from being truly insulted.

 I should be glad, but I'm not.