DEAR MISS MANNERS: I have been with my boyfriend for 9-1/2 years. We have been living together for 4 years. I was only 16 when we started dating so I called his parents "Mr. and Mrs. surname."
They have never referred to themselves by their first names to me. So I don't feel comfortable calling them by those names. They always refer to themselves as his mother or his father. Although I don't feel comfortable calling them by their first names, I also feel that I am too old and have known them too long to call them Mr. and Mrs. What is the proper way to handle this? When is it correct to call them by their first names?
GENTLE READER: By Miss Manners' calculation, the gentleman's parents are aging at the same rate you are, and have known you just as long. Therefore, they retain the senior privilege of deciding when or whether they want you to address them less formally -- which is not to say that you cannot press their son to press them to do so.
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