Mexanese Mumbo Jumbo

Here's some random food for thought. I was on the bus the other day, sans the quiet sanctity of my headphones and forced to listen to the mundane, occasionally loud, conversations happening around me.

I inadvertently tuned into a couple of women having a conversation behind me about the use of "Honey" and "Hun" in the work place. From what I could gather, they worked with the elderly and both were appalled at another co-worker for calling them "Hun".

In fact, one of them was so offended she got into an argument with said co-worker, stating that in all her years of schooling, the first thing they always told students is to NOT call an elderly "Hun", "Dear", etc as it is extremely condescending, belittling and is treating them like children.

It got me thinking about whether I offend anyone in my life for using such terms of endearment. I know I will occasionally call the women I work with "Lady", but I've been called that too. I will call certain girlfriends "Sweetie", "Hun", "Honey" or even "Babe" (come to think of it, I call my friend Gord all those too, but he's a lovely dovey mushy type of guy) but to my knowledge, I have yet to offend anyone.