Is it normal to take offense when a person older calls you “young man”?

Just wondering, I work as a cashier at my store, so sometimes not always, but sometimes when certain older customers come in they’ll say “How’s your day so far Young Man?”

First off, I’m 32 years old so I don’t really qualify or see that as “so young” anymore? And second, what business is it of the other person if I’m older or younger? Would I go up to a person taller or shorter than me and say “How’s your day so far Short Man??” I just don’t see how it’s normal to use “young man” is what I’m saying.

Is It Normal?
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Comments ( 84 ) Sort: best | oldest
  • Settle down young man. This is girly to get upset about. Ya cant change the world short man. Simmer down cowboy

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    • You're right, man. This is a very minor thing yo get your nickers in twist over.

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      • Regardless of how I feel about it, I asked “Is it normal to take offense”? So that’s the response I request: Don’t care about if it’s minor or major, I care if it’s normal or not normal?

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        • Not normal. Happy now?

          Get over it.

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          • Shoooooooosh!!!! Quiet on the set please! 🤫

            Ok, I’ll consider next time when someone calls me “Young Man”——I won’t take it so seriously or harshly. I’ll just take it as their trying to just start a conversation with me perhaps?

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            • Sounds like an excellent plan.
              You'll make more friends and go far in life. Good luck to you.

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        • I dont think its normal to get upset about. You gotta ask yourself if you are being too sensitive sometimes. I get annoyed when people chew gum around me but I've accepted its my problem not theirs. Cant be mad about your own problem.

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        • I was trying to sugar coat it for you tbh. It's a silly thing g to get annoyed over, so it's not normal

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  • Right. This is 2022. People get offended over trivial shit.

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  • Kind of depends on the tone the person says it with. Did they say "young man" in a condescending way or more as a term of endearment?

    Also, you're 32 but depending on how old the customer is, you ARE young by comparison

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  • I'm a 52 year old woman, and it never offends me if someone calls me young man. 🤣

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  • You know if the guy was like 60 to him you are a young man. You are literally half his age. To him he be an old man.

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  • Only if you are obviously a woman.

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  • Get over yourself it's an old saying said by old people.

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    • In a few decades the cashiers will be calling OP “Old timer” and he’ll yearn for the days when he was “Young man”.

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  • I mean you are young and they're usually saying it because it's how they were brought up, it's polite.

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    • This is what I think, I think you should screw everyone, the things people say they never do, listen to your heart, did your heart say you did anything? No, it didn't, you yourself never do what they do because your heart tells you it's wrong, therefore I would never call someone young man, I don't call people sir, nor do I call them madam, I call them ma'am, I do only pleasant things and if not pleasant, force pleasantness into it, I call people anything they want, I even call you an idiot if you want, I'm a pleasant person, it's all about pleasing you, and if you want me to stop, I harass you with everything you want, I even kill people if you tell me to, that's how pleasant I am, good is being nice, no matter what horror is entailed, my morality says to please you, be pleasant, I will punch you in the face if you want me to, that's how nice I am, I'm doing you a favour. By kill all I mean is wringing the neck of people on command, I don't like that nasty blood everywhere.

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  • ...Over two words?

    You need to get over yourself, young man.

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  • I feel patronised by 'young lady', and I'm the same age.

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  • I'm older and avoid saying that because I wouldn't want anybody calling me 'old man'. It sounds ageist. I call oler people young man because it makes you feel better.

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    • I've always considered young man to be sort of a compliment. I would only take offense if the person saying it was the same age or younger than me. "Old man" is different, it's almost always used as an insult.

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      • No necessarily. In Britain old man is a friend.

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        • Yeah right, words are insulting to anyone if you meet a man who's easily offended. Selflessness isn't empathy, but I'm not going to debate what a supervillain I am.

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  • How’s your night slightly older than what you were earlier in the day young man?

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  • Perfectly normal, I don't like being called a woman or being compared with a woman, not even my mother (I have long hair, and I'm a man so manly I'm nothing like my mother). Here's a clue, I only observe the behaviour of young men, not old people or any women or girls, and not teenagers or children, toddlers, or babies, and not teens, I'm only mimicking a specific age group, I'm very different to the rest, and incase you don't know I'm very different to old people, very different to a child, and I take offence when someone won't stop telling me to act my age, I'm like a 27-year-old man and only like a 27-year-old man, I'm like a longhair, yes I'm like a man, I'm like a person, I'm like a good, decent, moral person, I'm like a normal person, and I'm like a man with a club whisky, probably a Canadian rye, thank you very much, I take offence when people say I'm not one of those people. I'm part of a specific group and I have very very high standards what kind of person I should be.

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    • As an extremely normal person, I think you're a woman that needs to act her age and is not all that different from old people. You're also not good, decent, moral, or normal.

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      • I reported you for having false information about me, for your lies.

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      • You never see that following altruism makes me moral!? That's OK, it's all part of the experiment, before I can see when I'm doing the right thing and know what's decent (I drop my morals from there if evil is what's going through people's minds), wow, what a fucking woman, huh? She's cute and 59, and I kissed her a lot. Not good, decent or moral? Well, that's the last straw over the camel's back, of all the festering frustration in the world, this is the most selfish ever, wow, you never know. You never knew anything in your life and I know it, I talk as an extremely normal person, and you're impeccably of doubtful honesty. You're Billy The Menace To Society, not Billy the Saint!

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        • Hey, don't get your panties in a twist. Speaking as someone who is actually normal, you are a woman that is not normal, decent, good, moral, different from old people, and needs to act her age. I'm just going with the facts.

          You don't know anything in your life. You aren't aware that you aren't good, decent, moral, normal, different from old people, and need to act your age. You're not even aware that you're a woman. How is someone not aware of their own gender!?

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          • You're not aware I'm not a woman, I'm a man, and it's all in my profile, and how is it a fact that I'm like old people, a woman, and not moral, decent, good, normal and that I need to act my age? Those aren't facts, I can very much dispute that.

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            • They are facts.

              You are a woman, and you're lying in your profile when you say you're not. I know this because I'm normal. Stop being a liar.

              As someone who is normal, I say it's bullshit that you're good, decent, moral, normal, different from old people, and act your age.

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  • NO.

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  • I hate being called sir by people older than me. Just seems way too formal for my yokel ass.

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  • People often call me young lady and I’m 45 but look younger. It feels weird that they think I’m still young. I usually let them think it. I can’t believe I’m that old myself.

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