(PS Im in my 30s, and learned this at school too.)

This is the traditional, correct way of addressing a married woman.

(Debrett's ettiquette etc) Should she be divorced, it would be Mrs Jane Jones......can't remember the form if the woman is a widow.

(My married 60 ish yr old mother goes bonkers if anyone writes to her as though she is a divorcee)

The final word:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6939372.stm

I can verify that I did not have sex with anyone connected to this obviously skewed and biased report written by a nutcase feminist dame who had the audacity to refuse to acknowledge her partner in life as the head of her household. Second only to the dog, that is.

Perhaps in Britain (and even so, not many British women who I know would put up with that) but in Canada, most women would find being called Mrs Their Husban insulting. It's considered old fashioned and sexist by many.

My mum addresses letters to me like this. She knows it really annoys me (but then most of her politics does) and still insists on doing it! Its even odder as I haven't really changed my name at all- bar a joint account.

Ha! Hahahaha. She got the house, she got the income until her death regardless of my survival, fair enough. But, with the assets she got the credit rating and that burns me.

She, of course, is my ex who being Swiss was always legally Ms. Original Name. We have numerous children who are legally Ms. Father's Name - Original Name. None of the people involved have the option to drop their original name.

If anyone ever addressed letters to me like that I'd send them back 'return to sender, not at this address', especially if it was my mother.

I dont see why I should have to be questioned over the validity of the Bible and the men of God who wrote in it- its amazing the many negative responses I have received on a British forum - a so called Christian country! IF you take a look back into the history of our country when its rulers ruled by the laws of the Bible Britain was a great country, in fact probably the greatest country in the world.

To trust the words of the Bible and believe they are "old but ever new" is fro a Christian a little thing called "faith".

As I have stated in previous posts these are my views on my religion and I dont expect my fellow ex-pats to agree with them.

Oh good.

Now dbd33 dont be so scarcastic. There is no point in me being so understanding if you aren't going to play along

LOL

It was Australia, actually.

Yep, it is old fashioned.

Wading in here with bulletproof jock strap on:

When we got married a couple of years ago, I suggested to the OH that she should keep her own name as personally I think the whole name change thing is a bit old fashioned and slightly demeaning. She thought about it for a while then decided to change it to mine mainly to avoid all the humming and hawing over legal matters and having to explain the differences to disbelieving officials (Banks etc).

I still call her by her own surname occasionally and it still seems strange when people say Mrs McGregor (as that's my mother - eeek ).

We're in our 30's so can't say it's a generational thing. In fact, the OH's younger sister insisted on changing her name when she got married and got quite miffed when my OH even hinted that she may keep her own.

Incidentally, my mother nearly went apoplectic when we hinted the same to her. In fact, even though she's divorced from my father she insists on being called Mrs McGregor.

One thing I think we can all agree on is that when it comes to convention, Women are a total enigma. and thank goodness for that!

(I'm in my 30s still, just about, and learned this from the back of the Collins dictionary I had at school - it must have been a very dull English lesson for me to have (a) read and (b) remembered this...) I believe she could also correctly be referred to as Jane, Mrs Jones. I think for those that care about these things the forms for widows and divorcees are the same, in that she would be Mrs Jane Jones.

The equality thing gets complicated if there are titles and honorifics in play: if Mr Jones was granted a knighthood, he becomes Sir John Jones and she is Jane, Lady Jones (collectively they are Sir John and Lady Jones). Only if she holds a title in her own right would she be Lady Jane Jones, but then more complications come into play...

If Jane herself were knighted (or Damed, or whatever the term is) she would be Lady Jane Jones but her husband would still be plain old Mr John Jones. now who's being discriminated against? (or is the whole honours system so hideously partiarchal and inexcusably anachronistic that it's not worth debating?)

I need some help

We just received a wedding invitation from our dear German friends, a charming couple we have known for many years. Their youngest daughter Hildergard is being married but we will not be able to attend. They sent us a pre-addressed envelope which reads as follows

Herr und Frau Adolf Hitler
Bombed Bunker Number One
Berlin
Germany

Would it not be better sending our heartfelt regrets to Herr Adolf Hitler und Frau Eva Braun instead? This seems to be more in keeping with the current thinking at this forum. Any thoughts will be most appreciated

Good idea