You Guys!!

Today’s blog is actually a rant!

My question is, does anyone other than me have a problem with the phrase,“you guys”?

It makes me cringe!

In the average restaurant, the teenybopper server smiles broadly and asks, “can I get you guys something to drink?”  A few minutes later it’s, “have you guys decided what you wanna eat?”, “can I get you guys more coffee”, and “how’s it tasting, guys?”

Usually about this time, in spite of my husband making please-don’t faces at me, I politely point out that there is only one guy at the table, and that I most certainly am not him!! Or, occasionally, I will pointedly look around me as if to see who the server may be talking to, then say, “oh, I thought you must have been speaking to someone else. There are no guys at this table, just my husband and myself!”

Generally the server then looks non-plussed and fumbles with what to do or say next. I almost feel sorry for them. One young man got his digs into me for the remainder of our meal because he went to great pains to address me as “Ma’am”.  I accepted that!  Occasionally servers will, from then on, bite back the word just as it’s coming out of their mouths which always makes me chuckle inside.

It’s not the gender issue alone that bugs me.  It’s also the informality.  Within a group of my friends, if someone from the group says, “How are you guys” I accept it just fine, but not from someone 30 years younger than me who I have never met before.  I am a customer, not their new best friend.  “Hi guys” belongs with “whassup?”

The topper was recently in church where the young leader said, “could I get you guys to stand up to sing the next song?”!!  Envision me rolling my eyes!!

And the third issue is a really old fashioned concept – that of being appropriately formal with someone a generation or more older than yourself. In my mind, “guys” is used by young men talking to or about each other. Not to be used when speaking to parents, your own or anyone else's.

Surely it’s not too hard to leave the word out entirely and simply say, “can I get you something to drink” and “have you decided what you’d like”??!!  Do you think they still teach at school that in English “you” is both singular and plural?  At least we don't have the confusion of pronouns with additional words for formal and informal usage as in some other languages.

At any rate, I shall continue my solo protest despite the slim odds of it resulting in any amount of change in the world at large.

And that’s my rant, ladies and gentlemen.  

Whadya say guys??!!