DEAR MISS MANNERS: I’m a 23-year-old lady with a 54-year-old father. At restaurants, he often makes comments to the waitresses, asking them if they’re married or have a significant other. It terribly embarrasses me, because these questions are more creepy than he thinks.
Is there any advice you could give me to politely tell him that he’s being a creepy old man?
GENTLE READER: “Asking strangers in a professional setting about their relationship status is just not proper. I’m sure you don’t want to come across to young women as predatory.”
And if your father insists that he comes from a different, more innocent era? Miss Manners suggests you remind him how that excuse has been working lately for certain prominent men his age and older.
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(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, [email protected]; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)
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