The Mrs.

My mom was always the one who signed the report cards, wrote out the "sick" notes for school, and signed all the checks--both for purchases and bills. In later years, she signed things with her own first and last name, but when I was a kid my mom usually signed with "Mrs. Thomas Hatch".

I don't know that I've ever signed anything "Mrs. George Bailey". I'm pretty sure I have not. In fact, it's rare you see anyone sign that way these days. Occasionally at work, we get payment checks from our older customers that are signed like this, but clearly it is a lost custom.

I suppose married women today view themselves as individuals, not an extension of their husbands. Something that evolved with women's lib and women's rights. I don't really have an opinion on this, I just think it's an interesting observation. And it does make me wonder if we are better off now than we were 50 years ago when women stayed in their marriages no matter what. Through infidelities, addictions, abuse...they stayed. Til death do us part, they were "The Mrs.".

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