Ma'am

The first time it happened I didn't think anything of it. I was at the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, NJ for Jason's graduation from basic training.

"Good morning, Ma'am," a recruit said to me as he held the door open for me.

"Ma'am?" I initially thought to myself. "Am I old enough to be called ma'am?"

I shrugged it off because of where I was and what was expected of the recruits. It was the military, after all. If he did not call me ma'am and someone overheard that, he probably would have been doing pushups all night.

Fast forward to this morning. One of our maintenance guys was in our apartment to finish fixing our shower that they had started fixing yesterday. I was in the kitchen getting lunch ready to bring to school when I heard him packing up. As he walked past me, I heard those words again ...

"Good day, ma'am."

Question ...
 AM I OLD ENOUGH TO BE CALLED MA'AM?!