I'm Not Your Sweetheart

I get it.  I look younger than I am.  I get carded at restaurants and the occasional rated-R movie.  Many of my clients have remarked that I look barely old enough to be out of high school, much less be a fully qualified veterinarian.  And those remarks have been made in both casual observation and dirty-old-man-leer form.

I'm also aware that I do not enforce a high degree of formality.  I don't object to my clients using whatever combination of title/name that makes them comfortable.  If calling me Julie instead of Dr. Dawson helps them ask questions while I'm there instead of 3 days later when they've completely screwed up my treatment plan, I'm all for it. 

But on some occasions I do have to make something clear.  It does not matter how many times I have been to their farm to take care of a sick animal or how comfortable they feel around me.  I am most definitely not their sweetheart.  I am the doctor, and I deserve to be respected as such.