For context, my mom is 63 and has gray hair, but otherwise doesn’t look old. We live in moderately populated city in the American mountain west. My mom has never lived in the south nor was she raised by anyone who did.
Whenever my mom needs to get a woman’s attention (usually a waitress or retail clerk) she will call them “ma’am” no matter how old they look. I cringe and want to sink into the ground every time she does this, especially when the woman is clearly in her 20s. Is my mom actually being rude, or am I being paranoid?