Every time you let disrespect slide, you’re quietly updating the terms and conditions.

People learn what is allowed from what happens, not from what gets said. Each thing you let pass without comment gets logged as acceptable, and the next version arrives slightly larger. Nobody is usually being deliberate about it. It is how anyone works out where the line is.

You do not have to make a scene, and you do not have to do it in front of everyone. A short, calm sentence at the time does most of the work: that one did not land well. Said once and early, it usually saves the bigger conversation later.