What do you call yourselves?

lessonlearned

At the other end of the scale I have a very intelligent friend who ended up in her 30s with 4 children. Her husband was a real high flyer often working in Tokyo for weeks at a time whilst she was left in the uk to mind the babies. She did this with aplomb but she had decided that working for an employer would never work out so she elected to be a sahm.

She was a talented artist and a skilled seamstress but didn't have time to develop her business being so tied up with mum duties, so she just sewed for herself and the kids, designing and making most of their clothes.

She put "fashion Designer" on her passport. ........It came in handy when travelling to Japan because they just assumed she was a big shot designer and famous in the uk so she always got the red carpet treatment........I think she just felt happier in social situations too, especially when meeting her husband's work colleagues. She felt that people would look down on her if she said homemaker or wife and mother.

This is common for smart women who are married to high fliers and who have to put their own career ambitions on hold whilst they assume full responsibility for running the household whilst their high flying husbands go out and conquor the world.

I think this is often the problem. Society at large defines us by our job description which is of course utter nonsense, we are much more than what we do for a living, but often when people lose their jobs they also feel like they have lost their identity.

I would imagine it's even harder for men who stay at home whilst their wives are the high fliers.

It takes a confident person, who, when asked at a party, "what do you do" to turn around and say "as little as possible". :rotfl:

lisa110rry

lessonlearned wrote: »

It takes a confident person, who, when asked at a party, "what do you do" to turn around and say "as little as possible". :rotfl:

I'm 59, female, in full time work and the above is exactly what I say on all occasions, even when asked in the office. Everyone in the company knows what I do (run it), it's only new people who ask!

I guess I can now call myself confident! I'm Company Secretary, but that's not a job title, it's a responsibility, but I have no other job title, and the MD occasionally says I'm his PA!!! (If only he knew that if I acted on that title, the other 59 colleagues would seriously miss out!)

Newly_retired

Despite my username, I have been retired now for a number of years, so that is my status, with an income made up of four pensions of varied amounts.
I do voluntary work which gives me a huge sense of reward.
DH has retired three times now, and is currently doing more or less the same professional work in a different place on a voluntary basis.

We are both aware that our individual incomes are greater than many of those people we encounter in our voluntary jobs. It is quite humbling.
But is is great to know that we can do things because we choose to, not because we are paid to.
So officially, "retired" is my answer, but it conceals a great deal.