The word for the thing that I do with my time

[hungrymama]

I hate that moment of panic I feel when I'm at a gathering of people I don't really know and someone asks me the dread question "...and what do you do?" It take conscious effort not to look at my shuffling feet and preface my answer with "just". I've heard so many times that people without a life outside their children are boring or sad that I fear

Comments

[ghetsuhm]

"What do you do?" can be quite the loaded question, even if often it's just a way of making conversation. I've always found it to have overtones of "this will tell me who/what you are and what your value is". Because it's also difficult if you, say, work in a supermarket.

For a while I used to say, and you can imagine the tone, "I write porn."

[hungrymama]

Now I think about it I wonder if "what do you do" often really means "are you one of us" in which case "surgeon" or "classics professor" could be just as risky in some circles as "freezing worker" would be in others.

[jsr]

"Hired goon. I'm hoping for a promotion to Henchman soon."

[xanthe_selkie]

it seems to me like a way of asking "how much do you earn?". As a woman who recently married I have been asked when we are starting a family loads of times. And then when I say I am just not interested people suggest "I'll change my mind". White rage...

[hungrymama]

I hate the way that we can't win by having kids OR by not having kids. I also think it is indescribably rude to ask people about their plans for reproduction.