I ran into an acquaintance today at the grocery store who asked me if I'm working these days.
It's an innocent enough question, and I answered, as I usually do with a sweeping gesture toward the pre-schooler steering my racecar-shaped shopping cart and said: "Nope. Still staying home with the kids."
I never feel the need to qualify further, nor do I read into the question any implication of home-making not being "real work" because I think only illiterate, uneducated, Mariana-Trench-dwelling, near-sighted, sexist, neanderthal, chest-beating dinosaurs think this way.
But I often wish I could come up with a more clever response on the spot.
Such as this ...
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am working these days. And it's just been so crazy lately, but I love the work and it's really rewarding.
Just today I wrapped up oversight of this truly innovative materials-engineering project. I pretty much singlehandedly constructed a set of nunchucks out of totally recycled materials. We finished just ahead of the crushing deadline of Wednesday's Halloween pre-schooler story time.
I hate to brag, but I'm really proud of the results."
It's an innocent enough question, and I answered, as I usually do with a sweeping gesture toward the pre-schooler steering my racecar-shaped shopping cart and said: "Nope. Still staying home with the kids."
I never feel the need to qualify further, nor do I read into the question any implication of home-making not being "real work" because I think only illiterate, uneducated, Mariana-Trench-dwelling, near-sighted, sexist, neanderthal, chest-beating dinosaurs think this way.
But I often wish I could come up with a more clever response on the spot.
Such as this ...
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am working these days. And it's just been so crazy lately, but I love the work and it's really rewarding.
Just today I wrapped up oversight of this truly innovative materials-engineering project. I pretty much singlehandedly constructed a set of nunchucks out of totally recycled materials. We finished just ahead of the crushing deadline of Wednesday's Halloween pre-schooler story time.
I hate to brag, but I'm really proud of the results."
And Henry sure likes these, too!
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