What do you do all day?
A few months ago, when I was picking up the children at school,
another mother I knew well, rushed up to me. Emily was fuming with indignation.
"Do you know what you and I are?" she demanded.
Before I could answer - and I didn't really have one handy - she
blurted out the reason for her question. It seemed she had just returned from renewing her
driver's license at the County Clerk's office. Asked by the woman recorder to state her
"occupation," Emily had hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.
"What I mean is," explained the recorder, "Do you
have a job, or are you just a ......?"
"Of course I have a job," snapped Emily. "I'm a
mother."
"We don't list 'mother' as an occupation...'housewife' covers
it," said the recorder emphatically.
I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself in the
same situation, this time at our own Town Hall. The Clerk was obviously a career woman,
poised, efficient, and possessed of a high-sounding title, like "Official
Interrogator" or "Town Registrar."
"And what is your occupation?" she probed.
What made me say it, I do not know. The words simply popped out.
"I'm....a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human
Relations."
The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in midair, and looked up as
though she had not heard right. I repeated the title slowly, emphasizing the most
significant words. Then I stared with wonder as my pompous pronouncement was written in
bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.
"Might I ask," said the clerk with new interest,
"just what you do in your field?"
Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice, I heard myself
reply, "I have a continuing program of research (what mother doesn't) in the
laboratory and in the field (normally I would have said indoors and out). I'm working for
my Masters (the whole darned family) and already have four credits (all daughters).
Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities
(any mother care to disagree?) and I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it). But
the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers and the rewards are in
satisfaction rather than just money."
There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she
completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door.
As I drove into our driveway buoyed up by my glamorous new career, I
was greeted by my lab assistants---age 13, 7, and 3. And upstairs, I could hear our new
experimental model (six months) in the child-development program, testing out a new vocal
pattern.
I felt triumphant. I had scored a beat on bureaucracy. And I had
gone down on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to
mankind than "just another......"
Home...what a glorious career. Especially when there's a title on
the door.
Thanx to SAK. |