Maybe it’s just me and my own passel of neurotic (read: socially awkward) tendencies, but when I meet someone and they inevitably ask what I do for a living, I find myself suddenly sweating and fumbling for an answer.
This is not because I am ashamed, mind you. It’s just that I truly don’t know what to say.
Do I reply that I’m a mother? Or just that I don’t have, and have never had, a career? Do I get specific and say I’m a stay-at-home mom (SAHM), or simply a very basic, “I’m home?” I suppose I could mention that I write, but the truth is that I’m less a writer than a hobbyist with perpetual writer’s block. Plus, does how I respond really matter anyway?
I recently read a fascinating essay titled “The Job for Which All Others Exist,” in which the writer Ivana Greco made a strong case for reclaiming the word “homemaker.” Her thoughts on the subject were quite compelling — and not just because I was comforted and gratified to know that I am not the only woman prone to panicking when someone asks, “What do you do?”
Greco does an excellent job outlining the
