And What Do You Do?

In searching for a better job title than "housewife", I was thinking that "housewife" might satisfy the IRS, explaining in one word my negative cash flow. But it doesn't describe what I do every day, seven days a week, with no sick days no holidays, and sometimes not even bathroom breaks.

"Full-time" mom doesn't begin to cover how much time I spend at my job. Most full-time workers put in 40 to 50 hours a week. I put that many by Wednesday. In my job, I'm on call around the clock. Add family vacations, where I take my "work" with me on a very, very long car ride, and "full-time" becomes "all-the-time".

"Homemaker" is a quaint title, but it's inappropriate. I haven't made any homes. I am not making a house so much as I'm trying to keep the kids from tearing ours down.

I wish I could think of a better title for the toughest job I've ever had. But no matter what I come up with, my accountant will probably just put "housewife" on my tax return anyway. And the Social Security Administration will keep sending me reports with zeros on them. Perhaps that's just how little society values what I do.

But the next time someone asks what I do, I'll say that I do what my mother did. I'll say it's such a hard job, my husband wouldn't want to do it, and my father wouldn't know how. I'll say my kids are very proud of what I do.And they should know, because they come to work with me every day.

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