So, What Do You Do?

These days, I loathe being asked what I do for a living. Actually, if truth be told I have loathed it for sometime. Telling people you are a philosopher, theologian, or ethicist is sometimes a conversation-killer, sometimes an incredulity-creator and sometimes worse. Telling people you are a musician is somewhat easier, till you try to explain why you are not playing live.

But the truth is that at the moment, my main occupation is satying at home (despite other activities and past roles), taking care of a household and raising a daughter. Trying to broach this in coversation, even in out so-called enlightened times is not easy. Hence, I enjoyed reading Modern Day Dad’s blog entry on Telling people you stay at home. Modern Day Dad is a fascinating blog and I certainly Identify with the feeling of akwardness when trying to explain my current arrangements.

What makes matters worse is that I typically get asked this question at golf functions by other men, most of whom here are go-getting alpha males with high flying careers (well not all, but many). It’s not just the akwardness of my response, but the politely dismissive replies that make me want to invent fantastical tales about why I am really here.

It also makes me ponder the extent to which attitudes to home and career really have changed in my generation. When it comes down to it, the majority of men in the coporate world, even in the supossedly fashionable global-set, still have very tradtional views on marriage and family; views that don’t tend to include the idea of men who place family above career.