IJMC - Now Hiring: Moms

I like what is contained below...I think we should add the title to 
questionaires and listings everywhere. List it as just another checkbox 
to be picked to sort and bin us as we are ought to do. Or, I guess my 
real preference, we could just continue to do what we do and get it done 
and worry less about what our title is...but I still like the sentiment 
described below.                                                   -dave





Mother: The Job 

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 mid-air, 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.