Am I working?

[Rosendula]

I know this has been mentioned before, but I've just done a survey online. Towards the end it asked me if I'm

• Working full-time (30 or more hours per week)
• Working part-time (8-29 hours)
• Working part-time (less than 8 hours)
• Full-time student
• Other not working
• Prefer not to say

What sort of choice is that? I used to do 30 hours of paid work, but since having Katie I've been at home and I now feel I work a lot more hours - I just don't get paid for them, don't get days off for a 'weekend', don't get holiday leave, don't get Bank Holidays off, don't get time off to be sick, and I'm on call even when I'm asleep. Does that mean I'm 'not working'?

I put the first answer, even though I'm pretty sure that by 'working' they meant 'working for money'. What would you have put?

[Helsbells]

Although I dont have children yet, I dont think I would consider raising them as "work".
I see work as something I have to do in order to "survive" (i.e. pay the mortgage, buy food etc)
Maybe I am deluded about how wonderful raising children could be but I feel it would be a shame to class it as the same as going to an office and sitting at a computer all day (for example). Raising children appears much more enjoyable!:)

[Odsox]

I know what you mean and I'm at the other end of the scale.
I'm officially "retired" which to most people means I'm probably dozing in an armchair by the fire with a cup of tea beside me and a newspaper on my lap.
Chance would be a fine thing
I probably "work" the same amount of hours as you Rosendula, although I do have time off at Christmas

[Annpan]

Maybe we need a movement to bring the name 'housewife' to it's rightful place in society, or maybe 'homemaker' or whatever.

Since when did we all decide 'housewife' was a dirty word?
Since when did it automatically get pre-fixed by the words 'only a'?

I am like you Rosey, and I always try to explain myself... I grow food, I cook everything from scratch, I volunteer here and freecycle, I engage my child, I scrub the black mold off of the bathroom ceiling, I am present and active in a village (how many villages are ghost towns Mon-Fri, 9-5) I make crafts to sell, and as gifts, so on and so on, and so on........I don't sit about eating chocolate and watching TV all day.

[Rosendula]

Although I dont have children yet, I dont think I would consider raising them as "work".
I see work as something I have to do in order to "survive" (i.e. pay the mortgage, buy food etc)
Maybe I am deluded about how wonderful raising children could be but I feel it would be a shame to class it as the same as going to an office and sitting at a computer all day (for example). Raising children appears much more enjoyable!:)

Oh believe me, Helsbells, raising children is very hard work, both physically and mentally. But you're right: it's not the same as going to an office and sitting at a computer all day - been there, done that and it's a doddle compare to raising children. But, of course, work can be enjoyable and I wouldn't have it any other way. From my viewpoint, just because I enjoy it and don't get paid for it, it doesn't make it not-work. That would be like saying playing football isn't the same as getting exercise if you play it for fun, IMO

[Graye]

Putting aside WHY you put what you did (I DO agree by the way!) I suspect I do the same surveys myself.

Saying what you did would have led you onto all sorts of ridiculous questions about your "employment" and would take ages to work out how you could possibly bend your circumstances to fit in with the even more limited headings (such as what type of business your employer is involved with, etc) whereas saying "not working at the moment" or "prefer not to say" brings the questionnaire to a close and credits your account with the appropriate fee!

I don't think these surveys are designed to find out how many people work their socks off but are not in "paid" employment - they just want to see who works in which industries. The reward for the survey is good though if you let it mount up...

[StripyPixieSocks]

I am a complicated one.

I am on benefits because I am disabled currently but I work lots of hours... now hang on...

I am trying to get my business up and running and make lots of jewellery and all the things associated with running a business... I have sold (and declared) all of £24 in the last 3 years

See people seem to pigeon hole people in little boxes and really it's anything but, being a Mom / Dad / Housewife / husband is a 24 hour job in my humble opinion.

I also try to learn one thing well each week.

I had recently (before my health hit the downhill slope) organise some work experience all of my own and went unpaid for two weeks in the local Council Offices

I rarely sit on my arse in the lazy sense of the word as I'm always doing 'something' but I don't get paid for it so it's not classified as work.

Now even I am confused

[prison break fan]

Whenever I get a survey, if I say I am retired, it is thanks but no thanks! Does this mean our opinions are not worth anything? I absolutely can't find the time to go to work!! pbf

[pumpy]

Whenever I get a survey, if I say I am retired, it is thanks but no thanks! Does this mean our opinions are not worth anything? I absolutely can't find the time to go to work!! pbf

I'm with pbf. I'm 52, & neither do paid work(retired), nor do i claim benefits; it would appear that my opinion,for these surveys, is also worthless. Maybe we should both get a bad back, & claim everything that's going, then the surveyers would listen to our opinions. (This is not aimed at genuine claiments, as my Jackie is long-term disabled).

[Helsbells]

Helsbells wrote:
Although I dont have children yet, I dont think I would consider raising them as "work".
I see work as something I have to do in order to "survive" (i.e. pay the mortgage, buy food etc)
Maybe I am deluded about how wonderful raising children could be but I feel it would be a shame to class it as the same as going to an office and sitting at a computer all day (for example). Raising children appears much more enjoyable!:)


Oh believe me, Helsbells, raising children is very hard work, both physically and mentally. But you're right: it's not the same as going to an office and sitting at a computer all day - been there, done that and it's a doddle compare to raising children. But, of course, work can be enjoyable and I wouldn't have it any other way. From my viewpoint, just because I enjoy it and don't get paid for it, it doesn't make it not-work. That would be like saying playing football isn't the same as getting exercise if you play it for fun, IMO

Oh I absolutely agree with you! I am one of four children, and I know my mum (who didnt "work" when we were growing up) worked really really hard. I suppose what I mean is it almost demeeds the role of a housewife/mother by calling it work, its so much more special and important than that.

[Rosendula]

Oh I absolutely agree with you! I am one of four children, and I know my mum (who didnt "work" when we were growing up) worked really really hard. I suppose what I mean is it almost demeeds the role of a housewife/mother by calling it work, its so much more special and important than that.

Ah, I'm with you now. I get a bit sensitive about these things sometimes. I sometimes think my son, who is now 16 and working full-time as an apprentice electrician, thinks I don't do anything all day. Yet I can be cream-crackered when he comes home from work, and I'm nowhere near the end of my day. Ah, well. He'll find out one day

[JulieSherris]

............. I sometimes think my son, who is now 16 and working full-time as an apprentice electrician, thinks I don't do anything all day. Yet I can be cream-crackered when he comes home from work, and I'm nowhere near the end of my day. Ah, well. He'll find out one day

You know, for the last few weeks while hubby has been working 6 days a week, I've been struggling to put up fencing, cut a few trees down with a hand saw (because our chain saw frightens me!), I've chopped logs & split them, I've been making gates, have dismantled a rather large and heavy shed & then put it back together again in a different area, made a dog run by the shed with picket fencing & got to grips with a 14lb sledgehammer. I make dinner every night, clean the range each day & collect & carry the buckets of peat turf.... I've done battle with hawthorn hedges, made 2 xmas wreaths from stuff gathered in the woods, lived each day in my wellies & have been busier than I have for a long time!

But this last week, it's all gone to pot.... the reason? My 4 yr old granddaughter has been staying while her Mum was in London...... and what was the hardest work? Definitely this last week - she's very demanding & seems like she does nothing but eat....... but she's a star as well, just can't seem to get anything done when she's around!

Oh, roll on tomorrow when I can be a dutiful nanny & take her back - I'm looking forward to having a tree chopping week - almost like having a rest!

And yep, I too, am a 'homemaker/housewife/retired/unemployed/lazy, stay-at-home wife'......
I'm thinking of ticking the self-employed 'farmer' boxes next time

[red]

the survey was badly worded.. you know they meant are you 'employed' as in paid work..
The problem is the bad stigma being a housewife or full time mother has - for some reason we define ourselves so much by our 'work', whereas there is so much more to life. Some people love their jobs and live for them,, and thats great. the rest of us do it for the money.

I hate those occasions when someone says 'so what do you do?'

and what I 'do' is home educate and care for my disabled child.. keep an eye on the sheep and chickens, grow vegetables and have a part time job as a book keeper.

what i say depends.. if I were trying to get credit I would say i was a part time accounts assistant - because they are only interested in the employed... to neighbours etc I say 'I mostly home educate my son' which brings its own problems

to the irritatingly nosey who just want to grade how important you are I say ' as little as possible'

I'm with hellsbells though, although raising my son is time consuming and takes a lot of effort, and will be with me for the rest of my life, I don't like to regard it as 'work' .

[hamster]

...

to the irritatingly nosey who just want to grade how important you are I say ' as little as possible'

...

Ha! I like that one. Can I borrow it?

I normally say, 'Oh, I do all sorts of things...' and then list various interests and bits of voluntary work.

I don't have children yet, but I worked as an au pair for a while and it was by far the most knackering job I've ever had, much more so than sitting at a computer screen all day.

[Sally Jane]

I really like the "self-employed farmer" quote and I will probably borrow that, even though my 'land' is currently lying fallow under black membrane until I have the energy to tackle it in the new year, and my only current crop is the Basil plant that's struggling along on my kitchen windowsill!
Neither Hubby or I are currently in paid employment, nor do we receive any benefits, which is something we budgetted for when we decided to move to our current home, which we are in the process of making habitable. Fortunately we have a little pot of savings, scraped together in the years before we were able to downsize our lives, but we will have to be very frugal in the new year, as we have nio idea when, or if, one of us will be able to find a paid job to bring in some income.
And of course with the drop in interest rates our little pot will not grow very much, rather like the poor frost-bitten Basil!