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Thanks for the comment. "What do you do for a living?" is a question my wife dreads. She doesn't fit in a traditional "stay at home mom" (we don't have kids), n

by yboris 8y ago

Thanks for the comment. "What do you do for a living?" is a question my wife dreads. She doesn't fit in a traditional "stay at home mom" (we don't have kids), nor does she have a job. She then has to figure out a way that is socially acceptable to justify what she does at the moment (art and self-education / self-improvement). This reminds me of the valuable reminder I got while studying to be a math teacher: many students don't have a mother or a father - so telling kids "have your mom sign this paper" would be insensitive. Similarly, assuming a person you're talking to has a partner of an opposite sex isn't very sensitive. I'm glad for this whole HN discussion!

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eigenstuff 8y ago
I have always just asked "so what do you do?" because I'm in my 20s in a college town so I always assume that many of the people I'll encounter at bars etc are students. Leaves it open ended: are you in school? Are you working? Both? Neither? Something in between? Secretly five groundhogs in a trench coat? And actually many times I've had people tell me in depth about their art/writing/music pursuits and only briefly mention their serving job or something, and honestly that's way more fun and interesting to talk about for both of us.