Professional Thoughts

Remember during the campaign last year when it seemed like there were constant comments from certain quarters that were insulting to us "regular guys". Comments about how people were bitterly clinging to their guns and religion. That one sticks in my head, but I know there were others.

Later the regular guy thing became popular among other circles, think "Joe six-pack" or "Joe the Plummer".

Recently I was reminded of what some among the elite media types think of people like myself. I am, one might say, a "Josie the Homemaker," while my husband is quite literally, "Joe the Pastor".

The other evening I was trying to read the new Sarah Palin Op Ed piece in the Washington Post, I found out I had to register for a free menbership in order to read the articles. OK, I can do that as long as it's free.

As part of the sign in page, I had to answer some demographic feeler type questions. I suppose it is so they can keep a handle on who their readership is. But as you will see, I guess they already have quite firm ideas about who might be reading.

Why do I say that? These questions were really different. These were not the usual profession, age, household income, do-you-own-or-rent type questions. Instead these were only profession related and quite obviously they expected only professional wage earners to register. And further, only certain types of professional wage earners.

On the second page of the sign up form, among the mandatory fields were: Job title, Job industry, Primary responsibility, and Company size. And they didn't have any choices related to being a home maker. No mother, teacher, housekeeper,... I could have chosen "not employed," but that didn't seem quite right either. There were not really any service related careers at all. There was a choice for the medical field under the the industry and a choice for animal care under the primary responsibility. No child care even. Nothing farm related. I could list other obviously missing professions.

Since I am a stay-at-home mom, homemaker, and home educator, I had a hard time figuring out which options to use. Besides those occupations mentioned in the previous sentence, I had lots of ideas I could have chosen, as anyone who is a mom (stay at home or otherwise) knows. House cleaner, cook, nurse, psychologist, ...

Perhaps you've seen those lists that calculate the monetary worth of an average mother? Someone has put together a calculator that women can use to figure their own monetary worth if they desire.

Alas, I digress... Getting back to the Washington post...

Here are the best matches I could find: Job title-Other management level title, Job industry- education, Primary responsibility-teaching/educating, and Company size- 1-45.

But I guess even Joe would not have been able to choose anything about his career as pastor. He, at least could have chosen Salaried professional for the title. And perhaps consulting or education for the industry section.

Even the way they divided the sections was somewhat unusual. I mean is Salaried professional more of a Job title than, say, Physician? But Physician shows up under Primary responsibility.

I guess they don't expect us lowly homemakers or pastors to read the Washington Post. Maybe they assume we can't even read. I guess we're too busy bitterly clinging to our guns and religion. The guns and religion part works for us, but I don't think the bitter part does.

There are some days, however.