I'm a fucking HOUSEWIFE?

[ToadinTheHoleWithKetchup]

Just had the car insurance renewal on DH's car. I am a named driver, and the details listed state that I am a 'housewife'. How the fuck is this even a category?

@daisypond

Wife and housewife actually don’t necessarily mean “married”. They are old words and just mean “woman” or “woman who looks after the house”. Not the first dictionary meaning nowadays, to be sure, but the older meaning still stands.

Do you think so? I would assume it means married (or cohabitating) with children, as childless women would have traditionally worked.

@Marchitectmummy

If you are self employed why can't you state what you are self employed doing on your insurance like everyone else does?

Plumber - self employed or employed is a plumber
Graphic designer - is a graphic designer regardless of self employed
Retailer - whether shop or Internet if you resell ypu are in retail

Really could you not work thsy out yourself. Self employed does not give an insurer any idea of how risky you are driving a car!

Its so simple and such common knowledge!

This. It's not that complicated. At all.

@Longlockdown

Lloyds Bank had to put my occupation down as Headmaster. I'm a woman. Headteacher wasn't an option. Unbelievably, this was only in 2017 and I saw the screen in the meeting and checked the options. Yup, women could only be teachers. Unbelievable.

My dad used to be a bobby and his generation (aged 70 now) always say "lady policeman" about female officers. Argh!

Sorry to be clear I mean his generation as in his old colleagues we all still speak to - the generation of officers he worked alongside - not his entire generation age wise!

I would be willing to bet £1million that OP works for a MLM

Yep @Eminybob that’s what I was thinking. It’s the only “job” that wouldn’t be seen as legitimate by any other industry and might require putting “unemployed” or “housewife” in the employment box on the form. MLM is also the only industry where it’s necessary to be as evasive as the OP is being.

OP, I get your dislike of the rather old fashioned term “housewife” (though there’s nothing wrong with being one of course). If you actually have legitimate employment or self employment then “housewife” is the wrong thing to put anyway. I am self employed as a psychotherapist so on any form asking my occupation I put “psychotherapist” not “self employed”. Your actual job is relevant, if you are a self employed musician your insurance will be much more expensive than if you’re a self employed bookkeeper. That’s why people are asking you what you actually do. I think your DH has put “housewife” and you’re pissed off because he’s failed to acknowledge you’re a network marketer ;)

PhilSwagielka
If it isn't, what do you do if you get asked what you do for a living and you are self-employed? Do you just say outright what your job/business is (freelance translator in my case)?

Simple - I tell them I'm a translator. Apart from the business side of things, it's the same job whether I do it as an employee (as I used to) or freelance (current situation which started decades before working from home finally gained respectability in the last 6 months ).

If it isn't, what do you do if you get asked what you do for a living and you are self-employed? Do you just say outright what your job/business is (freelance translator in my case)?

Yes, I’d describe my actual role, not my tax status. The salaried equivalent of stating your occupation as self employed would be:

“What do you do for a living?”
“I’m PAYE”

Doesn’t answer the question! The actual role is the relevant bit.

It’s so weird that people can’t seem to grasp that self-employed is not a job description.

Nearly 400 messages because the OP ticked the wrong box in the occupation section of her insurance form. Maybe just concentrate a bit harder next time, OP.

@ToadinTheHoleWithKetchup

Please tell us all what you do for self employment?

Is it a MLM type thing?

@OhCaptain

It’s so weird that people can’t seem to grasp that self-employed is not a job description.

It is quite strange

@nancybotwinbloom Oh, bless you, I hope you get that opportunity sooner rather than later, and well done for speaking up. Not everyone has to work to feel ‘fulfilled’. I often felt the same as you when I was working, feeling resentful having to listen to a load of clap trap.

I'm self-employed. But that's my status, not my occupation. If anyone asks about what I do, I'd tell them that I work for myself at home, as a writer. Writer is the occupation. I'd also perhaps say I was freelance as that doesn't conjure up the images of MLM.

There are lots of people like me, beavering away quietly, working for themselves and not flogging shit through MLM or facebook sales pages. Generally though we're more than happy to disclose what we do as it's hardly something to be ashamed of.

I have just realised how many people I know who say they are a 'freelancer'. Basically that means I have zero clue what their paid employment is.

@bookmum08 Freelance = not caught up in any of that MLM shit.

The freelancers I know are generally on the creative side - web designers, architects, writers, editors, social media stuff.

But surely freelance isn’t a job either?

Freelance designer - designer

Freelance architect - architect etc.

Freelance isn’t a job!

No it's a status. You're a "freelance something or other". But lots of us say we work freelance as it sets up apart from the Boss Babes and the Mumpreneurs.

Ooo we got a badass here

I think this is a question you should take up with whoever filled in your insurance.

Some people on here are still old enough to be educated in housekeeping which includes managing house ( mental load) and parenting.

I know I'm not educated in managing home and it does frustrate me when my partner mistakes me for housewife (not because there's anything wrong with it) I'm just not educated in it.

First time I learnt how to clean a toilet properly was at work when I got a temp cleaning job whilst cleaner went on holiday.
Until then I was only doing half of it and only when I saw a mess.
But still, housewife is and can be a valid occupation in general.

@SockYarn

No it's a status. You're a "freelance something or other". But lots of us say we work freelance as it sets up apart from the Boss Babes and the Mumpreneurs.

What an arse you sound 😂. Freelancing is not what you do, it's how your organise your work. It's irrelevant when someone needs to know what you bloody do. They're not enquiring about your extremely elevated, in your mind only status. Creative types 🤣🤣🤣

Whatever. I am self-employed, freelance, work at home. In a proper job, in a business I have built up myself. From nothing. If someone asks what I do, i'd say I do a few different things on a freelance basis, or that "I freelance". Because nobody really wants to listen to the ins and outs and it's useful shorthand.

The ones who sound like an arse are the ones who say they're self employed when they're actually flogging bodyshop at home.

but Househusband is available, so how is it demeaning to have Housewife?

Because housewives were treated like secondclass citizens compared to their breadwinning husbands for many years and that stigma remains.

So you want housewife removed?

In that case, we might as well remove the option for housewife altogether; we’ll leave househusband, though as that doesn’t have the same perceived negative history. That way, anybody – male or female - who is primarily based in the home doing houshold chores and admin and/or looking after children can simply select ‘househusband’, as that is the easiest, fairest, non-sexist way of doing it. A bit like the PP who is a female headteacher, and simply had to select the option of ‘headmaster’ as a gender-neutral default. Oh, no, wait a minute….

It’s so weird that people can’t seem to grasp that self-employed is not a job description.

Very strange, isn't it? You might just as well answer the question "What's your occupation" with "I work Tuesdays and Thursdays".

Telling people that you're a self-employed plumber/artist/proofreader/tennis coach/taxi driver or whatever sounds exactly what it is - an understandable description of a respectable job.

Saying that you're self-employed, without specifying what actual job you do - especially remaining cagey when people probe for more of an idea of your actual job - just sounds really dodgy. It conjurs up the image of a Del Boy character, working cash in hand and not always quiiite in accordance with the law. You may as well just have said "I do a bit of ducking and diving, wheeling and dealing - I'm a bit tasty, me!"

anyone else half expecting the OP to say "I'll pm you?"

anyone else half expecting the OP to say "I'll pm you?