To be fed up of social conversations going like this...

[nevereverhaveiever]

To DH: what do you do for work? Oh that's very interesting. And where do you do it? And do you incorporate x and y in your work? Oh we must meet and chat about what our professions have in common. Did you see X story in the news regarding your profession? What do you think about it?

To me: Do you have any children? How old? Enjoying school? Good.

I work too! Nobody ever asks me what I do. I actually do a more objectively interesting job than DH. I am dying to tell someone about it but if they only ask me about the kids, I can't just volunteer it.

Any suggestions as to how I might steer people away from the children topic and be able to talk about my job with them and get a fully, fledged, interactive conversation at social occasions?

aargh dependent

Which is why it is just an opener, GreenPotato - from the opener you can gauge whether someone is interested or not. Same with children- if you start on them and eyes glaze over you need to find another topic.
Maybe I have put it badly. Jobs can be of interest to others but it doesn't tell you if the person is interesting. U2HasTheEdge's DH may be great fun and a wealth of stories and experience - whether he has a job at the moment tells you nothing at all about him. ( other than having been at home all day with children he probably doesn't want to talk about them).

Maybe it is to do with boxes and people are not comfortable unless they know which box to put you in!

Such am interesting thread. I agree that it's everyday sexism that we are asked about kids, not work or politics or technology.

I am lucky enough to work flexible hours part time, so do school pick ups 4 out of 5 days.

I'm not British and agree you are very coy about saying what exactly your day job is

For a very, very funny look at how men and women are treated differently, follow @themanwhohasitall on Twitter. Hysterical!

It bothers me far more that if you say that you work for IKEA you get treated differently if people assume you are in the shop floor, when you are a actually a project manager. It is the box thing- they have put you in the wrong box and you get treated quite differently.

"Since the majority of mothers work these days I would ask the same of men and women.

Well you might do that Mehitabel. But the whole point of the thread was that very very many women find that this is not the case. That it is either assumed that their job is less interestesting and important than their male DPs'. I have lost count of the amount of men (and sadly women) who answer my description of what I do with a surprised "oh!". Often followed by a question about how I manage to juggle bringing up kids too. A question which I am damn sure very very few men encounter

THAT's what the thread is about. Not whether you find other people's jobs boring!

I object to the whole thing because it is putting men and women into boxes. The job defines them and they are treated differently.
It was a huge liberation to say something about ourselves without mentioning marital status , jobs or children. People then have to respond to the person - and not their preconceived idea of the person, made by the box they have put them in.

That is what is being done. You are a woman with children and you get your box. It throws people when they get the man as the SAHD - they don't know which box to put him in! Do away with boxes and you don't get the problem.

Oh, picking up on something mentioned earlier, the Scottish wedding certificate states the occupation of both parents of each of the bride and groom. We almost got married in England but didn't - had I known about the sexist certificate I would probably not even have considered it!

There had been a petition about that and the government has agreed to change to both- unfortunately there is no date for this- how difficult can it be?

I think there is a rather pathetic excuse of having to use up the present forms first!

I have an interesting job and dh has been a SAHD for a few years. Led to some interesting conversations :) Actually he generally got quite positive and rather envious comments, especially from other guys.

The only time when talking about my job was awkward was back when I was a manager in the NHS and I came across people who thought that the very idea that a huge body like the health service should have managers was appalling and said managers were evil.

I liked that Harry Enfield sketch, sad to think that it's still a fairly accurate reflection of some people's thought processes.

Oh and I worked for 15 years in London and don't recall coming across status obsessed people that much. Perhaps working in the public sector was a form of insulation though, we always had plenty of work related gripes to discuss!