Hate meeting new people because of my job

[Twofishfingers]

I'm a childminder. It's not everybody's cup of tea, I know. I do a good job, I am committed, work hard to provide good care, and I actually like my job because it gives me lots of freedom, ie. time outdoors, I am my own boss, decide on my holidays, and I do enjoy working with children.

But every time I go out and meet new people (women in particular, men never say anything nasty) I will always, always get the 'god I don't know how you can do this'. or 'you have my nightmare job'. or 'I'd end up killing myself If I was stuck with children all day'. etc, etc. I absolutely hate this. Why can't people respect my profession?

My closer friends know why I chose to be a childminder, don't judge me, don't comment. IABU to hate meeting new women because of this?

YANBU, but I don’t think they are necessarily slating your job either. They are phrasing it rudely, but are essentially acknowledging that it’s a tough job that they wouldn’t want to do. You probably wouldn’t want to do theirs either. That’s how I’d choose to interpret it anyway.

I have a job that no-one understands from the job title and everyone glazes over when I explain it. I love my job so don’t care what they think - they wouldn’t do it as well as me!

It doesn't look to me that they don't respect your profession, just saying it's a hard job they couldn't do? I've got a lot of respect for teachers, I could never handle the pressure. I had people say to me they could never be glued to a computer all day. So what?

I think, sadly, you find this in loads of professions - I work in retail which is often considered the lowest of the low, even here on Mumsnet it is sneered at - I love my work, I choose to work in retail but people still think they can be rude about other people's choice of work.

I know that both my parents, my sister, my DH, my best friend and I all get regular negative comments about our jobs or employers.

We work in a mixture of public and private, low and high paid roles. All in different industries.

Some people just like to be rude and have limited social skills.