About 'using your brain'

[mandalena]

Can someone explain me what they mean when they say 'i m going to work because i want to use my brain'? I find this very insulting for SAHM and nannies
p.S. am NOT attacking working mums, only those who say this

lol WONKY FANNY should be on episiotomy thread. I still feel a bit.. wonky actually.

Anyone need a lift?

oh yes. here (points to droop) and here (ditto) and here (ditto)
Get your dotted-line pencil wonkyfanny, like they have in the pl. surgery ads?

I have generally heard the "I want to use my brain" comment from SAHMs talking about taking on other things (most recently last weekend from a SAHM friend (used to be a WOHM, doesn't regret switching to being a SAHM, but does find the brainwork lacking) who is thinking of starting an OU degree (the same friend when she was working (pre-children) took a year's sabbatical from paid work to go and do an MA in an unrelated subject just for the sake of interest, so it's a feeling that can strike whether you are at home or in paid employment)) rather than from WOHMs.

And if you followed that sentence then I think you have done your brain work for the day...

My MIL inferred several months ago that because she worked that she used her brain. I find this a bit silly. I use my brain much more now that I am a SAHM.

Just in response to OP and not having read posts in between - I find the statement "i'm going to work because i want to use my brain" rather ironic because it presupposes that paid work taxes the old grey matter...and yet many jobs are undemanding and unstimulating

Depends who is saying it I suppose. If it comes from a young person with no children then I suppose it is better than saying ' I don't want to work because I don't want to work'.

If someone has a desire to work surely that is a good thing irrespective of their motives?

If it from a mother to a SAHM it imagine could be seen as patronising. Okay, parenting is hardly rocket science, but is essential in its own context and shouldn't be looked down on.

I have been a parent for 10 years now. For seven of those years I also worked in a fairly demanding job. For the past three years I have been an SAHM. I use my brain now in ways I haven't had the freedom to do for years. I am doing an OU degree. I am a school governor and have learned an enormous amount through that. I do voluntary work.
I would like to still be contributing financially to the family and in a couple of years I will be doing so again, but meanwhile I certainly think I am exercising my intellect at least as much as I did in fulltime employment.

Have just picked up on this thread which I see has been going for a while. Interesting to see how Anna888, bellatrix and a few others kind of try to turn the argument around, and suggest that people (presumabley male and female) who work outside the home may not have the resources and imagination to structure their own life and therefore need the external structures of work!!!
Yes, of course there are some jobs which are repetitive and intellectually unstimulating. I would hate to do one of these, and I'd also hate my dcs to end up in boring jobs. That's one of the reasons both dh and I have stimulating jobs outside the home as well as bringing up our kids. Because the most effective way to influence your children is how you live your life, not what you say or write on mumsnet. I have always worked at least P/T, because, frankly, there are very many aspects of looking after a baby and running a home which are repetitive and not intellectually stimulating. I don't 'need' an external structure of work to enable me to live my life. My work enriches my life (and that of others - I'm a teacher).
Lastly, am I alone in finding Anna888's posts generally quite irrelevant to the majority of women? I always feel as though she is writing from a position of no financial constraints - she describes being a SAHM as one long round of wonderful activities and travel, with paid help (presumably paid by someone else!) to come in and do all the bits she doesn't want to do. A very indulgent lifestyle, but not one that most mums will identify with.

ha ha harpsi

beep beep beep beeeeeeeeeeeeep!