to be annoyed at this new term of 'full time mum'

[blondie80]

i know i'm not being unreasonable.

a woman on that lottery 1-100 show on sat night referred to herself as a 'full time mum'

i take it she meant sahm instead.

i have no bones with anyone's choice as to what the do, sahm of wohm.

but... i was so annoyed i felt she was referring to wohm as - part timers??

does she forget that we do the same stuff as well as a full week at work!!

i was with my mother when we watched the show, and she has 4 dc who have left home, and says she is still a full time mum regardless.

ok rant over.

Yes OP you are a 'full time mum'. What you are NOT is mothering full time which is what the phrase 'full time mum' is taken to mean (by most people, obviously not you!)

edam - don't worry - my two are both at university & I haven't disappeared yet.

Though they do seem to think that I shouldn't call them 'my children' any more now they are officially adults. I suggested offspring, but apparently that's a punk band

So while we're debating semantics - anyone got any ideas?

orm, my BIL is a systems analyst. I've known him for five years. Never worked out quite what he really does... (Although he did get to hold an Engima machine the other week and was so excited he actually emailed me!)

Hoe about the 'fruit of your loins'? We used to know a family called Loyns - made us LOL at lot to refer to their children as FOTLs

off to my part-time job now! :D

only joking

OrmIrian, I didn't see the show that the OP was referring to but presumably the answer that the OP was so narked about was to the question 'so what do you do?' (meaning what is your job) apologies if this was not the case as all my replies were based on that assumption.

Rusty - my mother usually talks about 'my daughter/s' (we work in the same field so often has to be explained to people that yes, we are related).

But most of all she says 'bloody hell, I thought I MIGHT finally get some peace and quiet once you'd moved out, yet here you are, knocking STILL expecting me to drop everything and listen to you'.

risk of cat among pigeons here - some "mums" work because they actually like being something other than "mum" for a bit. Tbh, I think even if I won the lottery I would still not be a full time mum. It's not in my nature - and I'm not for a moment decrying those that do "mum" full time. I do actually like work. The balance isn't always right, but essentially, I don't want to be a full time mum. So have no problems with those that do and call themselves that.

Obviously I am always biologically the mother and also think about them a lot, chat to their photos at work like a loon when no one's looking. But I'm not a full time Mum...

oops where I said I like "work" I was referring to my particular work oth. Not for a moment saying that sah is not work (see me looking haggard at the end of a weekend with the girls - I was working there too!)

Of course it could be argued that WOHMs have two full time jobs

I think it all boils down to the context that the phrase is used in. If its "what do you do for a living" and the reply is "full time mum" to me this is a mum who looks after the kids full time and doesn't do paid work

Of course we are mums all of the time, we are women all of the time, we are daughters all of the time and so on. But I think its a bit 'splitting heirs' to pull someone up on calling themselves a full time mum if they are talking in a job-sense (if that makes sense )

I said I'd stay away, but am intimidated infatuated interested in MRC's pithy posts.

Briefcase ah?? I remember those...black shiny things that I coveted and bought from foreign climes (why were they always better/cheaper abroad than I could ever get them here).

Now I laugh at brief cases. I deride them as symbols of the WOH brigade. Symbols of oppression to us sandal wearing, hippy chick types who are too busy toting hessian bags full of lavendar to be indulging in animal skin symbols of another life, a meancing way of life far removed from my country idyl (lives in Steel obsessed Sheffield, but you get the gist).

Immediately rushes to temple of all things motherly to burn incense and beg the great Mother's forgiveness for taking up with the dark side.

orm - I like 'fruit of my loins' - might try that one on DS when he comes back on Thursday.

Actually mine is a battered tan teachery looking one from John Lewis that DH bought me as a graduation present.

TBH, I usually only use it when I'mon a course as my daily 'briefcase' is actually a tatty plastic box which holds exercise books and a bunch of tat like snapped pencils and bits of rubber.

Orm, one of my friends is a SA, she gets really fed up with people saying is that the job where you go, "have you tried turning it on and off".

I think non working is a better term than any other suggestion. SAHM sounds as if the poor woman is under house arrest.

'non working' suggests those of us who don't have a paid job don't actually do any work though!

Well, how about "unemployed" then?

I call myself a full time mum because I look after my kids full time. What's wrong with the term? I don't get it

Not in paid employment.

There you go.

Doesn't suggest that you're sitting around doing bugger all. Doesn't suggest that parents who are in paid employment are not also full time mums and dads.

What's wrong with it Kitty is that it implies those of us who work outside the home are putting in a part time effort at parenting our kids. As I believe being a mother is a state not an action I object to that inference.

YOu could even make an acronym - NIPE.