So, still being - for the most part - gainfully unemployed, I've decided to 'sex up' my title somewhat. I'm now no longer unemployed, or a dole bludger (not on the dole for a start), nor even 'between jobs.' No, I'm now a house husband.
Great little title that. And I love it. But I wonder how many people - male and female alike - would frown upon this title and wonder out loud when I'm going to get a proper job.
I'm still looking for work. I mean, why not? It's not as though I don't want to work, it's just that Lady Hem makes more than I do. Always has and always will.
I've come across many magazines over the years, mostly women's mags it must be said, where one of the topics is male emasculation and the pay packet. Women talking about how they make more than their partners and their partners - while perhaps not come right out and saying it - feeling less like men because they're not 'providing' for the family.
Fuck that. It's all money isn't it? It's all OUR money. Supposedly. What does it matter who makes more? I've had this problem before, long before we had Syd. When I met Lady Hem, we were working the same place but she was at the end of her nursing degree, just about to start her grad year. At the time, we were making roughly the same amount of money. Didn't seem to bother anyone then. Once she graduated, finished her grad year and got a job (we'd been living together for a year then), all of a sudden - in the eyes of a lot of our friends - I became a sponge. I even had one of our friends say to Lady Hem that I was a drain on our resources. She couldn't say it to me but she could make sure I heard about it. I was still working though, just not making the same as, or more than, Lady Hem. But I could never compete with that. Anyone who's read this blog knows that I have little to no qualifications. Nor have I found anything that really interests me enough to go out and get a qualification. I've never been without work for too long a period of time but anything I can do now and into the future will never compete with what Lady Hem can do in two days.
It was Easter a couple of weekends ago. She had a night shift on the Saturday (which she didn't end up doing as Syd was sick). In one night shift, because of the Easter holidays, she would've made upwards of $140 an hour, for a ten hour shift. She can make in two days, what it takes me three weeks to do. As I said, I'm still actively looking for work and I am doing a couple of shifts here and there to help out at my old job until the new girl starts so, I ask you, how does that really make me a sponge? We're not rich by a long shot but we're not struggling, Lady Hem doesn't work all the time so she sees her daughter heaps and I'm there looking after her and we don't have to pay $700 a month for fucking child care. I don't feel like less of a man, she's not worried and Syd is healthy and happy.
Isn't that all you can ask?
3 comments:
I know someone in the same position as you. A Scottish man with no qualifications who had a range of different jobs before getting married to a qualified accountant. When they had children, they briefly hired a nanny so he could keep working, but then concluded it would be more cost effective for him to look after the kids. He missed working, but being a hard-headed Scot never gave a second thought to being a sponge. He also used the time he had to improve his computer literacy and pursue his hobbies.
Oh, please. First of all, why the hell would you care what anyone else thinks? Don't give anyone that much power over you. There's no endgame in it. If the lifestyle works for you and Madam Hem, go with it. And stay the hell away from women's mags. I think women should stay away from women's mags, too. They only exist to make women feel inadequate.
I work full time, my Missus works 18 hours a week and takes home £40 less than me a month. I don't get to see any of her dosh. I'm hoping to sponge off her when we retire.
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