Equal time for moms: What did your MOTHER do for a living?

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

Mom was a personnel secretary at Beech in Wichita before becoming pregnant with my brother. In those days when you got pregnant, you lost your job. After that she was a homemaker.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. Homemaker/tax preparer.

[lizziegrace]

2. Registered Nurse n/t

[ceile]

3. RN n/t

[malta blue]

4. Mom was a legal secretary for 14 years

Became secretary to a VP at Bechtel when we lived in TX for 6 months, and back to being a legal secretary until she quit working 10 years ago.

[LaraMN]

5. Worked at a library, until I was born.

Then she stayed home with my sister and I until I was in jr. high or h.s., at which point she went to college and earned a teaching degree. She works at a high school with kids who have disabilities and/or behavioral problems.

[reyd reid reed]

6. My mom stayed home and

dealt with us. And the Officers' Wives Club. And bridge parties. And sherry in the afternoon.

The sixties, y'know.

[Strawman]

7. Property manager

And certified workaholic. Still is.

[jrandom421]

8. Mom was a Nurse (RN)

From her time in the internment camp till when she retired 3 years before her death.

[MrCoffee]

9. St. Mom did a little bit of everything

stayed home until dad lost his job for showing up drunk one too many times, then worked retail, daycare out of the house, and an office gig.

[johnnie]

10. My mom raised four kids

And I bet she would have had an easier time if she had to work in the coal mines with her hands tied behind her back while people hit her legs with baseball bats. Here's to my mom :toast:

[Burma Jones]

11. Secretary at NASA in Houston

After my folks' divorce. Before that she was a Secretary at the National Institute for Drug Abuse.

[MorningGlow]

12. Office manager

At a nursing home. Plus did the books for another nursing home on the side so we could own a home. She's a workaholic--now at 81 she works retail, reception for H&R Block during tax season, plus takes care of MG Jr. while I slave away at a thankless full-time underpaying piece of shit job.

...Did I type that last bit out loud?

[spacelady]

65. Wow, your Mom is neat. Mine is 80 & sassy as hell too.

I'll bet she is organized, too. Sounds useful, is she fun? My Mom can be fun as long as you are nice to her. I said that out loud didn't I? Dang old ladies!

[MorningGlow]

85. She's a lot more mellow as she ages

She's still pretty severe (and strict) and that can scare the bejeezus out of people who don't know her, but I lived through her years of menopause when she was a screaming banshee, so this is NOTHING! :D

I just hope I take after my mom's side of the family--they all die in their 90s, still kickin', with all their faculties--plus the women always look 20 years younger than they really are. Nobody believes my mom is past 80. And yay--nobody believes I'm 40, so I must have tapped into those genes! But I am much lazier than my mom...!

In fact, all this week she's driven 40 minutes to get to our house before 8:00 a.m. to take care of a stomach-bug-stricken MG Jr....and she keeps threatening to clean my house from top to bottom while she's there. Dang it!

[Z_I_Peevey]

13. Secretary, electronics assembly worker and later

electronics technician.

[LibertyLover]

14. My mom was a researcher

for an airplane designer, Alexander P. de Seversky when she was pregnant with me. She stayed home for 3 years after I was born, then went back to work as a history teacher because my father developed an ulcer (in the late 1950s, ulcers were usually treated with weeks of rest and diet and if they got really bad, surgery - she didn't know what was going to happen to him, so she went back to work). After a couple of years doing that, she decided to use her Masters in library science and worked as a high school and middle school librarian until she had to retire (well after age 65 I might add) to take care of my dad, who by that time had developed senile dementia and multiple problems due to years of alcoholism. After his death, she thought about going back to work, but decided that her age (upper 70s at that point) was against her.

[itsmesgd]

15. do we really need this post? Mom did everything

book keeper, accountant, secretary, typist, writer, house cleaner, mother of two, built the home (with her own two hands) that I was raised in (with her family), realtor, painter, care giver, et cetera....................
She is the Uber Mom.

[Initech]

16. My mom is an elementary school teacher, now works at school district office

[greatauntoftriplets]

17. My mother also was a secretary until she had kids.

Then she stayed home and volunteered at the school.

[Rosemary2205]

18. My mom had 2 jobs

she was a night time cleaner 6 days a week at various businesses. She didn't work Sundays. My dad worked 6 days a week officially and more often than not on Sunday. He worked at the cemetary digging graves, cutting the graas etc. He also did "fixit" work for various rich people he met through the cemetary.

There was no such thing as a 40 hr week for them.

[seemunkee]

19. Librarian

She wasn't considered a full librarian by the county since she didn't have a degree but she knew her job as well as anyone. She would not have put up with the Patriot Act BS.

[BrotherBuzz]

20. Mathematician for Standard Oil

During the Second World War, she collected all that data from the wells around Standard Oil's Coalinga oil fields, crunched the numbers, charted and graphed the info, and sent it on to the head office in San Francisco. After the war she got promoted to head office in San Francisco where she compiled reports from all the fields while she supported her new husband through law school. Pops graduated, she got knocked up and became a housewife. She proudly ran the household with efficiency thanks to her strong background in mathematics. Everything was charted or graphed; 50 years of water consumption, power, food costs, even a chart of the size of every Thanksgiving turkey that spanned over fifty years. She loves her graphs.

When my mom discovered computers in the eighties, she fell in love with the spread sheet and said that an entire week of work in the oil field could have been done in five minutes if she had had a computer.

[Phillycat]

21. Drunk.

Matched well with my junkie father.

[Mad_Dem_X]

46. Awww, janesez!

:hug:

[Phillycat]

47. Eh, what are you going to do?

You should have to take a test to become a parent...

[terrya]

22. She worked at the Signal Depot

Before she met my dad.

[Zavulon]

23. Bartender.

[RetroLounge]

24. Homemaker / Raised 3 sons...

pretty much a full-time full-contact job.

Did a good job too, I think...

RL

[LaurenG]

25. She was an insurance saleslady

and ended up owning her own company once we were all grown. She also worked in water and land conservation as a volunteer.

[Left Is Write]

26. My mother was primarily a stay-home mother, but

she also operated her own home-based business for a number of years.

Both of my parents are retired now.

[LSK]

27. homemaker

She never had a job that I know of since being married to my father some 40 years ago.

[SeattleGirl]

28. Nurse's Aide

Then a Ward Clerk.

[Kali]

29. Raised on a ranch, worked in an insurance office, probably until my arrival.

Then an ultimate homemaker/mom/enabler and general sponge for all the family poison which killed her with breast cancer in 1996.

[lukasahero]

30. My mom worked in the operations center of a major bank.

She worked there before and after having children and retired about 5 years ago.

[Left_Winger]

31. Librarian

[Silver Swan]

32. My mother was a teacher in one-room schools in the 1930's

Then she was a farmer's wife, until my father died.

She then took a factory job to support us four kids. She took classes at night to finish her college degree so she could return to teaching. She taught from 1955 until she retired in the 1970's.

[Sparkly]

33. Piano teacher.

[Jokerman]

34. Verna worked in politics.

Verna was a pro-choice catholic who volunteered for several campaigns and causes including NOW and NARAL. She eventually become chair of the county democratic party and held that post for 12 years.

In between campaigns she worked for the county clerk, judge, building inspector and the local mayor (office holders she helped to elect).

Verna worked up until the day before she had surgery for pancreatic cancer at age 75. She never recovered from the operation and died a few weeks later.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

35. My mom has been a housewife all her married life........

Before she married my dad, she did commercial art for a living...

Even though she's in her late 80's now, she's still a housewife...

[Blue Diadem]

36. Homemaker, raised 5 kids and took care of my sister for 39 yrs. n/t

[crim son]

37. She was a social worker in Canada before she married.

After marriage she was a dissatisfied housewife who learned to do everything in an effort to stave off boredom. These days she's reaping the rewards of good behavior by travelling around the world and generally having a darned good time living.

On edit: my MIL was Stephen J. Gould's secretary for decades, until she retired. He died within a very few years after that.

[Kali]

62. cool on your MIL - he was one of my favorites

[crim son]

71. I believe the last book completed while he was alive

was dedicated to the woman. She and I don't get along, but Dr. Gould did care very much about her. Thanks for responding!

[SPKrazy]

72. Your Mom was A Social Worker In Canada

how cool is that

I once put in an app for a social work mental health position in BC, but I never heard squat. I figured that since it was right after the 2004 election and social workers are in general very liberal (at least members of NASW are) that social workers were flooding Canada?

Or maybe they figured I wasn't really serious. But the thing is, I might have been serious.

I've had this dream that I moved to and lived somewhere in British Columbia.

The images are so real it is a little weird.

This feels like Deja Vu, I think I've said this before, hopefully not tonight.

Hi

:hug:

[crim son]

75. It isn't so easy to move to Canada and get a job.

I remember you told me about the dream and no, it wasn't earlier this afternoon! British Columbia is beautiful and sometimes I imagine living there again. I have all these ideas about what I'd like to do and haven't done when the truth is I'm going to end up an old fart living right here in Maine until I die. How cruel is that?

Yeah, I'm feeling sorry for myself tonight.

[SPKrazy]

78. Yeah, But You'll Be A Hawt Old Fart!

fighting off young guys when you're 96

Me, I'll be an old fart whose son has never forgiven him for leaving his mother or some such thing.

You can feel sorry for yourself, I can too.

But I've seen your driver's license pic and it is the best I've seen.

So, I don't know what your dreams are.

I'm glad i didn't tell you about that earlier this afternoon, but i seem to be a little without my ability to differentiate time tonight (although that was surely an exaggeration done for effect)

So, I don't know, a hawt 96 year old fighting off young guys, or not fighting them off, whether in Maine, or BC, or Montana.

:evilgrin: :loveya: :hug:

[crim son]

81. Let's do this:

I'll feel sorry for you and you can feel sorry for me. Maybe it will make things easier.

You know what happened today? I saw a pic of the ex-Love in the paper. He looked very good although a friend assures me the picture has been heavily photoshopped, lol. For some reason it's ruined my entire day. How am I supposed to forget the horrible bastard if he's there every time I turn around.

I was happy to hear the thing was photoshopped; that's how evil I am. Why should he improve as I deteriorate? There is no question that our relationship has been a catalyst for all kinds of changes and I was kind of hoping that a couple of his would be extreme weight gain and financial failure. That's how evil I am. Now I'm taking my evil ass to bed. Goodnight, SPK :hug:

P.S. thank you for the compliment about my photo.

[SPKrazy]

82. Good Night Sweetie!

evil person that you are LOL

I bet it had so many layers on it from photoshop that it wasn't even really an image of him anymore!

:hug:

[madrchsod]

38. secretary for at least 5 different companies

she was a secretary/book keeper/advisor for one of these companies for over 50 years. she started with the company and retired when they became a 35 million a year business. oh ya she raised three of us and helped a lot of grandchildren in her life...

[spacelady]

39. Telephone operator in the 40s & 50s; 1st ever female Chamber of Commerce

manager in Nebr. in the 60s & 70s; executive secretary at local bank 80s & 90s; retired at age 75. I am very proud of her.

[Connonym]

40. drove the bookmobile and dispatched for a cab company

she started working full time when we were all old enough to be left home alone. Then she worked at the Veterans' Administration.

[lildreamer316]

41. College professor who pioneered major parts of adult education.

Woman was incredible in her element.

[undeterred]

42. Drank and cooked dinner.

[electricmonk]

43. Administrative assistant they call it now

She'll still say she was a receptionist but of course she did a lot more than answer the phones. She worked for 20+ years for the regional medical examiner's office. I would visit the office fairly often and there were always photos of crime scenes or autopsies laying around. She would also fill us in on the latest sensational case while eating dinner so there's no one squeamish in my family.

She's retired from there and now works part time in the office for a water testing company.

[SOteric]

44. Master Chef, Restauranteur.

[Mad_Dem_X]

45. Housewife, mostly

Before marrying my dad, she was a waitress. Later on in life, she also babysat teachers' kids for extra $.

[Maine-ah]

48. stayed at home until I went to school

then she was a legal secretary.

Oh, btw, I lost my job while pregnant. Funny thing about that family medical leave act doesn't apply to businesses that have less than fifty employees.

[mduffy31]

49. My mommy is a Teacher

Kindergarten up until this year. She is now teaching 2nd grade.

[azmouse]

50. She sewed the interiors for caskets.

It paid fairly well for that time (in the '70's). The factory has since closed down.

[BrotherBuzz]

77. Did your parents meet on the graveyard shift?

Bad, bad me. :spank:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=5992141&mesg_id=5993251

[GoddessOfGuinness]

51. Typist, homemaker, teacher's aide, temp secretary, and eventually social worker

Lotsa things...

[querelle]

52. Executive Director

For the City of Montreal. She was in charge of all the municipally owned recreational facilities. That's how I got my job as a lifeguard at a pool when I was in high school. Nothing like nepotism............

Q

[Nikia]

53. My mother had a variety of public service jobs

Now she is studying to be a clinical psychologist, which I find ironic in some ways.

[Lucky Luciano]

54. Same thing as my dad - they were teachers...

that met where they worked!

[carly denise pt deux]

55. In the early 70's, she managed a hippie type store/smoking accessory shop

I kid you not..........
Carly

[Fuzz]

56. Nurse, Preacher's wife (what a job!), homemaker and Fuzz Rustler

[LuLu550]

57. Mom was a switchboard operator

[Kerrytravelers]

58. A secretary, a stay at home mom and now the Purchasing Tech for a school district.

[TommyO]

59. My mother, in addition to wrangling three boys

did quality assurance inspections of needles and sutures used in surgery, eventually working to inspecting the danged-near invisible needles and sutures used in some eye surgeries.

[renie408]

60. Do we consider 'guilt monger' a profession? n/t

[ashling]

61. My mother was a social worker

She was with the Red Cross in India and Burma from 1944 through the end of the war. Set up and ran recreational support during the building of the Ledo Road. When the war was over she was stationed as the Diector of the Red Cross operations at the old VA hospital in Jackson, Mississippi.

That's where she met my dad, who was a doctor in the navy. Shortly after Dad left the navy they took up residence in Henrietta, Texas where yours truly was born.

She raised us three kids (all boys) and volunteered for stuff like March of Dimes, UNICEF, PTA, and she was my Cub Scout Den Mother.
and the Democratic Party.

She used to say that she elected Truman singlehandedly in '47. LOL I worked with her for LBJ in '64 and for Humphrey in '68.

She was sick during most of the Watergate tribulations, and didn't get to see Nixon resign. But she was mad as hell that she wasn't on the Tricky Dick's White House Enemie's list. She said she had as much right to be on that list as anybody! LOL

she died of Cancer in 1973.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

63. My mom owns a liquor store in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.

My dad kind of forced her into it. My sister could read by the time she was 3 1/2. I however was a poor reader until I was in the 6th grade when I finally caught up.
Duckie

[KamaAina]

64. Paralegal

eventually for the NYC office of one of the top two immigration law firms in the land.

By the way, how did you know she had retired? She is awfully young-looking, you know, and has even dabbled in modeling. :-)

[riderinthestorm]

66. Human resources department head for the county sheriff

which meant hiring, firing, promoting and testing for all of the county bailiffs and sheriffs.

[Redstone]

67. Telephone operator (remember those?) for a long time, then worked at UNIVAC.

Redstone

[femmocrat]

68. My mom is so incredible!

She was a stay-at-home mom when we were growing up. When I started college, she got a part-time job cooking for meals-on-wheels. She went back to school to get her GED and took some college credits and rose up the ranks to become a director of a senior citizens' activity center. She retired at age 75!

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

69. Wow - DU moms ROCK!

What a bunch of busy and productive women!

[GenDem]

70. Account clerk for Dept. Social Services

[Blue-Jay]

73. She was a dispatcher for the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

That, added to the fact that Step-Dad was a city cop meant that I never got speeding tickets when I was a teenager. Quite handy when my first car was a 1972 Dodge Challenger.

[riderinthestorm]

80. Heh. My mom worked as a dispatcher for 2 years for my local town

before she went to work for the sheriff. I got pulled over for not having a valid sticker when I borrowed her car while mine was in the shop, 30 years later, and they still recognized her name. Wierd. The guy helped me fish around in her glove box and we applied the sticker for her together....

:toast: Cops stick together....

[SPKrazy]

74. My Mother Taught English to Foreign Students In College

so they could take the TOEFL (english proficiency test) so they could go to college

:kick:

[mopinko]

76. medical secretary

did get fired for getting married when she worked for mars candy. but went work in a hospital when i was a kid. dad was a drunk, so she had to. had 7 kids.
she got a scholarship to business school cuz she had the best grades in her senior class. worked for mars all through the depression. taking home seconds from the kitchen was the best part.
i used to visit her at the hospital, sit under her desk and just listen to her type. seemed like she typed a million words a minute. really about 120.

[smtpgirl]

79. My mom is a retired registered nurse with a Master's degree

She also was a lifeguard, held CPR classes for the local park service and donates her time still to a nursing home and gives flu shots to the parishoners at our church during flu season.

[Broken_Hero]

83. My mother

was a parralegal before she became a house wife...When my father retired, she became a vet assistant.

[Raine]

84. Stay at home wife and mother...

infact the she was the best mother in the whole World. :loveya:

[NewWaveChick1981]

86. Mom had a very interesting career before retiring.

She earned her BS in Chemical Engineering at NC State in 1954 (which was unheard of at the time) and her Master's in Chemical Engineering at Penn State in the late 1950s. She worked as a chemical engineer in Pittsburg after marrying my dad. She and my dad moved to Atlanta in 1961, and she continued her career until she started having kids (specifically, me in 1963). She started working on a Master's in Librarianship at Emory Univ. in 1967, not long after my brother was born, and when she completed it, she became a technical librarian at Coca-Cola. When we moved to NC in 1975, she was the Director of the Library at a private liberal arts college. My parents got divorced in 1979, when I was 16. Mom supported us this way until she married my stepdad in 1985 (a month after I graduated from college). She didn't have to work at that point! :D

[SPKrazy]

87. That Is Interesting

a chemical engineer turned librarian for Coca Cola (technical)

:hug: :loveya:

[NewWaveChick1981]

97. Yep.... she looks back on that now and sort of shakes her head...

She told me once, "I have no idea what I was thinking!" :P She said if she had to do it over again, she'd have stuck with chemical engineering. But she did her career well, and she enjoyed it.

[huskerlaw]

88. Registered Nurse

She worked for a doctors' office that specialized in treating arthritis, then she quit and stayed home for a few years. After we were all in middle school, she went back to work as a school nurse.

She retired a few years ago (right after turning 50!), so now she volunteers, takes care of the grandkids occasionally, and travels a lot.

My stepmom is a pharmacist. :)

[ikojo]

89. Several jobs....stay at home mom until I was around

five and then she went to work, thanks to a divorce. She worked as a secretary for a plumbing supply place and then moved to Arizona where she worked as a secretary at a boarding school near Sedona.

[Canadian Socialist]

90. Registered nurse

also got a degree from Yale (on scholarship!) for surgical nursing... three nurses from Canada were given the scholarship - my mum was one of them. Then she joined the Canadian Army and went to Korea (during the war), met my dad (British Army). She always worked outside the home. Usually only took a year after each kid was born, though. Retired at 65 (about 18 years ago). Probably still knows more about medicine than most MDs I know.

[Lisa]

91. RN with local public health authority (n/t)

[gemdem]

92. Secretary for University of Dayton's English Dept.

They still talk about her there. She ran the place until she died in 1985. Nice thing about those occasions when I get back to campus is they have a memorial garden for faculty and student who passed away while at the university. The deceased have their names on the memorial. It's a nice way to connect with Mom.

[Blue_In_AK]

93. My mom was a nurse for many years as I was growing up.

Then she went back to college in her 50's for an education degree and taught kindergarten for 20 years.

[BarenakedLady]

94. Secretary/Homemaker (nt)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

95. Legal secretary

Legal secretary for my dad, who was an attorney. He went to night school on the GI BIll. He was a perfect example of a GI who became middle class and got an education, so we were able to go to college too.

I learned a lot of legal stuff from her. When my older sister was in high school mom started going on strike and letting sister type. Later I typed for dad when I was home from college becuase mom really went on strike.

[QMPMom]

96. Bio-Mom was the bookeeper for the family business. Every time she

quit to be a stay-at-home-mom she would last about three weeks before Dad and Grandpa would beg her to come back to work. She went back every time. She had health and mental issues and eventually she couldn't work any more.

Stepmother was a teacher. She was my teacher in elementary school, actually. Who knew that Mrs. Harris would end up being my Mom!

[Mutley]

98. Secretary at a real estate office.

Now she works for the Zoning Board of the county she lives in.

[NC_Nurse]

99. Desperate housewife.

Great excuse to be a drunk, ya know.

[av8rdave]

100. Registered Nurse...in charge of blood collection for the Red Cross in MD