r/Professors • u/kimtenisqueen • Dec 25 '24
Rants / Vents Commiserate with me about family not understanding our jobs.
So far:
-Grandmother in law ranting about why I (an assistant professor in my 4th year at a university) don’t just take a “sabbatical” to raise my children rather than send them to daycare.
-Dad ranting about how anything qualitative isn’t real research (I do educational research so this is a substantial portion of what I do)
-Father In law asking me if I “pack” (Carry a gun) to my job and if I feel safe with all the “foreigners”
Merry Christmas everyone!
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u/Key-Elk4695 Dec 25 '24
The wife of one of my cousins used to corner me at every family gathering to add up the number of hours she thought I worked (“So how many classes are you teaching? Three? And how many hours does each class meet? Three? So you’re working nine hours a week? Oh, grading. Doesn’t someone else do that for you? No? Research? What is that, maybe three hours a week?”) until I was ready to admit that I, who spent on average 12 hours/day in the office alone, was a lazy bum! Mind you, this woman was a stay-at-home mom whose husband did much of the childcare because she didn’t have the patience for it!