Defined by Your Job?

A job is a significant part of our lives.  It is where we spend most of our waking hours.  It is a place where we meet people and form cooperative relationships.  It is a place where we can be part of a team, working with others for a common purpose.  It is a place where we form friendships and social networks.  It is an opportunity, hopefully, to identify with a respected organization and its contribution to the community.  Many of us define ourselves by our careers.  A job or career is a source of self-esteem, extrinsic and intrinsic reward, and independence.  A job is the most visible and definitive way one take his or her rightful place in the community.

The Complete Guide to Creating 

a Special Needs Life Plan, p 109

by Hal Wright

So much of this assertion is true.

And yet, I find it disturbing that JOB (not family and not what happens at church) is taken for granted as what defines us.  No wonder stay-at-home moms have "no worth" in the eyes of American society.