Thanks for the comment. "What do you do for a living?" is a question my wife dreads. She doesn't fit in a traditional "stay at home mom" (we don't have kids), nor does she have a job. She then has to figure out a way that is socially acceptable to justify what she does at the moment (art and self-education / self-improvement).

This reminds me of the valuable reminder I got while studying to be a math teacher: many students don't have a mother or a father - so telling kids "have your mom sign this paper" would be insensitive. Similarly, assuming a person you're talking to has a partner of an opposite sex isn't very sensitive.

I'm glad for this whole HN discussion!