When people ask you.....

I am the wife of a wonderful firefighter!!! I wouldn't have it any other way. Since becoming his wife I have learned a lot about this profession and all that it entails. I have also learned a lot about the communities response to our families and how they react to firefighters as their friends and how people try to adjust to their schedules and such. Often times people will ask my husband, "So how's the fire fightin' thing goin'?" as if it's his hobby or something. This totally irritates him as it does other firefighters when asked this question. If the person would just reword what they were asking then it'd be okay. No one asks doctors, "So how's that doctor thing going?". No one asks power company employees, "So how's the power thing going?". No one asks lawyers, "So how's that lawyer thing going?". No one normally refers to a persons career as a "thing". It makes firefighters feel that people just don't take it seriously. They feel that people just think that they are going to quit the career they've worked so hard to get just because the "thing" isn't going so well. Well news flash everyone....firefighting is dangerous and there are days that it's not so great but it is a CAREER choice!!!!! It's not a "thing" so please don't refer to it as that or ask how that "thing" is going. Instead you should simply ask how's work if you feel the need to ask. That is a very loaded question though so be careful of that one. You may not really want to know that he may have ran a call the day before where a little girl was run over by her father in their driveway and died, or a motor veichle accident where a teenager was killed and wrapped around a tree so badly that you can't tell who they are, or a house fire where everyone but the youngest baby died and the house is destroyed. If you just want to know if they are still in the saving lives business simply ask him, "Hey are you still a firefighter saving lives?". Trust me when I say that this is the best approach when asking a firefighter about their career.