Question about your (life) partner 1

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Ok, here's a few questions I'm interested in hearing the answers to.

How many of you have husbands, wives, girlfirends or boyfriends that are engineers or have technical or scientific jobs?

Would you prefer to marry (or date) someone with a technical / science background or would you prefer someone who works in an entirely different field?

I'll hold off on answering for myself until a few others reply.

 

[0707]

Jmw

I hope your arm is ok. Happily you got married with an ex-nurse and she quickly detect you had a broken arm without losing control. Maybe if your wife was an assurance engineer, first she will take note of the occurrence, she will see if the laptop was damaged, measure the distance from your car to the back door, than after looking to your swelled arm she gets nervous and starts arguing with you saying why do you had slide in the ice? Trough the iceberg analysis she elaborates in the computer a detailed report of the occurrence. Three hours later, after get dressed putting a red lips stick and the make-up on, she finally drives you to the hospital to treat your hurt arm.

Cheers

 

[tgeorge]

Newly married a school teacher. Cant imagine it any other way. I had no idea that teachers and nurses were the two options provided for engineers.

 

[fribby]

My wife is a full time mum now (a much harder job than mine) and has nothing to do with engineering. She is however very good on common sense stuff, which I find a lot of engineers generally aren't (no offense, I'm including myself there).

Sometimes if I have a technical problem by involving her as a completely non-technical viewpoint she has come up with some very useful insights/solutions, that I was too involved in the problem to see clearly. Plus she stops me talking like an engineer because it annoys the hell out of her, particularly excessive use of acronyms.

Never assume anyone knows what the hell you are talking about.

 

[jmw]

0707,
my wifes response was amusing(more so after the event, i must confess) but my companies less so.

At the hospital, I was X-rayed and then, because they fractures were not displaced, simply plastered (plaster of paris style, not the Scotty style).

Feeling rather self-indulgent I took the rest of the day off.

When I got to work the next day (by train, the car insurance is as invalid as you are!) to discover the boss had been doing research among other arm-breakers to find out the average time of work.

I suspect he was disappointed to discover others took a week or two off - (but for displaced and quite srious fractures). I seriously considered getting a sick note and going awol but since I was due in Canada the following week (more snow and ice in Alberta) I kept going.
I also put in an expenses claim for train fares and made them pay it.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[Fenrisulfr]

I'm an IE and my fiancé is a Sociology major, which I've found to be a relatively common combination (not as much as engineer/nurse); I think it works out pretty well for us because it often gives us something fresh and interesting to discuss. She could really care less about Operations Research and Systems Simulation, which is fine because if I brought it home I doubt there would be much room for anything else.

I don't think someone should let the profession itself determine whether you "click". However, I am not so naive to believe that the way a person thinks and their profession are mutually exclusive. The differences in the way we think are apparent: I extensively plan everything under the Sun, while she plans only after extensive water board torture... usually for revenge.

 

[plasgears]

This is an extension to the thread, but it is worth pursuing.

Keep your daughters away from young airline pilots, even if you have to physically restrain them. My daughter married one, who used her as a cash cow. She earns six figures, and the bastard milked her for a lot of money. All he brought to the marriage was debt and unlimited tastes in spending. The last toy he demanded was a Lamborghini. They are now divorced.

In a different time and place the judge would have been told, "He needed killing" and the judge would have understood.

 

[HVACctrl]

I'l keep that in mind. My daughter is 3. BTW, what does your daughter do?

Ed

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[HVACctrl]

Also, wasn't the pilot making his own six figures? I woudl think so, but maybe I'm wrong.

Ed

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[ilovechickens]

Hi BK11

It is possible to have kids and still work as an engineer although professional priorities just change a little (site work, overtime, travel etc). I am a female engineer married to an engineer, we have 2 young kids (both under 5) and I still work as an engineer. For both kids I took 12 weeks off work then went back to my job full time. I have no extended family living near me to help out when they can which would be nice (but in the end they are my kids and my responsibility). Both kids are in daycare (costs a bomb). In the end I love my job and luckily I have a very supportive husband and employer. Take one of these three out of the equation and it would be much more difficult. Life is mad but at the moment I wouldn't have it any other way (unless I won lotto).

 

[HVACctrl]

turbokiwi,
I feel your pain. My wife and I have 3 kids ages 3 and under. She owns a magazine publisher and I am an ME. We are going absolutely crazy at the moment. I am actually not very happy in what I am doing at the moment. I think that things will be a little nicer when I finally find more rewarding work. It certainly doesn't help seeing the flexibility and the income that my wife, her business partner and their employees have. I'm glad my wife is doing well and proud of her, but man, we engineers go through some serious stuff for such little bit of reward in comparison.

Ed

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[caluna]

My partner is a freelance photographer and writer and I am a mechanical engineer. We do not have children, but have a dog, who appreciates the fact sometimes there is company at home during the daytime! Despite being artistic, my boyfriend is much more practical than I am regarding machinery. Lucky my job involves building services not fixing engines! It all works out pretty well.

 

[plasgears]

HVACctl,

The pilot was on furlough until recently. He was harboring his next girl in the house even when we were visiting our daughter as house guests. (Fly United sparingly. They returned my mail unopened.)

"Judge, he needed killing."

 

[Cachuca]

I am a Mech. Engineer. My wife is in the healthcare field. I married her because I love her and obvioulsy not because of her profession. However, working on health care buildings design myself, it is interesting to talk to her about medical gases systems, emergency power, etc. There are things i have learned about healthcare buildings not directly because of my job, but because of our conversations. If we would be both engineers, I think it would not be as fun.

My 2 cents!

 

[EngineerDave]

I remember being in engineering school and lamenting the fact there was so few women in engineering and I had to study all the time.

I used to think marrying an engineer would be a problem so I avoided them. I dated party girls all the time, what a headache.

Now single at 33 but basically engaged (girlfriend lives with me, haven't bought a ring yet), my girlfriend is going into nursing.

I probably should have dated better girlfriends (i.e. not the party girl) before, but I had fun!

 

[ubrben]

Parents are teachers, girlfriend is training to be one having been in the admin side of an engineering company I worked in.

I didn't even live with any fellow engineering students whilst at Uni; English, Music, Classics, Law, Russian Studies, anything not to have to talk about engineering outside of work. I think I extended this into my relationship.

Ben

 

[JohnNabors]

My hunny is an artist and a leathercrafter but we both find the other's work interesting. She likes to listen to me talk about the projects I am working on and I can spend hours sitting with her as she paints a picture or makes a jacket or whatever (and she actually welcomes suggestions!). I've always felt that two people in a relationship should either be very similar or polar opposites.

John Nabors

'Heaven is the place where the police are British, the chefs are Italian, the mechanics are German, the poets are French, and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is the place where the police are German, the chefs are British, the mechanics are French, the poets are Swiss and it is all organized by the Italians.'

 

[tokki]

My live-in boyfriend is in ME and I'm in CE. Just the other day while hanging our christmas ornaments, I said that I was worried if the ribbons can't handle the heavy ornaments. He said to me: "Com'on you're an engineer! You know that can't fail so stop worrying stupid." Yea, moments like that would not have been possible if I wasn't also an engineer...

 

[wjsd]

As a male in engineering I have not run in to many, if *any*, technical type women I would be interested in. My last GF was in sales and we made a pretty good couple as we were opposites in many ways. Like the government you should pick as nice liberal minded girl to balance out your conservativeness.

 

[MissouriPE]

WJSD - you probably weren't hanging out with the right women then. I've met tons of ladies across the nation that you would be super lucky to hang out with that are all engineers. Definitely all sorts of personalities - surely one that would attract you. But to each their own.

I'm a woman, married 12 years (together 16) to a man that couldn't do algebra for his life. The last 5 years he's been an electrician. He has a degree in Animal Science (non-prevet), but ag didn't pay. But he understands my passion for my field and has always been pretty supportive.

I'll add a note to some comments above that throwing children into the equation makes life a bit insane with a two career family, but we manage and the kids seem to be good too - although a teensy part of me looks forward to them being a little older and more self-reliant (they are 2 and 5).

Been attracted to a few engineer types over the years, but overall am happy with where my love life went early on. Probably be a little wierd being more in competition with my dh.

 

[swivel63]

i dated an electrical engineer. cool, i guess.