Thanks Bath, must check that book out as it sounds like it might be right up my ally of interest

Also i wanted to add Bath my reaction would have been VERY similar to yours today with the receptionist. After my having a career & obviously been amongst the workforce ' world ' until i was 40 to give birth to DD and even though i have a little business on the Net now that's not the same satisfaction as being in the workforce. I too am a SAHM ... i am treated on an extreme level of difference that it actually still shocks me, even more shocking family & friends that knew me for so darn long as a busy don't have too time for everyone am i allowed to call my previous self a ' workforce gal ', they too treat me very differently. Strange though as i still feel i have maybe not the same buzz but that buzz is still there about me. Motherhood hasn't always felt like a natural process for me so therefore i do alot of the time feel like each of my feet are planted into two different working worlds, given that i am no longer in one of the worlds for now. Maybe because i was in the workforce for so long (??) i feel this way, kind of like that workforce buzz is still attaching itself to me cause it was PART of me for so long & i do not all the time but at times do miss it, i truely don't know. I ' think ' i'm not like most Mothers i meet, maybe i could be wrong ... but i don't mind as it makes me who i am today. Bath as far as frustration goes i'm right up there with you. I have found as i get older i walk away from rudely mannered people as i spent too much energy and time in the past on those sorts of people ... and got nowhere with it, and to top it off walk away angry. So now i walk away and ' allow ' myself to feel p@ssed off for a little while as it's natural to get it out of one's system and then find something wonderful in my day after the incident and then bring on my sense of humour and try very hard to have a giggle if not a smirk about it ... and then get on with my day Not an easy task BUT i guess i could say i HAVE had lots of practise, LOL ... NO room for debates in my life ... Just GETS my blood pressure rising and i'd rather have some inner peace instead, LIFE certainly is far too short for my liking. I deal with ' things' in a manner that suits me maybe NOT others BUT having said that it doesn't make me a weak character but a rather a very STRONG one. I SPEAK UP when need be & it can be done in a kind and gentle manner without being ill mannered to others ... if i did it would go against the grain of whom i feel proud to be.

Bath, i just wanted YOU to know i DO get where you are coming from ... and stay true to who you are & never be anyone else less WONDERFUL ...
( A smile for you lovely lady from me)

(Wow, how some of this ties in with a bit of your thread ... Emotions !!!)