I can say that retail is not an ideal career for an autistic person, unless they have an extremely understanding employer. Okay, if they do night-fill and night-fill only, fair enough, but continually being interrupted, and abusive customers, can be annoying. Not to mention a parent drags a reluctant and tired child in and that child screams.

I remember reading a story about a First Nations guy in the USA, who went to work for a man who had a market stall and this man, on the First Nations Guy's first day, asked him what he'd made and when he showed him one special ring, the man threw it into the cabinet and said, "Is that all?" He had no appreciation of skilled and detailed craftsmanship.

I have always believed that a woman should not stay home and look after the kids because she has to, she should stay home and look after the kids because she wants to. And if she goes out to work and her husband stays at home, well, there's nothing wrong with that, either.

What needs to remembered with seniors is, there is a perception that retirement is a long holiday, but in a 1960s 65 year old's day, you retired at 65, collected the pension and were expected to live around 5 years. My maternal and paternal grandfathers lived for 20 years post retirement. My father used to work for Mayne Nickless, when it was a transport company, and many a time, a woman would ring in after her 66 year old husband, who had retired after 50 years as a truck driver, and Dad would answer the phone, and say, "How is he?" and his wife would reply, "He died last night." After 50 years of being active, despite a poorer diet and perhaps combined with smoking, he would then wake up in the morning, have bacon and eggs and toast for breakfast, walk across to the shop and buy a paper and sit on the porch reading it, while puffing away at his pipe, have a chunky sandwich for lunch, and in the evening, have sausages, chips and other food for dinner and gain weight.

Meaningful employment is important, but it should mean what it does to the individual.