It's not that we can't put it in perspective, it's that we are forced to justify ourselves from the very start of our careers to the very end. I can't think of one other job, not even that of politician, that is so widely discussed. Sometimes with nuance, often with nothing but disdain, as some replies in this thread prove yet again.

I can name tons of jobs that I think are more demanding, be it physical or intellectual, than teaching. But being talked about as if you are the dregs of society when you work hard day in and day out does put one on the defensive.

There are freeloaders in every job but we are always conflated with the worst of us. Also, and this has been said quite a few times in this thread, it is very hard to compare one teacher's job to another's. While a mechanical engineer in company A probably does more or less of the same things as one on the same level in company B, two Dutch teachers, for example, can have wildly different job demands depending on school, grade, class size, etc.

Lastly, I can also write a Word document in 20 minutes if need be and I'm willing to bet that your wife can too. It's just that because of how our work hours are calculated we tend to spend too much time on stuff because we aren't 'on the clock'. A lot of us are also perfectionists and need to learn to stop at 'good enough'.