to have felt humiliated at being referred to as a houseperson

[OrkaLiely]

Went to get a new phone yesterday. The sales assistant was entering my details and asked what my job was. I suppose I'm a SAHM but that wasn't an option so she selected "houseperson". It just didn't sound right I would have preferred housewife to such a weird gender neutral term.

Then I failed the credit check because, despite having no debts or loans, I have no credit history because I've been a houseperson for so long

I will raise DD with yesterday's experience in mind.

I like "home-maker", as in, "look what I did, I made this home!"

HopeFor - assuming you are in a German-speaking country, how do stay-at-home dads describe themselves? Hausherr??

Full time carer sounds perfect to me. Every parent is a full time parent but working parents have to pay a nursery/childminder/nanny to provide care during their working hours.

I am a parent and if I have ever not been working since my first child was born 14 years ago, I would have considered myself unemployed, not a 'houseperson'.

Mind you, I was a single parent (first time around) and the rules are different for us, of course.

I agree that unemployed tends to imply seeking work in a way that 'not employed' does not. I'm sure there used to be a category like "not active in the jobs market" as well. There need to be more options!
After all children and retired people wouldn't describe themselves as unemployed

Apologies haven't read all the posts, but my DH is the SAHD and he made up his title to be "Domestic Technician", occasionally he promotes himself to "Executive Domestic Technician" if he's done something really special that day :)

He puts that title on everything - pretty sure our marriage cert has that title for him!

Companies should have a box for "not employed" and one for "unemployed" as they are clearly totally different and have totally different meanings.......

'After all children and retired people wouldn't describe themselves as unemployed'
Great point Stealth.

I usually tick 'looking after home and family' which has cropped up on alot of forms lately.

Children wouldn't be aplying for credit though, And pensioners (like students and people on benefits) have their own income.

In the OPs case though she did have an income but the question asked about her employment status / occupation instead.