To ask your views :- Is being a mum a job.

[ICanSeeTheSun]

I can not decide if being a mum is a job.

I do see this a lot on Facebook, under employment is full time mummy.

Aibu to think if a mum is a job I want my employment rights, such as 21 day holiday.

I would say that it is a responsibility rather than a job.

Being a mum isn't necessarily a job, although it is utter crap to pretend that going through labour and pregnancy is not a huge effort, and not something 'just anyone' can (in fact that is very offensive to people who struggle to get pregnant) or will do (for example, I know of almost no men who have done this...)- being a full time carer, whether for young children or adults, is a job, and it is the job that some parents (usually mothers) do often without being paid, exactly the same as childminding or nursery teaching being work.

At the moment I am in maternity leave but considering staying at home permanently.

I wouldn't call it a job. In my previous life I had a job, now I potter about.

It's not a job IMO but it is perfectly reasonable in a box titled "employment" to write "full-time mother" "stay-at-home parent" or "full-time student" because if you were to put "unemployed" people would assume you were a job-seeker.

Not sure if it is a job. But if you are a full time mother you wouldn't put unemployed on your fb staus. It is more of a vocation or shall we say a "calling."
Whatever it is it is the best thing ever. Coming to the end of my mat leave and have had a blast so far. I am surprised how tempting being a stay-at-home-mother is to me. If I wasn't lucky enough to have a job that allows me to work nice hours, part time I would not be as upset to give up my career as I thought I would have been.
I am in a little first born, mat leave bubble at the moment though. Feel sad it is ending. I don't think I will ever have it this cushy again.

It's hard work.

Not a job in the sense that everyone would categorise it as such.

A job would dictate payment.

Although.... Child benefit enables you to claim a pension, so the government must deem it a job.

Being a mum isn't a job. But childcare is work.

You don't outsource being a mum, although it may be outsourced for you if you're lousy at it, but you can outsource childcare.

I get paid for being a parent (my son is disabled and I'm his carer, I get about 35p an hour) but no even then I don't see it as a job.

Is it balls a job.

In relation to this, someone on my FB describes her work as "full time carer".

She has four children, one of whom is autistic.

It doesn't sit right with me that she should single out looking after one of her children as a job just because he has additional needs. Surely she should be "caring" for all of them.

It's a lifestyle choice not paid employment

For some people it is a job and to others it isn't.
I don't think there is a definite yes or no to the question.

For me running the household, looking after the family, educating dd etc is my job.
My dh woh, wah and helps with the running of the household too.
But ultimately it is my responsibility, my roles, just the same as any job.

Just sounds like people trying to make something fit to complete a Facebook profile. The phrase full time mummy is too twee for me but each to their own. They're making an attempt to describe what they spend much of a 9 to 5 weekday doing, whilst others are in paid employment. Using the field FB have provided.

I spend the majority of my days stuck in an office, having a contract and being paid. Of course I'm still a full time parent, so is my dp. Still, if someone describes themselves as a full time mummy, I go ahhh SAHM.

It doesn't feel like a job. It does sometimes feel like a penance

It is a role. An important role. But it is not a job. Like being a royal is not a job, or a wife.

How many times do I have to say this?

To me a job is for money to be honest, and I really don't believe the majority of people have children for the money! I go to work, then come home and relax and have family time. I don't come home to 'my other job'. Mind you, I guess I don't actually have a job either, as someone above said students don't have a job, and I am a full time student - however I do lots of work placement which I count as a job :-/ Complicated, isn't it! I guess it is open to perception, like most things!

The person who mentioned childcare being a job made a fair point I think. My mum does childcare for us, but she isn't taking on the job of mum.

poster Montegomongoose I am and adoptive mother and I can painfully tell you any idiot can't be a mother any idiot can give birth body and fertility allowing but being a good mother is a skill not every one has.

Boffin

Dunno. How many times do you reckon you can manage?

It's often work but I wouldn't say it's a 'job'. A job is something you do to make ends meet - mothering definitely stretches those ends apart just that bit further :)

To the poster who say child benefits pay for your NI years. But so does being a student. But a university student would not think of being a student as a job. She might however get a part time job in the pub.

And as for putting SAHM for employment status. Of course that is valid. It is the same as student or retired. You are not unemployed. That is for people actively looking for work.

And child benefits stop at 15. You don't stop being a mum just because all your children turn 15!

No, it's a relationship and a responsibility, and of course it can be hard work, but it isn't a job, nor is it anything like one.

I was a SAHM but it wasn't a job.