Do you fill in your little one's race on questionnaires/application forms etc.?

[toky]

If so what do you put if there's no 'mixed race' tick box?

I had to do this for the first time at the library and left the whole thing blank. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown talks in 'Mixed Feelings' about the danger of census statistics being used by the media etc for racist purposes - scaremongering about the white race 'dying out', mixed races taking over the country, etc, so I'm very hesitant about declaring ourselves. On the other hand I'm sure it's useful for organisations to monitor their equality policies etc. - maybe they just need to update their forms a bit?

I tick all the boxes which could remotely apply - white, asian, mixed race, etc - with a long explanation. Do this for me too.

I always wonder why there are any boxes at all - if we all want to be treated the same surely it shouldn't matter.

I think it can be important for planning services and monitoring how well public bodies are meeting communities' needs. I've worked in the past in predominantly white areas where the general feeling was 'we don't have ethnic minorities living here' and this kind of data has proved very useful in pushing the case for better provisiion.

Not bothered about filling it in for commercial purposes, though.

Relatively useful in jobs as well - makes you look at where you're advertising in terms of reach. If you're not getting one ethnic minority application from a job ad, why not? Is it because you're indirectly excluding because of lazy media placement? (Depending on job, obviously.)

The categories definitely need to be updated though - white is a colour, not an ethnic group, and I am always irritated by it. Also, they ask about gender, but not about whether you have children or not, which is a far greater divide in terms of equal opportunites and use of services.

As yet have not needed to tick a box for dd, not sure what I will do, will probably tick other and not put an explanation

It really annoys me to have to tick 'OTHER' she isn't from Mars FFS

Agree about 'other' - ugh

Dh refuses to fill out the boxes for our ds's. I just write black/white mixed british. It doesn't bother me in the slightest and I'm black but dh gets really wound up by it and he just doesn't put anything. "Does it matter where we are from what business is it of theres" is his usual response.

I hate these things, I never know what to put, especially as some seem to be a lot more detailed than others. I mean, me and Dh are both British. However, I'm ethnically English but DH is Cypriot, so Dkids are 'mixed' and I tend to put them under 'other', but I suppose some people would just say they were white?!

I usually write an explanation as there's rarely a box that describes ds, who's a product of a white British person (me) and a British Indian person (ex dh). Irritating isn't it?

in NZ it is often important for funding and to check that organisations are meeting their Treaty of Waitangi obligations. For ds I tick both nzeuropean/pakeha and other european. You can always tick multiple boxes because Maori may be affiliated with more than one iwi (tribe).

I put other and then mixed ethnicity scottish/hispanic if there is a box to do so

My partner always refuses to fill in this part of the form. We are white by the way , but having this question (from our point of view) makes an issue out of something which never was in our house. We are people ,and so is every other colour, creed , religeon in our book. I am also struggling as a childminder, because i have to get lots of multicultural books, toys etc, which i dont mind,and in fact, have done, but in our small town , the charity shops do not have ethnic dollies, and i feel i will be seen as racist by Ofsted if i dont have any. To buy new the dolls are £20 and i dont just want a token multiracial, ethnic, asian dolly, i want them all, and all disabled dollies etc., to make any kid who turns up feel included. Having said that we have lots of wallhangings with Jewish symbols, lots of african musical instruments, a Buddha in front of the fireplace and loads of other niknaks from all over the place. From your point of view,( all ethnic or multi racial families,) would you want me to care for your children? Or is my thinking totally wrong?By the way ,i would also be willing to adhere to any religeous festivals, diets etc,if parents wished. Why has it got so complicated? Surely it should be, 'I am a mum and this is how i would like my child cared for.'Maybe i am wrong, but the more we go on about difference the harder it will be to see all humans as having the same goals and fears and desires.

I won't fill those in, it is none of their business.

Agree with Hester and Caligua.

I can see if one looks at it from a personal point of view, one could feel very stubborn about it, saying "its none of their business", but when it comes to looking at how successful a service is in meeting the needs of an entire community, or as Hester says when needing figures to prove your request for funds and services, ethnicity monitoring becomes extremely important.
For this reason, every professional i speak to in my working life, i dig my heel in and try to sew the see of thought that monitoring forms NEED TO CHANGE. I meet regularly with Management within my local authority - directors of NHS dept's and Social Services. But have yet to come accross one that agrees with me that we have come to the time where we need to make changes. They all nod in agreement, smile sympathetically and say " i understand what you are saying, but this is the way monitoring is carried out nationally and so we can't change it"
I won't give up until someone agrees with me . perhaps if we all do they same at every opportunity it will have results!

I am the parent of a child who doesn't fit into any box povided yet, except 'other'. I am also director of an organisation funded partly through public money - and we have made a big stand against tick-box monitoring, having found that our visitors are particularly alienated by this, where our aim is to be succesfully inclusive (which we are!) We will only agree to do monitoring where people can self-define - i.e we ask people 'how would you define your racial national or cultural identity?'.

I am not prepared to ask people to classify themselves as 'other'!

I'm the parent of 'other' children too. I have always felt strongly that we should complete the form because it is vital that organisations are able to monitor whether or not they are reaching everyone they should be reaching. We are only what we choose to describe ourselves as and if a mixed race child is described as white British or black British that is just a representation of what they are feeling on that particular day.

I like my children being 'other' I think it shows that there are so many umpteenbillions different mixtures and sorts of people that we can't be boxed. In fact, if you investigated the gene pool of anyone who ticked any of the non-mixed boxes you'd find that everybody is an other. We are all a mixture of one sort or another. Be proud to be other!

We are always bemused by this. DH and I are white British. Racially DD1 is Vietnamese and DD2 is Cambodian, but culturally they are British although social workers and adoption professionals would argue that their 'cultural heritage' is Vietnamese and Cambodian. And I have no idea how you would describe them ethnically?

Blu, interesting to hear.

How do you get away with it though if you are a funded organisation?

Hattie - not sure yet - look out for the 'I've been sacked' thread under legal in a year's time!

No, seriously, since as a funded organisation we have also been required to do a Cultural Diversity ActionPlan - and implement it - we did the research, said people don't like tick-box monitoring, and no-one can complain, because it is in our CD Action Plan!! Also, we list all the self-definitions - so I expect in the end someone in the system squashes them into the narrowly defined CRE definition boxes.

We are also being a bit militant and saying 'this shouldn't all be about paper monitoring - it's about the range and quality of services we have on offer...why not come and visit?' - and next year, instead of data, we are sending photographs taken twice a week when the public are in the building. But this is not a smart arse attempt to slide out of any equal opps agenda - we are ecognised as a 'sector leader' in promoting diversity, and embarrassingly, have won an award for it!

As you say - "system squashes them into the narrowly defined CRE definition boxes"

Thats exactly what i face each time i try to contest it and i have given up hope of making any kind of change.

We're not a multicultural family, but I never feel comfortable with declaring ethnic origin for myself or dses. Don't really see the need to know, to be honest, and only declare if I feel if it's going to be of "good" use, if that makes sense.

I always tick the boxes for all of us - thankfully in the last few years since DS2 was born there seems to be a box for "white and black african" (or something along those lines) - but when DS1 was born he was 'other'.

I feel we're at risk in this country of going OTT in the "everyone is the same" (ie PC) camp. I WANT my children to be proud of their ethnic background, I don't want to sweep it under the carpet as being 'irrelevant' or 'none of anyone's business'. IYKWIM