what do you call yourself when you are a stay-at-home Mum?

[Turtle35]

when filling out applications etc what do you say your occupation is? Slave? Housewife? I never know what to put down.

I would not tick the box saying unemployed - I would alter the form, 'cos I'm picky like that ! .

You are right GDG.

It's just statements like 'it's harder than a full time job annoy me'

Really? TRy telling that to a full time nurse/police woman/solicitor/shelf stacker, anything....

Thanks NDP for agreeing with me. I'm not belittling SAHM's in anyway, shape or form. Just don't make statements like 'what I do is harder work than what you do.'

GDG most of the threads on MN could be covered by your comment 'FGS does it really matter...'

I'm a SAHM and I'm very lazy and not afraid to admit it Thats why my house is a tip, my kids are watching TV and I'm on here

interior designer

homemaker or put mother

I work more at home than when I went out to work!

Sorry, didn't mean to sound harsh - but say it's for a passport or something, does it really matter? Why get so het up about it? Do you really care what the person at the other end thinks of you if you put 'unemployed' - you don't know them, they don't know you - chill!

If it's for a job application then slightly different ball game.

Btw, I'm not sure either SAH or WOH is harder than the other - both hard in different ways and no point arguing cos both also depend on number of children, age of children, issues with children, degree of/lack of support......I could go on. And anyway, I work harder than both of those cos I do both

I wouldn't change the form or make a big deal out of it on a job application form TBH. The prospective employer may well not look positively on it, and you don't really want to come across as picky, etc to then surely?

I think it does matter, actually. I would put 'full-time childcare', as that is what you have been delivering. And as you say, if you weren't doing it you'd be paying someone else to do it, so it is the equivalent of waged work.

I wouldn't want to work for them then ! Having designed app forms myself and also having had to read the bloody things, I would appreciate it if someone altered it...but that's just me...

but isn't that misleading?

if I was an employer and got an application form that stated someone was employed full time in child care I would be pretty surprised when it turneed out they were actually a SAHM,

and the fact that they had lied to make it sound better would really put me off

I'd say self-employed or freelance. or, if it's not relevant to the form's purpose, would put "not relevant"

MI - why does it matter? I am really interested t know as I don't think it does - hence my flippant descriptionds of myself.

Whatever you say, the recipient will draw his/her own conclusions anyway

or, if it's a job application, I might put "career break".

Just leave it blank if really an issue for you. The employer will figure out that you are not in paid, or out of the house, employment from the rest of the form anyway.

It's not 'lying to make it sound better' - it's a question of accuracy, because the OP has actually been working, full-time, in an unpaid caring role. And the way I was thinking of wording it would be 'working at home, looking after my children full-time'.I'd opt actually for taking Fennel's suggestions, though.

exactly iota - if I read a form where someone had put unemployed, I would start wondering why they were out of a job etc - if they had speicified that they were a full time parent, I would then know. The more info you have on a person, the better imo.

Definition of occupation on the Web:

* the principal activity in your life that you do to earn money

It matters, IMO, because childcare is work whether you're doing it for your own kids or for someone else's (and therefore getting paid for it). As other sorts of caring work are work.

I pay someone else to look after my younger daughter four days a week because I have a paid job.

well you don't look after your children to earn money do you? so it isn't an occupation

I think we need to know what the application form is for to work out whether it really matters or not. Like SL said, I think you need to be honest on an employment one.

I thought this was just a tick box type thing? So no where to add the text to explain what you mean. Use the box at the end - the supporting statement or whatever - to explain how you have spent your time and how that related to the work you are applying for.

This is presuming it is a job app!

I don't agree with that definition. It is what she has been doing full-time, paid by an employer or not!

GDG - agree - I don't think I'd put Lady who lunches on a job application or retired for that matter.

Would probably go with full-time parent

agree MI