Census has a tick box for carers of the elderly & disabled but no box for parents!!

[candleshoe]

Surely caring for a child full or part time should be acknowledged on the census form. Why are carers of the ill and old the only carers that are valid?
Now on my form I look like a part-time layabout! And my DH looks like a 58hours a week working superman!!!

GGGRRRRR!

The most interesting statistics to record would be the changing division of labour in modern families. Although I suspect that women have disappeared on census forms since the census began.

really - thanks. So if a child was tutored p/t for a few hours a week would that count as f/t education? It would be useful surely to get more info on this I would have thought rather than throw everyone into the same category.

Shameless bumping

Candleshoe I sympathise with your annoyance that census data gatherers are assuming any parent without obvious employment (could be a bloke - who going by the other thread on person 1, would be filling in the form but putting himself as person 2!), will be undertaking F/T childcare. Presumably whether you spend a bit of time caring for elderly needs to be measured to see what family resources are being drawn on for older relatives, and what numbers of people may need some support with this in the future. This is a top demographic issue, as people live for longer and need much more support in the home. They seem to be measuring different levels of care for the elderly so they can say what proportion of the population in which areas are putting in light or heavy hours caring for older/disabled relatives, often in an unpaid capacity. And shall we all have a guess what gender those carers are likely to be? So this data could be useful to us feminist activists.

I ticked 1 - 19 (?) hours, as although we live some distance away from DP's parents, we often have to rush up there in emergencies and I am often on the phone trying to sort out things for them. I was quite pleased to be able to put that in.

Is the form different in England on this point then?

My form (Scotland) had a tick box for "Caring for home or family" as an option for those not in paid work - DH ticked it. And there are questions about whether you are currently looking for work or not, presumably to differentiate presumably between SAHPs and those who are out of work not through choice.

Carers of the ill and elderly are clearly in a different position and there absolutely should be a separate question on the form for that.

Only needed one 'presumably' there, really

Scotland is clearly more sensible than England then. The lack of a tick box for caring for home/family annoyed me too.