Friday, July 1, 2005
Forgot to mention, I struck a blow for Caregivers, this morning.
Our Interim U. S. Census Questionnaire this year called the The American Community Survey arrived yesterday. I set myself to filling it out and getting it in the mail this morning. For "Person 1" I reported my mother as retired and her retirement income; I also reported her, in response to the questions about "long-lasting conditions" and "difficulty doing the following activities" as "Yes" across the board. For "Person 2", me, I reported that I worked full time, 100+ hours a week, in the home, with no compensation. I listed my "business or industry", and "kind of work" as "Caregiving" and "Caregiving". As far as "most important [job related] activities" I listed: "Taking care of mother".
I encourage all caregivers, full or part time, paid or uncompensated, to assert their true relationship to their care recipients in whatever way they can in this interim census. This is probably the single most important act of citizen political participation you can perform as a caregiver in a country who needs to recognize the work and the contribution of this class of people. Yes. Class. That's what we are right now, hanging precariously between income brackets, performing our most important duties to society for little or no compensation. If we are going to get any recognition from the government we need to show up in the census, people.
To encourage you to do all you can to represent yourself, your care recipient and your duties, here is how I managed to represent myself on the questionnaire (it took a couple of well-considered answer juggles to accomplish this):
Both: I represented both of us as living in the same residence, since we do.
Mother: I represented her as retired, represented her retirement income and was honest about her disabilities in section F, page 13 and 14.
Me: I represented myself in section H, page 11, question 23, as "x-Yes", doing work for either pay or profit. My reasoning was that the question goes on to explain that "Yes" should be x-ed "even if the person worked only 1 hour, or helped without pay in a family business or farm for 15 hours or more..." I reasoned I was an unpaid employee for a family business. In question 25 I represented myself as "x-Worked at home". I skipped to section J, page 12, question 33, and said I'd worked 52 weeks in the past 12 months. For question 34 I responded that I'd worked 100+ hours per week. Since I'm on call 24/7 I actually consider that I work 24/7 but I wanted to make a different point: That unpaid caregivers should be respected from the point of view of the professional sphere. On question 35, section K, page 12, I answered that I was "working WITHOUT PAY in family business or farm". I listed my "Mother: Name" as my employer in question 36. Questions 37's response was "Caregiving"; question 38: "x-other"; question 39: "Caregiving"; question 40: "Taking care of mother". For questions 41 - 42 I reported no income.
I figure that if caregivers answer the questions this way a pattern will emerge that will be noticed by someone, since the caregiver demographic is the largest section of the population right now.
I encourage all caregivers, full or part time, paid or uncompensated, to assert their true relationship to their care recipients in whatever way they can in this interim census. This is probably the single most important act of citizen political participation you can perform as a caregiver in a country who needs to recognize the work and the contribution of this class of people. Yes. Class. That's what we are right now, hanging precariously between income brackets, performing our most important duties to society for little or no compensation. If we are going to get any recognition from the government we need to show up in the census, people.
To encourage you to do all you can to represent yourself, your care recipient and your duties, here is how I managed to represent myself on the questionnaire (it took a couple of well-considered answer juggles to accomplish this):
Both: I represented both of us as living in the same residence, since we do.
Mother: I represented her as retired, represented her retirement income and was honest about her disabilities in section F, page 13 and 14.
Me: I represented myself in section H, page 11, question 23, as "x-Yes", doing work for either pay or profit. My reasoning was that the question goes on to explain that "Yes" should be x-ed "even if the person worked only 1 hour, or helped without pay in a family business or farm for 15 hours or more..." I reasoned I was an unpaid employee for a family business. In question 25 I represented myself as "x-Worked at home". I skipped to section J, page 12, question 33, and said I'd worked 52 weeks in the past 12 months. For question 34 I responded that I'd worked 100+ hours per week. Since I'm on call 24/7 I actually consider that I work 24/7 but I wanted to make a different point: That unpaid caregivers should be respected from the point of view of the professional sphere. On question 35, section K, page 12, I answered that I was "working WITHOUT PAY in family business or farm". I listed my "Mother: Name" as my employer in question 36. Questions 37's response was "Caregiving"; question 38: "x-other"; question 39: "Caregiving"; question 40: "Taking care of mother". For questions 41 - 42 I reported no income.
I figure that if caregivers answer the questions this way a pattern will emerge that will be noticed by someone, since the caregiver demographic is the largest section of the population right now.
