not allowed to parent

We had a bit of a drama getting Monkey 4's birth certificate organised (paperwork is not the forte of our homebirth midwife...), but one of the complications involved my occupation.

For the last 8 years I have pretty much full time parented our kids (with the love of my life). I haven't had much paid employment since we started breeding. So when the ACT office of Births Deaths and Marriages asked about mother's occupation for Monkey 4's birth cert, I put Parent.

Turns out that Parent is not a valid occupation. I could be Homemaker, or Housewife, but not Parent.

WHAT IS WITH THAT??? Admittedly Parenting does not have very good (or any) superannuation, or health insurance, or workplace benefits. I do not get an hour paid lunchbreak on the days I work. I don't have to wear special clothes, apart from ones that don't show the puke or the snot stains. And I don't do housework (any more than is necessary). So I can't be a Homemaker. Geez.

So in the end I relied on the qualification that I will likely never earn enough to have to pay for, and put Teacher. I could have done a Smarty Pants effort and put in all of the occupations that are listed in that email that goes around every now and again that say how a mother is really about a thousand things at once, but really, I wanted to be a Parent.

I love being a Parent. It is the hardest and the bestest thing I have ever done in my life. It is intense, and all incompassing, and boring and exhilerating and difficult and heart wrenching and wonderful, all at once. It is a fecking hard job, and possibly the most important job on the planet. And I am proud to do it.

Just pissed off that the goverment won't let me be Only a Parent.