The government has been repeatedly sending me a copy of the US Census for the past few months. No, the reason I haven't sent it back is NOT because I didn't receive the 7 prior copies that you sent me. So they started calling me. They got ahold of me last night on the phone, and I had to reluctantly answer their questions. I figured soon, someone would show up on my doorstep if I didn't get it done (who knew that there was a penalty for not answering??)
Why about each of my children, do I have to answer if they are my "biological son or daughter" or "adopted son or daughter?" What programs does the government run that they would find this information necessary to know? They can track foreign adoption through immigration and visa documents. They could probably track domestic adoption through state reported statistics on adoption.
If you can think or know of why this information is helpful to our government, let me know - I'm very curious.
Giving the information, we do have an interesting family makeup (I think). DH is 100% Irish. I'm English/Hungarian. G is Irish/English, although she has mainly Irish characteristics and we usually just refer to her as Irish - especially since we don't really associate with my side of the family anymore since the ugly situation with my mother over A's adoption almost 2 years ago. Big Brother B and Big Sister M are Hispanic. A is Ethiopian. We live in a predominently Finnish/Norweigian community. We'll add a little diversity to our community's census report.
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3 comments:
You definitely do a little diversity to the UP and it needs it!
I didn't know there was a penalty for not answering a census. Who knew??
I got those same phone calls and yeah, I think it's against the law to not respond to the us census ... I didn't do it because I am a huge procrastinator and had a new baby at home at the time but sheesh
Since it's only 2008, I assume you filled out the Census American Community Survey, which is an annual small-sample survey which is replacing the old "long form" census every 10 years. The short form will still come in 2010. 2.5% of people get it each year- you get to inflate diversity in your community by a factor of 40! (at least for the next 3 years)
I checked older censuses to see what the question was:
In 1990, there was a box for "natural born or adopted son/daughter" (along with all the other categories)
In 2000, there were 2 boxes, one for "natural born son/daughter" and the other for "adopted son/daughter"
Now it is "biological son/daughter" vs "adopted son/daughter"
So I guess the census bureau started caring in the 1990s and started using better language this year. I have no idea why (but will let you know if I find out)
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