It census time here in the US and as every media outlet keeps reminding us, those forms were mailed out last week, we should have completed them & mailed them back by now.
Except…
The first question on the form wants to know how many people are living or staying in your house on April 1, 2010.
How can I know that? It’s still March.
I live in the country. I get almost no cell signal. I get semi decent internet signal.
I get absolutely no crystal ball signal.
I don’t know how many people will be living in my house on April 1.
Sure, I can assume 4, since 4 are currently living here but in 2 weeks time things can change.
My husband’s 20 something nephew could show up to live on our sofa for months.
So could a number of single friends who have lost jobs & want to look for work in the area.
We could have a foster child placed with us.
My parents could come for an extended visit.
We could ship Mayhem off to military boarding school.
I just can’t know now for sure & since they want an accurate count they will have to wait until midnight April 2.
Then there is the second question:
“Were there any additional people staying here on April 1, 2010 that you did not include in Question 1?” (bold underlining by the US Government)
So basically they are asking “Did you just lie to us?” and expecting you to answer honestly this time.
But no where to they ask how many additional people you did not include.
Plus we have some interfamily squabbling over who gets to be Person 1. I think it should be me because I’m filling out the form. DH thinks it should be him because he’s first name on the mortgage & tax forms. Havoc thinks it should be him because he’s first born & Mayhem thinks it should be him because he never gets to be first for anything else.
So I’ll do a head count at 11:30pm April 1 and then draw those people’s names out of a hat to see who gets to be Person 1.
***Disclaimer – this is an attempt at humor. Please don’t comment explaining to me how to count the people in my household.
