CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

How is Head of Household defined and why would anyone use it?

Unless I explicitly ask a couple which one is the head, I have no way of guessing. When my wife and I were working I earned more, but she paid all the bills and I handled the investments, the cat was her responsibility and child rearing was maybe 80-20 her responsibility, but I did most of the cooking. I think either of us would be offended if the other was listed as the head. Perhaps there was a defacto head before many wives worked and before the feminist movement, but  now it is an anachronism. I think it is a question best not asked, as the answer may include gay couple, hetero couple, unmarried couple, father/daughter members, etc. I think household means living at the same address for whatever reason, and nothing more. Not all members of the household may be dues paying members and they may or may not share phone numbers or email addresses. We in fact have three pubic email addresses, me, her, both and yet another one for all financial transactions.