'parent' is not a member of 'Object'.

I'm get these errors: 'parent' is not a member of 'Object'. 'localPosition' is not a member of 'Object'.

I guess it's something to do with Unity not knowing what the variable object is. When I put : gameObject; after I declared the variable object the errors went away but it didn't know what gameObject was. What do I do to get these error away and why are they here?

 var PickedUp;
 
 var object;
 
 function Start ()
 {
     object = gameObject.transform;
 }
 
 function PickUpObject ()
 {    
      PickedUp = true;
      
     object.parent = Camera.main.transform; 
 
     object.localPosition = Vector3.forward * 5;
     
     rigidbody.useGravity = false;
     
     rigidbody.isKinematic = true;
 }