Being a stay-at-home-mom is a taboo subject. Even though we live in the 21st century where more and more women are in the workforce and taking on senior positions, there are still women out there who are stay-at-home mothers. For some, it’s because it’s a choice they made for themselves based on what they want or on their beliefs. For others, it’s circumstance related, such as their health, the health of their children and/or spouses, abusive relationships, or other. Some women get back to the workforce after years of being away from it, and that’s totally okay. In hindsight, I’m a stay-at-home-mom too even though I have this blog as a business, as well as my freelance writing business. I work on this blog from home, and I base my writing and work schedule solely on my son’s own schedule. I can’t say that it’s the life I chose for myself, but it’s just how my life turned out in the long-run. I can’t say that I regret that life either because my son always comes first no matter what.
At the end of the day, no matter how much we try to explain ourselves and prove why our reasonings for being stay-at-home-moms are for us, the actual reasons don’t actually matter. We each have our own lives and our own circumstances. I’m part of a Facebook group for stay-at-home moms, and they share so many stories of the stigma that goes around a woman not being in the workforce. Going out of the house feels shameful, and it’s a sad reality. The world is very judgmental even now. You just can’t please anyone these days. But then again, there’s also stigma around women going back to work after having kids. People will judge you no matter what, so you, as a woman, might as well do what feels right to you nd only you.
Speaking of the Facebook group I’m a part of, a woman posted recently that she intended to go back to the workforce. She wasn’t employed at the time of posting, so she asked what she could write on her resume that’d showcase her skills set as a stay-at-home-mom. Let’s make one thing clear: Being a mother is a full-time job. Being a stay-at-home mom is much harder than being a working mom. When you’re a working mom, you send your child(ren) to daycare or have them stay with a nanny. Not everyone has help around them, so sometimes having children stay with their grandparents isn’t an option. When a mom is at work, it’s practically her break. When she comes home, she not only takes care of her offspring(s), she’s also taking care of her household and making sure her partner and co-parent is happy and staying connected romantically. Statistics show that being a stay-at-home-mom i equivalent to having 2.5 full time jobs, and honestly, now that I’m a mother myself, it really makes total sense. I’m just grateful I have a lot of help around me.
And yet, despite it being the toughest job out there, it’s still not considered to be any type of job in the world of recruitment. In that world, and by society’s standards in general, being a stay-at-home-mom is really easy and doesn’t take much to do. You just stay home and feed the baby and change his/her diapers. How hard can it be? I used to think that way too, but not to that extent. I remember watching a segment of ‘The Real’, a daytime talk show with Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, Tamar Braxton, and more, where a woman in the audience asked if it was right for her friend to react the way that she did when the friend invited her to go out to drinks and the audience member declined the offer because she had four kids to take care of, to which her friend responded, ‘What’s the problem, you just stay home all day anyway?’ The hosts that were already mothers during the show’s run opened their mouths wide open in disbelief.
I love being a mother, don’t get me wrong. I surely don’t take the role I play in my son’s life for granted. At the same time, though, I really underestimated just how hard motherhood would be. So when I saw the post on the Facebook group where a woman intended to go back to work after years of being a stay-at-home-mom, I immediately started thinking about what a resume would look like of a stay-at-home-mom. This is what I came up with:
Skills & Qualifications
- A hardworking, organized, and motivated individual
- A highly resourceful and reliable individual
- Ability to work under pressure
- Ability to work individually and in a team while undertaking the leadership role
- Ability to complete projects on scope, time, and budget
Work Experience
Household Manager
- Arranged and moderated all child and family-oriented activities
- Organized all household duties in timely manner
- Managed all finances and bookkeeping
- Created educational and motivational extracurricular activities to ensure mental and and social development
Please note that this is not an actual resume, and that it’s just something I put together on the spot. But then again, maybe it WILL be something I’ll be putting into my resume just to see where it’d get me. I’ll update you soon enough!
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