Re-Entering the Corporate World: One SAHM's Journey
It's been 6 years since my last paycheck and yet I never miss a day of work.
I’ve been a stay-at-home mom since four months before my boys were born. I stepped away from owning my pet sitting business in 2016 when I found out I was pregnant with twins.
My plan was always to take maternity leave, put our children in daycare, and return to work. But, as most people know, life never goes as planned. With two kids, going back to work made little financial sense. So, my husband and I agreed that I’d be a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) until the boys turned 2.
Well, year two came and the boys weren’t ready. To be honest, I wasn't ready. I wanted to stay home with them.
I couldn’t imagine someone else taking care of them. Doing all the things I had been doing. So, after redoing our budget and talking a lot (really it involved a lot of me crying and saying “I'm not ready”) we decided my return to work could wait.
Sure, it wasn’t all play dates and rainbow crafts— there were plenty of challenges. I learned I needed more breaks as the boys grew. The parenting challenges I had would change, just as I was figuring out how to handle them, but I was able to be flexible, go with the flow and be the best mom I could be for my boys.
Then COVID arrived. The much-needed break I was going to get with public Pre-k was gone— virtual Pre-K became my reality.
The last 18 months of stress, uncertainty and panic attacks made me realize that I WAS ready. I WAS ready to relinquish my primary parent role and so with kindergarten right around the corner, I started looking for a job.
The hunt was on.
My resume was outdated. It had a six-year gap in work experience. Sure, I had a college degree but that can only get you so far. For six years I had been just a mom.
I knew that if I was going to be able to sell myself, not only would I have to revamp my resume, I would have to change my whole attitude about the last six years. So, I added primary parent to my resume and turn my parenting into marketable skills.
Spent four years parenting twin sons. Now, eager to return to pursuing a full-time career. My experience has included:
Organizing family daily and weekly schedules
Taking care of the family budget
Effectively multitasking during almost every activity
Researching and implementing various extracurricular activities for social and mental development of children
It was crazy how a few words and some formatting could make it sound like I hadn't been just a mom. It sounded like I had run a company - my family - and had run it successfully for six years. All in all, I applied for 47 jobs over the last six months. I got plenty of rejections, 2 interviews, and 1 job offer.
OK! Awesome! I got a job, YAY!!!! … My excitement quickly dwindled when I thought “ugh my kids don't start kindergarten for four weeks! What am I’m going to do with them?”
When my new boss offered me the job and asked when I could start, he added, “in my opinion, one of the best times in someone's work life is when they have a solid job offer but haven't started yet, so why don't you start in two weeks? Enjoy the time!”
Well, I did enjoy some of that time. We went to the zoo, saw family, played games, and went to every new playground I could find. But the rest of the time? That was spent lining up daily child care for my boys for the three weeks before kindergarten started.
I was stressed.
I was nervous.
I needed help.
Thankfully many of my friends and family stepped in to help and I quickly learned that my new job is flexible. In the last 6 years, being home with my boys, I have learned to pivot, twist, be fluid (whatever term you want to use) and am now using that skill more than ever.
During this 6-year journey of being a SAHM I learned that you can't measure your worth, what you have to offer to the world, by your job. Textbooks/manuals/jobs can only prepare us for so much. It’s the experiences in our lives that make us who we are, NOT our job title. I’m more than a pet sitter. I’m more than a mom. I’m more than my job title.
I’m Kim— it's nice to meet you.
