Staying home with your children while they are young is, for some women, a conscious lifestyle choice. If your family can afford your loss of income, it becomes a viable, but maybe temporary option. As an older, wiser woman told me once, “your children will not be two, four, and six forever.” You have to begin to make plans for that next phase in your life.
Staying home with your children while they are young is, for some women, a conscious lifestyle choice. If your family can afford your loss of income, it becomes a viable, but maybe temporary option. As an older, wiser woman told me once, “your children will not be two, four, and six forever.” You have to begin to make plans for that next phase in your life.
How and when does a mother, who used to work outside the home, make plans for that far-off day to re-enter her former life? What skills will she need to get back to work after a 2 or 5 or 10-year hiatus? Here are a few ideas to consider:
Use your friends as a support group and sounding board. Include in your group of women friends those women who are working. When you choose to go back to work, contacts will be critical.
Read something to stay current in your field even it’s just tapping into the internet periodically to understand what’s going on in your industry and associated businesses.
Keep up those contacts with your co-workers. Email is great for touching base. If you can afford to get a babysitter or swap children with a friend, “doing lunch” is another way to stay in touch.
Use the time when you are being a Mommy to think about what and where you want to go next. Is your ideal position to start over or to do things differently when you go back to work? Explore what courses you will have to take and talk to people in that field to find out what the position involves.
Go back to school. Take a couple of courses to keep your mind active and challenged. They could be in your field, or on the computer, or just for fun, like knitting or throwing pots. Or learn something new that you never confronted in college like Spanish or Accounting. Let your spouse or partner take over periodically so that you can have some time for yourself.
Volunteer! Select one or two organizations that peak your interest and put yourself on critical committees, e.g. the finance committee or event planning. These skills can fill in holes on your resume when you go back into the workforce.
Keep your resume up to date. Refine it and refresh it by removing out-of-date activities. Stay current with the state of the art in resume presentations. Some are even doing video resumes today.
Finally, don’t let yourself go! It’s easy to wear your jeans and wash-and-wear clothes every day when you’re making Peanut Butter sandwiches, playing with chalk and cleaning up the spills. But, you will have to get back into your work clothes some day and don’t want the expense of having to purchase new outfits, if you can work with what you’ve got.
Cherish those days at home with your children. They are fleeting and wonderful, frustrating and challenging. But it is hopefully also a phase in a long life with many different careers. Maybe now is the time to plan for the next 20 or 30 years!