Does staying home with my kids instead of working full-time mean career suicide? Am I a bad mom for even caring? These are the questions, among others, I am debating these day, and most recently I’ve been questioning if I should open up to possible employers about my slowing work experience.
I’ve always loved working and never thought I would stop my career to stay at home with my kids. Then, life happened. My big job was gone, and my kids were little; it just made sense for me to stay home. Plus, we had just moved to the ‘burbs. So, financially it made sense too. Yet anyone who knows me, knows I can’t just not work. I started putting myself out there to do freelance writing projects, and it’s been great. The flexibility of being at home and doing what I love while bringing in extra income really works.
I always wanted to go back to work full-time, and now really feels like the time.
My resume and work experience is solid … up until I started staying home. But the “freelance” work I’ve done doesn’t look all that impressive when it’s stretched over three years. In fact, during one recent interview I was asked about the projects I’ve been doing. I felt judged. Like, “That is ALL you have been doing?” Because yes, that is all I had been doing. However, what they didn’t see is that I was also juggling a two-year-old and a five-year-old being at home with me. Should I have mentioned that part? I just felt like I didn’t need to put my personal life on my work resume because this big boss CEO doesn’t care about my kids. I always heard to keep personal out of the work life, especially during interviews. Right?
But lately, I’ve been thinking… Should I put “raising kids” on my resume along with my freelance experience? Maybe that will explain why I haven’t been putting in 40+ hours a week or really climbing the work ladder, so to speak. On the other hand, I think mentioning the kids will be a negative because then they will think I won’t be a reliable employee as I will need to take off for sick kids, school functions, etc…
I’ve done my best to stay in the game, but I can’t help but think I’m just not playing the same game anymore. Maybe it’s true. Maybe having kids really does mean career suicide?
