Ok so it’s been a little under 1.5 years since I got my bachelors… But it’s been more like 6 years since I’ve had a paying job. I agree that being a stay at home parent is a full time job, but it won’t pay off my student loans. And being in school to get a degree is like having a job; you have deadlines, schedules, classrooms to be in, group discussions, collaboration, etc. But even in college there is a bit of choosing your schedule and your work pace.
Being a student while raising 3 children is more than a full time job, but I got my degree, I wrote my first picture book, Hugo and Autism (which you can find on Amazon) and now I need to figure out a job I would like. But the mom guilt is real friends. What about little miss A? She will be 2 soon and she is still regularly breastfed.
But when I sit down and am honest with myself I know I’m capable. I’m interested in a secretary job and I feel confident that I could do it. I’m comfortable on the phone, I have a typing speed of 65 wpm this a 93% accuracy, I’m more organized than I give myself credit, and I would like to have more adult interaction in my day.
But it’s weird trying to write a resume when all the hard work I’ve done over the past few years doesn’t look like the work you write about when applying for a 9-5 job. I mean I have worked hard the past 6 years …
- Changed 12,000 diapers
- Made 2 additional humans to the 1 I already made
- Lived off an average of 4-5 hours a sleep a night
- Handled 6,000 autistic meltdowns
- Drove 2,300 times to and from ABA therapy
- Sat in 700 parent meetings for my son
How are these things not asked about when applying for a secretary job?? All the information is summed up into, “I’m patient, organized, consistent, a self-starter, and I’m naturally a positive person” but some how that doesn’t give my work the credit it deserves. Yet after I wrote up my resume I still asked, is it enough? What else should I have done? Will my family feel burdened if I get the job?
Have any of you been a stay at home parent and then went back to work? Did you like it? Was it worth it? Let me know about it 😊 and don’t forget to like and share ✌️
Stay Positive it’s Autism 
I have been stay at home and then working, but only part time working. The juggling act is tricky, and different for each person. I regularly remind myself that my kids come first, even though it can be tempting to put my career ahead of them. Some daycare or babysitting can also be good for kids…they get to be in a new environment, learn different things, have fun, make friends. But I think each kid will differ as to how much of this they need to thrive. Some need more time at home.
And yeah I can also relate to the resume thing. I’ve been teaching piano or doing music therapy a few hours per week to avoid a huge resume gap, but I laugh at myself sometimes because that is such a fraction of what I do. None of the rest counts for the resume. (Sigh!)
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Working part time sounds perfect. I wish I could figure out a way to do just that.
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