Stay-at-Home Moms Back to Work

5 Things You Can Do to Plan for the Future

What every stay-at-home mom can do at home now to prepare for the day when she returns to her career.

As a multi-tasking, jack-of-all-trades, juggling stay-at-home mom, you've got to stay on top of your game by thinking ahead.

Experts say you should be thinking well ahead - years down the road - to the day when you trade bottles for briefcase and relaunch your career.

There are things you can do - even amidst the toys, car seats, sippy cups and diapers that seem to consume every minute of your day - to make your re-entry into the working world easier.

Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin, authors of Back on the Career Track (Warner Business Books 2007) had this advice for the new stay-at-home mom who will eventually return to her career.

1. Stay professionally connected. Keep up with reading publications in your field or in the field you think you may go into, take classes and attend professional conferences.

"With nine kids between us, we realize the amount of time available for this kind of research/reading is going to vary significantly depending on age and number and neediness of kids," Rabin and Cohen said in an email interview July 9. "We also realize that you may not be able to sustain this for long periods. If that is the case, do not worry, you can pick it up when the time is right for you."

2. When choosing volunteer projects, include one that uses skills that will transfer to your work. Cohen and Rabin said they interviewed women who had worked as medical professionals who volunteered in hospices, computer techs who helped in school computer labs, and accountants who were treasurers of organizations.

You can be a successful relauncher without "strategic volunteer work," they said, " but if you are interested in and enjoy these kinds of activities, they will be helpful to you when you are ready to resume working. And you also make some unique contacts as a volunteer."

3. Keep your networks alive. Back on the Career Track identifies three contact pools - people from your past, people from your present and people from your future. While you're at home with children, keep in touch with people from your old company, clients and professional organizations, and look for new contacts with the other adults you connect with.

4. Do an occasional project in your field. Keep an eye out for contract work through your old employer, previous contacts, or one of the new companies that are matching people on career break with contract opportunities. Cohen and Rabin cite MomCorps.com, Aquent.com or OnRamps.com as companies matching up relaunchers with work.

5. Know that you're in good company. "We are entering a new era for relaunchers," Rabin and Cohen said. According to statistics cited in their book, almost a quarter of all college-educated women with children under 18 are not working for pay. Companies' concern about a talent shortage due to retiring baby boomers has spawned a new interest in these stay-at-home moms and the possibility that they'll return to the workforce. More companies are embracing flex time, job sharing and work-at-home situations. As result, the environment for relaunchers is currently, and should continue to be, more favorable to relaunchers, Cohen and Rabin say.

Other books that offer help and advice for stay-at-home moms looking to return to work:

·                       Going Back to Work: A Survival Guide for Comeback Moms by Mary W. Quigley and Loretta E. Kaufman

·                       Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths by Timothy Butler

·                       If You've Raised Kids, You Can Manage Anything: Leadership Begins at Home by Ann Crittenden

·                       Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart Your Career Even if You Haven't Had a Job in Years by Monica Samuels and J.C. Conklin

The copyright of the article Stay-at-Home Moms Back to Work in Stay-at-Home Parents is owned by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick.