Ways to Track, Document and Celebrate Your Work as a Stay-At-Home Parent

Being a stay-at-home parent is a full-time job. It's a job that requires a lot of skills, including time management, organization, and problem-solving. But when it comes time to go back to paid work, it can be difficult to articulate the value of your work as a stay-at-home parent, if we have never thought about doing so. If we haven’t acknowledged what it is that we have done, or figured out how to articulate that to an employer, it will create a challenge if/when the time comes to start a job search. One of the main reasons I help people be ready for their career when they are ready for it is that it takes time to go through this process, and I want people to start before they need to return to the workforce. If you start when you NEED to go back it will be stressful, time consuming and you won’t be able to reflect fully on your value and how you can bring that value to a job, project or career. 

Taking control of your career as a stay-at-home parent is important for your own confidence and for your future career. By tracking and documenting your work, you can show potential employers the value of your skills and experience. It is our responsibility to control our situation as stay-at-home parents because we are the ones who know our skills and experience best. We are also the ones who are most invested in our careers and our families.

So, please consider starting the process now if you aren’t going back right this minute. If you are, these tips will also be helpful, but they might require more time for each task. If you can take control of your career now as a stay-at-home parent and track and document your work, learning and impact, it will be easier to put it all together if/when the time comes to start revisiting your paid career outside the home. This will build and reinforce confidence in your abilities and help you to better articulate the value of your work to potential employers.

Here are three ways to track and document your time as a stay-at-home parent:

Keep a journal

A journal is a great way to track your daily activities and responsibilities as a stay-at-home parent. Write down what you do each day, including the time you spend on each task. This will help you to see how much time you actually spend on childcare, housework, and other activities. It will also help you identify ways you are making an impact.

For example, if your family decided to create a budget to save for a project, write down the specific ways you developed the budget, stuck to it and how much you were able to increase your savings. If you are potty training a child, take notes of what you tried, how you learned about various methods and what you learned along the way.

This is important, valuable, will help you tremendously and it can be done in 5-15 minutes a day. Or break it up into morning and evening writings, so you don’t forget. If you have been home for 10 years, it will be hard to remember EVERYTHING you have done in that time. I know you did a lot, you know you did a lot, but our challenge is to make sure an employer knows. They only way they will understand is if you tell them in a clear way that is transferable to the job they are trying to fill. This is true for any job search, not just for a stay at home parent. It’s always our responsibility to articulate our qualifications to an employer. They can’t read our minds, they only will be able to make decisions based on the information you provide to them. 

Create/update your resume now

Don’t wait until you are trying to get a job, create or update your resume now. Again, if you are doing this before you need a job, you can do this 5-15 minutes a day. Do one section a day, one bullet point, whatever time you have to dedicate to it. I understand things can change quickly and you might wake up one day and need your resume done. If you find yourself in that position, I have a resume course “Ready your Resume” which can help you build it in a very short period of time. You can still use the course if you aren’t going back right now, (it will be incredibly helpful), but often without any pressure you can build your resume to be very effective and comprehensive- if you build it before you need it. Your resume can highlight your skills and experience as a stay-at-home parent if that's your most recent or longest role, which can be a lot easier to include if you have written it down (use your journal as a reference). The details you include in your journal are going to make it so much easier to speak to a potential employer about your work raising children and managing your home. 

Network with other stay-at-home parents

Networking with other stay-at-home parents is a great way to learn about different ways to identify and discuss your skills and impact for your family. You can also find support and encouragement from other stay-at-home parents who can give you feedback, encourage you and just be a person who understands what you are going through. 

Stay-at-home parents often feel undervalued and underappreciated. From day to day you might not may feel like you are not contributing to society or making a difference in the world. However, as you look at your children and your home, you know that is not true, you know what you contribute from moment to moment. Reflect on the big picture- everything you have accomplished. You are raising the next generation of citizens. You are teaching your children important life skills which they will carry into their lives and careers. The first step to success however is for you to believe it. If we don’t believe in the value of our work, how can we possibly get others to believe in it?

Employers may not seem to understand the value of our work as stay-at-home parents, but my guess is that many of these people ARE parents. They either have a family member staying home to raise them, are paying an incredible amount of money for someone else to watch them while they are at work, or have parents/siblings who dedicate their day to their children. Whether it seems like they get it or not, they probably do. However, it is not their job to guess what it was/is like in your situation. Like any candidate, it is our responsibility to show them. They may not know how to evaluate our skills or how to compare our experience to that of other candidates if we aren't giving them the details and telling the story in a way that connects to the job they need to fill. That's why it's important for us to take control of our careers and track and document our work, so we are able to tell our story and how it qualifies us for the role we are seeking. 

Based on many articles, surveys and a lot of feedback I have heard, stay-at-home parents often feel undervalued and underappreciated. I know I have struggled with my confidence and belief in the value of my work for my family. However, when I look at what I have written about my day, or reflect on where my daughter is today, I know I made a difference. But just knowing that is not enough if I need to articulate that achievement to a potential employer. Empower yourself, support yourself by tracking and documenting your work by keeping a journal, creating a resume, and networking with other stay-at-home parents. By doing these things, we can show potential employers the value of our work, through the details and description of our work. We can show through story and accomplishments that this time away from paid work, to work in our home, actually makes us incredible candidates. They won’t know it if we don’t show them our impact. Grab a journal and a pen, set your timer and start writing down what you did today!