How to Transition from Mom Life to Work Life After Years Out of Work

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Many women choose to leave their jobs in order to spend time raising their children. But what happens when your children are grown up and don’t need you to be at home with them all day? How can you make the transition from full-time mom back to work?

Find a Role That Suits Your Skills

Even if you have taken several years out of work – and many moms take a decade at least! – you will still have plenty of skills that will work within a work environment. You may be older than other applicants and have less work experience but that doesn’t mean that you can’t compete.

Many moms reentering the workplace find that they have carefully honed all kinds of caring skills. Social work, community work and even jobs like nursing may all appeal so consider learning program such as online msw program accredited to see if this type of work appeals to you.

Start Part-time and Build Up Your Hours

After spending so many years at home, it is completely natural to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of working full time. You naturally learn to fill up your day while you are at home and so the idea of doing all the housework and then going to work for 40 hours a week seems daunting.

To give yourself a chance to get used to going to work again, you might consider doing a part-time job first. This way, you will still get the work you want but you won’t feel quite as overwhelmed with the change. Over time, you can always increase your hours or move into more challenging roles as you develop. In many cases, it is simply a lack of confidence that makes you doubt yourself. Overcome that and you will be flying in no time.

Change the Family Routine

There may still be a notable gender gap when it comes to housework but that doesn’t mean that your house must comply. For the last few years, it has probably fallen to you to stay on top of the house since you are at home but now the landscape is shifting and so the whole family routine should change to accommodate your new situation.

As your hours at work go up, the rest of your family should chip in a bit more of their time to help keep the house clean and tidy. Your now grown children can certainly chip in with simple tasks and even toddlers can help (with a bit of supervision!) Dad might still be working hard during the week but even busy dads can reheat some leftovers or have a run around with the Hoover at the weekend.

Going back to work after so many years at home might feel like a total upheaval but if it is what you want to do, and you are ready to throw yourself back into the fray, it is worth the effort.