Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are people making this switch? If not, they should. Saying “stay at home mom” has always been only slightly better than “housewife” or “homemaker”. It’s such a disrespectful title that fails to acknowledge the massive role of primary caregivers in our little human section of the universe.

Anyway, I think we should just switch to “work from home”. Whether a woman is sitting in her “office/den/pantry” and ensuring that the section headings are properly aligned and consistently formatted for an insurance company’s lawsuit OR she’s playing with the her in the backyard, either way she’s working from home. Just working on different things.

This also means, in my view, that WFH has the potential to be incrementally anti-patriarchy if it can provide a practical and non-awkward way to blur these lines a bit so women’s choices aren’t so politicized.

I think this would just be really confusing. If someone says they work from home, I might ask them what they do for childcare or what type of work they do. If they answered they took care of their kids, I'd find it an odd way of phrasing it (though I'd be polite). It would be the opposite of non-awkward!

If I didn't ask any follow up, I'd be surprised if I saw them consistently out and about the neighborhood with their children during the workday. (I work from home and see some kids w/nanny's regularly walking to parks from my office window.) A WFH mom, especially one with regular hours for a corporation, has far more in common in terms of day-to-day activities with a WOHM, and generally requires F/T childcare for young kids.. There is a blurred line for parents who are self-employed and don't have regular hours or jobs and who juggle both.

Care work is essential to a functioning society, no matter who does it (parents or paid childcare), and it is indeed work, and I support some extermely progressive viewpoints on this. But "WFH" has an understood meaning, and trying to change that isn't going to fight the patriarchy.

Anonymous wrote:Are people making this switch? If not, they should. Saying “stay at home mom” has always been only slightly better than “housewife” or “homemaker”. It’s such a disrespectful title that fails to acknowledge the massive role of primary caregivers in our little human section of the universe.

Anyway, I think we should just switch to “work from home”. Whether a woman is sitting in her “office/den/pantry” and ensuring that the section headings are properly aligned and consistently formatted for an insurance company’s lawsuit OR she’s playing with the her in the backyard, either way she’s working from home. Just working on different things.

This also means, in my view, that WFH has the potential to be incrementally anti-patriarchy if it can provide a practical and non-awkward way to blur these lines a bit so women’s choices aren’t so politicized.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My two cents on SAHMs returning to the paid workforce...

Just be direct about your time at home - no need to apologize or embellish. Don't use cutesie titles like Chief Domestic Officer or try to pass it off as WFH (which has a distinct meaning which isn't being a mom to your kids). On your resume, include any meaningful volunteer gigs that demonstrate leadership or use of skills that will apply to the jobs you're applying to. Make sure you have decent technology skills (at least Office - Outlook, Word, Excel, PPT). Include a cover letter and articulate your desire to return to professional life.

The kind of people you want to work for respect the decision to stay home and would rather you just own it - don't apologize, try to dress it up - just focus on your KSAs and what you can bring to the company. There are jobs that require a set of soft skills that you can hone as a SAHM. My kid's sports team manager is a military wife who is a blackbelt organizer, problem solver, soother of butthurt grown ups, attentive money manager, resourceful travel planner, etc. She hasn't worked a paid gig in years but I would hire her in a second.

No need to try to pass off your SAHM time as WFH...that'll just irritate people, me included.

This is bull shit. A mom is full time work. No need to make up BS like volunteer gigs or coaching teams.

I know most working women think Kooking, Kleaning and Fuking are three cities in China but actually being a SAHM is a 16 hour a day job

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My two cents on SAHMs returning to the paid workforce...

Just be direct about your time at home - no need to apologize or embellish. Don't use cutesie titles like Chief Domestic Officer or try to pass it off as WFH (which has a distinct meaning which isn't being a mom to your kids). On your resume, include any meaningful volunteer gigs that demonstrate leadership or use of skills that will apply to the jobs you're applying to. Make sure you have decent technology skills (at least Office - Outlook, Word, Excel, PPT). Include a cover letter and articulate your desire to return to professional life.

The kind of people you want to work for respect the decision to stay home and would rather you just own it - don't apologize, try to dress it up - just focus on your KSAs and what you can bring to the company. There are jobs that require a set of soft skills that you can hone as a SAHM. My kid's sports team manager is a military wife who is a blackbelt organizer, problem solver, soother of butthurt grown ups, attentive money manager, resourceful travel planner, etc. She hasn't worked a paid gig in years but I would hire her in a second.

No need to try to pass off your SAHM time as WFH...that'll just irritate people, me included.

This is bull shit. A mom is full time work. No need to make up BS like volunteer gigs or coaching teams.

I know most working women think Kooking, Kleaning and Fuking are three cities in China but actually being a SAHM is a 16 hour a day job

Volunteer gigs are not BS. Good ones require time and skills that can be relevant to a paid job.
And guess what? In addition to doing our paid jobs, we working moms care for our kids, volunteer, cook, clean, and sleep with our husbands too. We just do it in less than 16 hours.

I’m a working mom but, come on, we care for our kids when we aren’t working. We don’t do everything sahms do in the amounts they do it. They spend 40+ hrs a week doing childcare that we don’t. Disagree with pp though that we can’t clean or cook. We do less of it then sahms do most of the time but we put in that work, too.

Anonymous wrote:My two cents on SAHMs returning to the paid workforce...

Just be direct about your time at home - no need to apologize or embellish. Don't use cutesie titles like Chief Domestic Officer or try to pass it off as WFH (which has a distinct meaning which isn't being a mom to your kids). On your resume, include any meaningful volunteer gigs that demonstrate leadership or use of skills that will apply to the jobs you're applying to. Make sure you have decent technology skills (at least Office - Outlook, Word, Excel, PPT). Include a cover letter and articulate your desire to return to professional life.

The kind of people you want to work for respect the decision to stay home and would rather you just own it - don't apologize, try to dress it up - just focus on your KSAs and what you can bring to the company. There are jobs that require a set of soft skills that you can hone as a SAHM. My kid's sports team manager is a military wife who is a blackbelt organizer, problem solver, soother of butthurt grown ups, attentive money manager, resourceful travel planner, etc. She hasn't worked a paid gig in years but I would hire her in a second.

No need to try to pass off your SAHM time as WFH...that'll just irritate people, me included.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My two cents on SAHMs returning to the paid workforce...

Just be direct about your time at home - no need to apologize or embellish. Don't use cutesie titles like Chief Domestic Officer or try to pass it off as WFH (which has a distinct meaning which isn't being a mom to your kids). On your resume, include any meaningful volunteer gigs that demonstrate leadership or use of skills that will apply to the jobs you're applying to. Make sure you have decent technology skills (at least Office - Outlook, Word, Excel, PPT). Include a cover letter and articulate your desire to return to professional life.

The kind of people you want to work for respect the decision to stay home and would rather you just own it - don't apologize, try to dress it up - just focus on your KSAs and what you can bring to the company. There are jobs that require a set of soft skills that you can hone as a SAHM. My kid's sports team manager is a military wife who is a blackbelt organizer, problem solver, soother of butthurt grown ups, attentive money manager, resourceful travel planner, etc. She hasn't worked a paid gig in years but I would hire her in a second.

No need to try to pass off your SAHM time as WFH...that'll just irritate people, me included.

This is bull shit. A mom is full time work. No need to make up BS like volunteer gigs or coaching teams.

I know most working women think Kooking, Kleaning and Fuking are three cities in China but actually being a SAHM is a 16 hour a day job

Volunteer gigs are not BS. Good ones require time and skills that can be relevant to a paid job.
And guess what? In addition to doing our paid jobs, we working moms care for our kids, volunteer, cook, clean, and sleep with our husbands too. We just do it in less than 16 hours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My two cents on SAHMs returning to the paid workforce...

Just be direct about your time at home - no need to apologize or embellish. Don't use cutesie titles like Chief Domestic Officer or try to pass it off as WFH (which has a distinct meaning which isn't being a mom to your kids). On your resume, include any meaningful volunteer gigs that demonstrate leadership or use of skills that will apply to the jobs you're applying to. Make sure you have decent technology skills (at least Office - Outlook, Word, Excel, PPT). Include a cover letter and articulate your desire to return to professional life.

The kind of people you want to work for respect the decision to stay home and would rather you just own it - don't apologize, try to dress it up - just focus on your KSAs and what you can bring to the company. There are jobs that require a set of soft skills that you can hone as a SAHM. My kid's sports team manager is a military wife who is a blackbelt organizer, problem solver, soother of butthurt grown ups, attentive money manager, resourceful travel planner, etc. She hasn't worked a paid gig in years but I would hire her in a second.

No need to try to pass off your SAHM time as WFH...that'll just irritate people, me included.

This is bull shit. A mom is full time work. No need to make up BS like volunteer gigs or coaching teams.

I know most working women think Kooking, Kleaning and Fuking are three cities in China but actually being a SAHM is a 16 hour a day job

Anonymous wrote:My two cents on SAHMs returning to the paid workforce...

Just be direct about your time at home - no need to apologize or embellish. Don't use cutesie titles like Chief Domestic Officer or try to pass it off as WFH (which has a distinct meaning which isn't being a mom to your kids). On your resume, include any meaningful volunteer gigs that demonstrate leadership or use of skills that will apply to the jobs you're applying to. Make sure you have decent technology skills (at least Office - Outlook, Word, Excel, PPT). Include a cover letter and articulate your desire to return to professional life.

The kind of people you want to work for respect the decision to stay home and would rather you just own it - don't apologize, try to dress it up - just focus on your KSAs and what you can bring to the company. There are jobs that require a set of soft skills that you can hone as a SAHM. My kid's sports team manager is a military wife who is a blackbelt organizer, problem solver, soother of butthurt grown ups, attentive money manager, resourceful travel planner, etc. She hasn't worked a paid gig in years but I would hire her in a second.

No need to try to pass off your SAHM time as WFH...that'll just irritate people, me included.