Redefining SAHM - New Name, New Image?
Recently inspired by the story of a good friend who publicized her career choice to stay home with kids, I re-wrote my Linked In profile. Purely because it makes me proud to see an accomplished, successful career woman like my friend, make this choice, I wanted to share some ways in which the choice to stay home with kids might be seen as a continuation of career, rather than a departure from the same.
This is what I came up with:
Home Creation and Innovation Leader:
Leads development of values-based vision for family growth
Devises family growth strategy from values and vision
Leads implementation of growth and development strategy in collaboration with all family members
Researches human growth, development, and education and continually revises growth strategy as relevant
Maintains awareness of local and global issues to cultivate relationships and build connections to community
Develops and tracks relevant metrics of family growth in line with values and vision (e.g., #1000hoursoutside challenge per year, fundraising for women's mental health #runforwomen)
Five full years into the transition from corporate to SAHM, I am realizing that skills I worried I would lose, are not only utilized, but continue to add value and develop everyday. The main difference is that the value I am creating is something we chart the course of as a family and will (hopefully) live the benefits of for years to come.
It leads me to fully internalize the age-old question of our times, being if we, as a society, value the work of raising children to be future leaders, why is it perceived as "pausing" one's career to take this work on?
The responsibilities described above are ones that I have thoughtfully considered and enacted in a way not much different to which I did for corporate clients. Vision boards are documented and carefully stored as part of our family history and