How To Put Stay-At-Home Mom Or Dad On Your Resume (With Examples)

Any parent knows taking care of children can easily be a demanding full-time job. And with daycare expenses skyrocketing, it can actually be cheaper for one parent to stay home with the kids than to work and use a daycare service.

A stay-at-home parent wears many different hats such as full-time teacher, coach, social organizer, and leader that can be added to your resume

In this article we will go over how to add these to your resume and provide examples of what it should look like.

Key Takeaways:

• Emphasize job skills you became proficient in as a stay-at home parent.

• Frame your resume to showcase your achievements rather than detail your domestic duties.

• Take time to consider what your deliverables were as a stay-at-home parent. Think of how you can present those deliverables in the context of the job you are applying for.

How to Put Stay-At-Home Mom or Dad on Your Resume

When writing your resume summary, it is probably better that you do not mention specifically that you are a stay-at-home parent. Instead, think about the roles you played as a parent and the skills you mastered that complement your previous work experience.

1. Add Education. You will want to include any degrees you’ve earned and which institution they are from. If you graduated more than three years ago, you do not need need to put your graduation date.

   You can also any courses or workshops that you took during your time as a stay at home parent. You will want to add where those courses were completed at.

2. Homeschool parent. If you homeschooled your kids, you’re in luck. You added yet another experience that is extremely valuable: coaching, organizing, and teaching.

   If you homeschooled your kids, you have skills researching curriculum, organizing lesson plans and extracurricular activities, mentoring children, all while learning how to be flexible, a good communicator, and most importantly (to the kids), fun.

   For example: If you were a teacher for five years before homeschooling your children for three years, you could write something like this:

   Sample Stay-At-Home Mom Resume Summary
   A skilled educator with eight years of teaching experience. Ability to teach in diverse settings with ease, create engaging lesson plans, and present material to children in varying learning environments.

   Then, you can detail both your homeschooling experience and previous work experience in the work history section of your resume.

3. Translating parenting skills to workforce skills. You may even think that there is no way you can have transferable skills from your parenting experience to the industry you are applying for, but just wait; we bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

   Staying at home as a parent is a complex role: you must wear many hats daily. You aren’t just a mom or a dad. You are the family’s ultimate manager. And those skills can definitely be transferable to most jobs.

   Use Specific keywords such as:

   • Delegating

   • Financial planning skills

   • Multitasking

   • Time management

   • organization

   Utilize these keywords when describing your experience as a stay-at-home parent and it will help your resume be picked up by resume software.

   Here is another example for a stay-at-home mom or dad:

   Stay-At-Home Parent Resume Summary Example
   A skilled job seeker with six years of management experience in public and private settings. Possesses strong communication and delegation skills to work effectively in diverse teams.

   Then, you can describe your management and leadership experience as a stay-at-home parent.

4. Highlight what you have done versus focus on a gap in employment. Some employers may think that staying at home to parent is a lapse in job experience, but if framed correctly, they will see what you see: staying at home to parent is a valuable, full-time job experience.

   So to prevent recruiters and potential employers from picturing you sweeping up cookie crumbs, try and avoid using “domestic” words unless you are applying for a childcare, teaching, or cleaning position.

   Here are some examples of how you can frame your experience as a parent to highlight skills recruiters are desperately looking for:

   Stay-At-Home Mom Resume Skills Example

   • Helped my children get to dance and soccer practice → Coached children to develop complex skill sets.

   • Planned playdates with other moms at the park → Regularly organized large events at public centers for 20+ children.

   • Taught my three children until college → Managed multiple children’s education, resulting in a 100% college acceptance rate and $100,000 dollars in scholarship money.

   • Helped my children with volunteer projects → Organized volunteer projects for students, resulting in 100+ hours of community service over 10 projects.

   As you can see, detailing what you did as a stay-at-home parent can show that you possess many career-oriented job skills. Think about your deliverables: what did you accomplish as a stay-at-home parent?

Where to Put Stay-At-Home Parent on Your Resume

By now, you are probably thinking, “Yes, I have all of these skills.”

Now you just have to translate them into resume-speak so that potential employers will also know how awesome you are at them.

You can describe your time as a stay-at-home parent in two places on a resume: under your resume summary statement and/or under your work experience.

Stay-At-Home Parent Resume Example

Now let’s take a look at a full stay-at-home mom or dad resume:

Tips for Stay-At-Home Parent Resume

• Include previous experience. Even if it’s been a long time since you were in the formal workforce, be sure to include prior professional experience.

  Depending on the industry and role you’re applying for, think of skills that translate well from your former experience. Don’t feel pressured to lie or exaggerate here, but do look for keywords that you can use honestly.

• Use volunteer experience. Whether you volunteered in events related to your children or not, volunteering experience is always attractive on a resume.

  It shows that you want to use your time productively and are a functional member of the community in more ways than one. Plus, your volunteer experience probably involved a lot of skills and responsibilities that are necessary for a number of jobs.

• Include contract work. If you’ve been a stay-at-home parent that earns money on the side through odd jobs, freelance work, or anything else, definitely include that on your resume. Listing contract work on your resume may have scared employers in the past, but the gig economy is thriving and hiring managers are getting more comfortable seeing this type of experience on your resume.

  Not to mention that it beefs up your credentials and shows you’ve worked on projects recently.

• Include education. If you went to college or achieved a post-graduate degree, definitely include that on your resume. Impressive academic achievements will help offset your work experience section.

• Don’t forget your cover letter. Your resume isn’t the only place you have to talk about your stay-at-home parenting experience.

  Your cover letter is where your personality can really shine, so highlight how your parenting and household management skills have readied you for the job you’re applying for.

Returning to Work Stay-At-Home Mom Resume FAQ

1. How do you say stay-at-home mom on a resume?

   You can say stay-at-home mom on your resume by saying, “Household Manager,” “Caregiver,” or “Homemaker.” Some people prefer the title, “Chief Home Officer,” but that may come across as trying too hard for some hiring managers.

   Keep the title simple and focus on pointing out the numerous valuable skills you used during that time.

2. Should I put stay-at-home parent on my resume?

   Yes, you should put stay-at-home parent on your resume. Just because you weren’t someone’s employee during this time doesn’t mean you weren’t gaining valuable work experience and skills, so show them off to hiring managers.

3. Is stay-at-home parent an occupation?

   Yes, stay-at-home parent is an occupation. Even though you aren’t earning a paycheck from your work, it is what you spend the majority of your time doing, and people depend on you to do it.

Final Thoughts

Applying for a job after a period of time out of the working world can seem daunting, but don’t think that staying at home to be with your kids will automatically hurt your job chances.

Staying at home to parent full-time can be a very rewarding experience. It not only allows you to connect with your children more, but it also gives you a very diverse skill set. You know how to deal with small kids and you know how to interact with parents from every background.

You know how to get someone to do work effectively (remember doing those most-hated chores as a kid?) and you know how to provide feedback to workers (remember those good parental praises?).

You’ve got what it takes to land your dream job — you just have to think about what the experience of parenting means in terms of the industry you want to break into.

References

1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – Stay-At-Home Mothers Through the Years

2. Pew Research Center – Stay-At-Home Moms and Dads Account for About One-in-Five U.S. Parents

Author

Heidi Cope

Heidi Cope is a former writer for the Zippia Career Advice blog. Her writing focused primarily on Zippia's suite of rankings and general career advice. After leaving Zippia, Heidi joined The Mighty as a writer and editor, among other positions. She received her BS from UNC Charlotte in German Studies.