#ChooseToChallenge: Stop Underrating Stay-At-Home Moms!

#ChooseToChallenge: Stop Underrating Stay-At-Home Moms!

ยท

3 min read

A couple of weeks ago, I tweeted:

It's not a new thing that stay-at-home moms have often been seen as someone who only takes care of the house and the children.
We are being judged that we have plenty of time and often do nothing.
Sadly, even some women look at us this way.


One day I got an on-call interview for a full-time job when my daughter was around 2 years old.
After some job-related interview questions, then come these 'wonderful' questions:

  • "You have x years gap from the last time you worked. What do you do in this gap? Only be a stay-at-home mom?"
  • "We can try for part-time first, but the main goal is to have you work full-time in about 3 months. So let's say you get this job, how about your daughter? Who will take care of her? Would you be able to leave her?"

At the end:

  • "We need someone who has these experiences and can 'run'. It's not that you don't have them, but you have a long gap from your last work. So we are sorry to inform you that you are not suitable for this position at the moment."

I hang up the phone, trembling.
I had these mixed feelings of anger, sadness, and guilty!

I never thought that my decision to stay in the beginning years of my kid's life makes me feel like it's some sort of big mistake to take.

The more I hear other moms' similar experiences, the more my heart screams.

"We should not feel this way! We should not hesitate to answer that we chose to be a stay-at-home mom and now we decided to get back to the working force. It should not confuse us what to put on our resume to fill the gap of years because we are taking care of our little ones. Above all, we should not feel guilty to make this decision!"

  • A stay-at-home mom is a 24/7 job full of responsibility taking care of human lives and beyond.
  • Stay-at-home moms continually develop various skills, from time management to researcher. We are anything we need to be.
  • When people see us on our 'me-time', it's not because we have plenty of time. But as humans first, we have the right to enjoy a little bit of our 'squeezed' time to keep us sane.

I lend my voice and #ChooseToChallenge people who are underrating stay-at-home moms.

A stay-at-home mom is not only a stay-at-home mom.
When they decided to go back to work, give them the chance as you give everyone else.
Let's work together and change the stigma. Together we can!

To every stay-at-home mom out there,
From a fellow stay-at-home mom.

Thank you for reading ๐Ÿ™‚

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