Pre-SAHM Career: Do you plan on returning after X amount of years?

[chersolly]

If you had a career pre-baby, do you plan on returning after an X amount of time?

[eleven]

Yep, I'm just not sure of how many years 'X' will be.

Pre-baby I was a teacher and loved my job. While I love being home and caring for dd, I also look forward to returning to work. We plan on having at least one more child, and I would want all of my own kids in school before I return, so it is going to be a good long while.

[Spencersmom]

I am in the same situation as Sarah. I was a teacher pre-baby. I enjoyed my work but love staying at home and raising my son. We plan on having another baby in a couple of years and I hope to be lucky enough to stay home until both of my children are in school. My estimate is about 5 more years. When I do return to work, I am suspecting that it will be as a teaching assistant for the first couple of years or so. Being a teacher is hard work and very time consuming. I would want to make sure that I could be both an awesome teacher and a devoted mother before I committed to full time.

[greenmansions]

Nope. Not going back. Tired of long hours and the politicking in an office. And the work was just not inspiring anymore.

I hope to start a business for myself, tho who knows what it will be. If I could just make enough so that we could use that money for a vacation each year or build up an emergency fund, that would be great.

The way I see it, I want to be around when my kid gets home from school and I want to be around summers too.

[earthcore]

Not if I can avoid it! I fgure homeschooling will keep me home for a while.

[Red Sonja]

Yep, I will be going back but I'm not sure when. DH can retire in about 7 years (military) so probably then. I am currently applying to grad school to start work on my Master's degree. If hubby works long enough I would like to get my PhD also.

[Amys1st]

Yes I plan on returning to doing something someday. Whether or not I return to sales- I do not know. I plan on doing something in a few years. It may be consulting or starting a business on my own or sales training. There is plenty of time to decide that since we are ttc again and I plan on doing something again after kids are in school. It may be a while.

[mamawanabe]

I won't be able to - my career doesn't allow taking a break or even part-time work.

I am really excited to be a sahm, but I am also really worried that I won't be able to find any kind of meaningfull challenging woh employment when my kids are older. If all goes well (get pregnant as quickly) I'll be 43 when my youngest enters 1st grade, and we all know that ageism is a big problem.

But, yes,I do want to woh when I am in my late 40s, and 50s, and 60s, and 70s.

[HelloKitty]

Nope. I will return to work of some sort but not my pre-SAHM career. I had career burn-out when I decided to stay home anyways. I want to do something that helps people more (I was in the computer industry).

I'm gotten past the point where I care about making tons of money, I just want to make enough to pay the bills and be happy. In October I'm taking a course to become a Doula, I'm also writing a fiction book - these are the type of things that make me happy.

[Spock]

I was a librarian in my pre-baby days and I do plan to return to that at some point. Right now, I have no idea when that will be. We're still trying to decide whether or not to have another child so that would certainly affect any timeframe I may have. I do worry about being out of the workforce for a long time and how that is going to affect my ability to get a job. Fortunately, librarianship is still female-dominated so I'm sure I won't be the first person to go back after a few years at home. I've been trying to remain current by reading the professional literature and attending conferences so hopefully I won't be too much of a dinosaur when I go back!

[NaomiLorelie]

I don't plan on going back to my old 'career path' but I do plan on going back to work in about five years. I used to be in retail management. Talk about unsatisfying. I'm hoping to start college again p/t in the fall so I guess I won't be a true SAHM but DH and I will be SAHpartners together so I'm okay with that. Other than that I hope to have my bachelors in four to five years, then I will go back to work and get my masters. I plan on working either p/t or early in the day so I will be home when the girls are out of school until they are much older and I will always be home in the evenings

[Elphaba]

.

[simply me]

I am sure i eventually will return to work. I am not going to go back inot wholesale/retail management though thats for sure!!!! I has enough of that crap.. :LOL

If & when i do return i think it will be in a special education setting of some type. Since having my special needs son i now know my future will be in that. Just not to sure whether it would be teaching, advocating,caseworkers etc.

My hubby is a cop & would like me to go into his police dept and do like office type things or a dispatcher etc. Not for me ui tell him. But it would pay good.

[virgo mommy]

i would like to get a job at their school, when my last one is in school all day, so then i will have summers off and pretty much follow their schedule, i want to be home when they go to school and be home when they get home from, school, too much time alone, can be a dangerous thing (for the kids)

[my2girlsmama]

Yup.

Didn't have the career per se yet though, just worked admin business....but plan to hopefully gain a degree and get a teaching certification while at home with the monkeys! Not sure how long...Dh and I agreed I'd return to work when they're older and he'd be home............

The ol' switcheroo.

[chalupamom]

Originally Posted by mamawanabe

I won't be able to - my career doesn't allow taking a break or even part-time work.

May I ask what you do? O.K., I just did, but please don't feel pressured or put upon to answer. Just tell my it's none of my nevermind!

As for me, I imagine that I will work for pay again at some point but I don't know if that will be in six months or six years. My husband, although tremendously smart and in possession of some unique credentials, is not exactly a bring-home-the-bacon kind of guy so I imagine that if college for the kid and/or a retirement for us is ever going to be in the picture, I'll be the one to provide it.

[GranoLLLy-girl]

Re:

No--that wouldn't work for me.
For one, I plan to homeschool, so I'll probably be about 60 when my kids are off to college (I'm 40 with a 1 and 3 year-old). And 60 isn't going to cut it when it comes to getting back into the work force.
For a while, that bothered me. But the more I think about the benefits of homeschooling, the more I realize that this is a career path.

[RedWine]

Another future homeschooler here, so I'll be at home with the kids for at least the next 17ish years...more if we decide to futher expand our family.

[greenmansions]

What will be interesting to see is how the whole baby boomers retiring thing(stampede out the corporate doors) will affect those SAHMs who want to go back to work later. Maybe they'd be welcomed with open arms. From what I've read, companies are going to be hurting in 10-15 years for lack of skilled employees. Wishful thinking on my part, maybe - I just wish it were easier for SAHMs over the long haul.

[skueppers]

I did have a very satisfying career before I decided to SAH, but I don't know whether I'll go back to it in the future. I haven't made any decisions about when/whether I'll re-enter the work force in the future -- even though we don't plan to home school, we still think it's very valuable for children to have a stay-at-home parent during their school years.

So anyway, my future non-mom pursuits are totally up in the air! I'm definitely open to changing careers, though. Who knows what I'll be interested in later on?