Working as a stay at home mom is both rewarding and challenging in more ways than one. If you exit the professional world to stay home with your kids, you worry that you will lose your ability to get back to work when you’re finally ready. A large gap in your resume can feel intimidating and hurtful, and it’s not easy to get back into the workforce when your boss for the past few years was your toddler. If you’re ready to go back to work after being a stay at home mom, you have options when it comes to your resume.

List Any Volunteer Time on Your Resume

If you volunteered while you were home, you have something to add to your resume. It shows potential future employers you like to work even when you’re not receiving a paycheck. It shows you are dedicated to helping others, to taking direction from a nonprofit, and to being present in the lives of those who need it most. It’s not traditional work, but being an active volunteer is not something an employer frowns upon.

Work from Home Jobs Count

Remember that time you found yourself wondering how to become a Lipsense Distributor before you decided to sign up and do the job? You can list that on your resume. Any work you did in your time at home is work. If you opened a business, if you spent time working on your own business, and you worked in any sort of direct sales, it’s going to look good on your resume. It shows that no matter how much time you spent out of the office, you still had the desire to work and make a living. Your future boss will appreciate that on your resume.

List Any Ongoing Education

Not all moms who decide to stay home with their kids are looking to stay home forever, and you might decide to use this time to take classes at night or online. Did you further your education or spend this time getting a new degree? If you did, add it to your resume. It helps for employers to see you spent that time away from work making progress in your future.

Discuss Your Experience

Listing items on your resume can seem like a tedious task, but you can get away with doing yourself some big favors by discussing your experience in the workforce prior to leaving to take care of your kids. The gap might seem significant, but it’s insignificant if you have the experience and the knowledge to handle going back to work. Focus on your skills, what you learned while you were home, and how well you manage, multitask, and delegate to make the lives of everyone at home and work easier.

Be Open About Your Time Off

The biggest problem many parents face when they return to work after being a stay at home parent is figuring out how they can make their resume seem better without making it obvious they spent so much time not working. If you were home with your kids, you should highlight it and be open about it. Don’t hide it. Be open and honest about the love you had of this time home, and be honest about how excited you are for this next chapter in your life. You’re living your life on your terms, and that’s where you make a lasting impression.

Going back to work after a significant amount of time out of the office is intimidating, but it’s only as intimidating as you allow it to become. You have the power to take advantage of what you have to offer, and you must do it with a good attitude. Be open about where you were, what you were doing, and be honest about how you want to move forward.