Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart Your Career Even if You Haven't Had a Job in Years

What happens when an educated professional wants to become a stay-at-home mom but not end her career forever? Here is a book for the millions of moms who want to do what's best for their families and for themselves. Monica Samuels and J.C. Conklin show what to do when you’re ready to leave work to be a full-time mother, how to maintain contacts while away from the job, and then how to execute a successful reentry into the workforce anywhere from one to twenty years after you've left. Comeback Moms is filled with anecdotes and advice from economists, career counselors, employers and, of course, mothers who have made the transition from the career track to the mommy track and back again. The authors distill the wisdom of the experts and many high profile women--including Ambassador Karen Hughes, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, and former Texas Governor Ann Richards--into a three-tiered battle plan to help any woman get through this life-changing process and come out ahead. “You can’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to do it all or can do it all. You have to take advantage of opportunities when they’re offered.” — Anne Richards, former Governor of Texas Millions of educated, professional women are quitting their jobs to stay home and raise their children. That would never be you, right? You worked hard for your degree and even harder to get to this point in your career. Quitting now, even for a few years, would kill your career. Right? That’s what Monica Samuels thought when she found out she was pregnant and boy, was she wrong. Once you have a baby, your life changes in ways you’d never imagine. Some of your friends and family members may think you’ve gone a little crazy—crazy enough to leave a salary and paid vacations to stay home with your child. Before you go storming into your boss’s office to announce your departure, read this book. There’s more to quitting than saying the words. There’s strategy involved. Over sixty percent of professional women who leave work to raise children want to go back into the workforce someday. If you even think you might want to go back to work, be it in one year or twenty, you need to lay the groundwork now for a successful reentry or your options will be limited. If you do a little planning, you can reposition yourself professionally and have the choice to one day get back on the same career track, shift gears, accelerate, or change careers entirely. And, if you’ve already been out of the workplace for several years and never thought you’d go back, you’ll learn about the best strategies and resources for jumping back in. Comeback Moms is a practical, commonsense approach to career planning for all mothers. Monica Samuels and J.C. Conklin examine every conceivable angle and obstacle to help you make the best decisions possible before leaving your job, during your time at home, and once you decide to return to work. They offer advice on how to keep one foot in the professional pool, when and if it’s best to go back to school, setting realistic expectations when re-entering an old career, helping your children adjust when you do go back, and on the logistics of rebalancing marital power when a spouse leaves or re-enters the work force. It's all here in an invaluable guide for every woman who wants it all.