If you’d have told me 6 months ago that being a stay at home mom was good preparation for going back to work, I probably would have laughed at you or at the very least rolled my eyes when you weren’t looking.

Sorry not sorry, it’s true.

But here’s the deal, and I’m being truthful, being a stay at home mom actually does prepare you for the workforce.

I’m not going to lie, there’s nothing about being a mom that has made me better at public health practice. It hasn’t kept me sharp on my epi or research skills. I can’t conduct a better needs assessment, plan a better program, or write a better Literature Review because I’ve broken up 10,000 fights over the last 6 years.

But there are some other skills that being a mom has sharpened, let’s talk about a few.

Skill #1: Time Management.  When you have 14 hours by yourself with littles you have to come up with a plan. I’m not a stay in yoga pants all day sort of person. I admire those that are, but if I’m not up, dressed, and ticking things off my list by 8am I feel like the day is wasted. Yes, I see how illogical that is.

But here’s the thing, time management isn’t something you learn in a college class. I mean it might be a byproduct of going to school, but it isn’t one of the learning objectives. Time management is certainly something you have to learn when you’re attempting to keep littles alive, get them on a schedule, and heaven forbid, show up anywhere close to on time.

I will admit that I thought running my kids from one activity to the next was beneficial only to them, turns out I was wrong about that.

Skill #2: Communication. Have you ever negotiated with a tiny terrorist about the color of a cup, the importance of wearing pants out of the house, or tried to get them to try a vegetable? Turns out those communication skills are beneficial for more than just starting a fight with a little dictator. Bless my second child, but he is not easy. He’s smart and sassy (which is why we call him Sassy), and is ready and willing to argue every point. I thought the purpose of this behavior was to drive me insane as quickly as possible, turns these negotiation tactics work with adults too. Who knew!

It turns out that listening to a child describe their nightmare does more than give you insight into how your child views the world, it also helps you learn to understand people that think differently than you do. I have to consciously make myself listen to some things my kids tell me (I know, I’m not great), but I’ve found that training myself to do that with my kids helps when talking to grown ups too. It turns out most of us just want to be heard, what better way to practice than at 3 in the morning when someone has a nightmare. Next time that happens, just tell yourself you’re developing marketable skills.

Skill #3 Self Confidence. I’m not sure this is a skill, but one thing children teach you is that not everyone will like you. I’m not a warm and fuzzy person, but I would prefer for people to like me. Well scratch that, I would prefer for people to view me as competent. Do you know what kids think, not that. Bless my children, they do not think I am competent. I know that this is probably a product of me constantly reminding them to do things, they just think this is how people talk.  But if their comments are any indication as to how competent they think I am, then it’s a miracle I can dress myself.

Unlike (most) adults, children let you know exactly how they’re feeling. I’m not sure I can count the number of times my darling children have told me I am “the worst mother ever”. The first time I was shocked, now my reaction is more like “ok then”. Those lovelies have toughened me up. There will be people that think I’m incompetent and don’t like me, and that might just be ok. Sometimes people just don’t like you, bummer.

Skill #4: Multitasking. I distinctly remember running to the bathroom to throw up, while attempting to make dinner, grade papers, and keep the boys from getting into too much trouble when I was pregnant with my youngest. I thought I was a good multitasker before that, but let’s just say nothing can prepare you for taking care of three kids 24/7 that insist on running in opposite directions all the time. Seriously all the time.

There are days when my phone is ringing like crazy, my inbox is blowing up, my to do list is growing exponentially, and I have someone waiting at my door to talk to me, and all I can think is “breathe, you’ve got this”. I might not actually have it… Wouldn’t that be terrible. But there’s a chance that I might be able to draw on some of those skills and power through.

So it turns out I didn’t “lose” 9 years. I developed skills that would have otherwise been overlooked in favor of something more traditionally marketable. It turns out that that in addition to teaching me to ignore screaming and be ok with lucky charms for breakfast (ok seriously it’s just garbage), my kids taught me several (hundred) things that can be put to good use outside our house. Now I just need to figure out how to get those on a resume…