We Need a New Phrase for Stay-at-Home Moms

We Need a New Phrase for Stay-at-Home Moms Stay-at-Home Mom isnt just an outdated term, its unternehmensverbund women back from advancing in the workplace.We came to this urgency while researching our forthcoming book, Your Turn Careers, Kids and Comebacks A Working Mothers Guide, when women told us the lengths they go to justify a career break and say theyre home mothering, because they are anything but a stay at home, or shut-in as the word implies.In fact, the woman you see at the librarys storytime was once the VP of Marketing. The woman you see trying to control a toddlers meltdown in the grocery store used to lead a team of 50 people as Director of Operations. The woman heading up your childs PTA was once the Editor in Chief at a major magazine. Shes also likely highly educated, given that women have earned more college degrees than men since the 1980s and today earn more than two-thirds of masters degrees.Yet once out, these women are left with few alternatives to describe th e path theyve currently chosenor notchosen, some being pushed out by inhospitable work structures, high childcare costs, or family normsto focus on caregiving. Ask a woman who is on a career break what she does, and some will sheepishly reply, Im just home with the kids, in a tone that implies theyre letting themselves and society down. , one woman argued recently in the New York Times. (Theres that word JUST again).The confidence drop that begins at maternity leave continues long past when a woman leaves the work world through to the time shes ready to return. Women stumble over how to position this time away from the 9-5 work world to prospective employers and face realities like this research shows thatresumes of non-mothers receive 2.1 times the callbacks of mothers.And while the clunkiness of the term stay at home mom (mom was tacked on to stay at home in the 80s, replacing homemaker and housewife) has been broadly discussed,written about, and hashed out, no one has come up wit h a solid replacement.So what should we call this highly educated, highly untapped and experienced talent swimming-pool who took a break from the workforce to raise her children? What are some alternatives to the term stay-at-home mom, which on the surface assigns no value to their previous experience or education? Isnt it time for a new phrase that instills confidence on both sidesboth for the individual and for the employer? Whats a phrase that lets women own the mom partthat values the time women spend caregiving and positions their career comeback as an asset?Weve heard of sabbatical, independent contractor, choosing not to work outside of the home, former fill in the blank moonlighting as a mom. When we recently asked for new ideas, we heard Head of People Operations, Mother Warrior, Slay at Home Mom/Dad, Family Coordinator, Co-creator. The list is longA LinkedIn search yields even more suggestions, job titles and descriptions like Family leave. Domestic engineer. Pregnancy pau se. CEO of Jones Inc. SAHM. And, simply, mom.Its that last that we think speaks volumes - mom a term that works for those that work inside the home and out, and has the chance when added to a LinkedIn profile, like we did to ours, to normalize the caregiving years when work and parenting collide.What if everyone added mom to their profile, whether they work in or outside the home? How would this shift the conversation? Stacey Delo and Jennifer Gefsky--This article originally appeared on SheKnows.