When you have kids, your priorities will inevitably change a lot, and you may spend years being focused on your children and their success. Although this is only natural, it can lead to your confidence in your own abilities and your career starting to drop after a while, especially if you have taken time off to care for your kids or if you are more exhausted than usual. As such, here are some of the top tips that you can follow to make sure that your confidence does not take a knock when you have kids.
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- Take a Qualification
One of the best ways to do something for yourself and stay focused on your career even if you are on parental leave is to take a qualification. Taking a qualification that allows you to build on and assert your knowledge, maintain your passion for your industry, and have measurable achievements to aim for is an excellent idea. It can also make leaping back into work after the birth of your child, or once your child has grown up, much easier, as you will have the qualification that you have taken to support you, to keep you up to date with the changes in your industry since you have been gone, and to help you to get any promotion that you have always wanted. This can then allow you to feel confident in your place within the business that you work for, even if your kids have taken up all of your attention for the past few years or months.
Taking a qualification when you have kids, especially when you are on parental leave, can be hard, though, as all of your time may be consumed by them, and you may have to have them with you at all times. Your kids can also prevent you from moving to a campus university to take the qualification that you want to as you will need to be near them to care for them and help them to grow up. However, this does not mean that taking a qualification is impossible. Instead of taking a traditional degree, you should look at the vast range of online options that are available to you. These can allow you to earn the same degree as your peers but from the comfort of your own home and in your own time, which can allow you to fit in study time while your kids are asleep. As such, you should consider getting qualifications such as a DNP from Walsh University, as they offer online courses.
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- Stay in Touch With Your Workplace
If you are worried about falling out of the loop when it comes to your workplace due to parental leave, you should make sure that you stay in touch with your colleagues and your manager throughout the months that you are off. This can allow you to hear of any new developments that have taken place and can make sure that you do not feel disorientated or out of place when you finally return to work. You can stay in touch with your colleagues by staying in any work group chats that you have on platforms such as WhatsApp, and you might consider visiting your workplace a few times in the interim so that you can get a feel for what is happening and so that you do not feel as if you have been forgotten. This will also give you the chance to introduce yourself to any new staff that has been employed at your workplace.
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- Stay Up to Date
You should also make sure that your confidence in your abilities and your career does not drop by staying up to date with what is happening within your wider industry. This can mean that, when you return to work, none of the changes to your workplace will phase you, and you will even be able to stay ahead and suggest new ideas that can inspire your colleagues and your manager when you return. This can also make sure that you feel as if you are part of your industry and that you are still an expert in your specialism.
As such, to stay up to date with your industry, you should take steps such as reading industry journals and magazines. You should also consider visiting industry conferences and talks or attending these online if you are concerned about getting a babysitter for your kids. You should also conduct your research into certain developments that can help you to have all of the knowledge that you need to feel assured in yourself.
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- Look For Part Time Work
Although you might not be able to work full-time when you have young kids, especially if you are a single parent or struggle to find childcare, you should consider looking for part-time work that can keep you busy and in the know while your children are small. You may not be able to do this if you are on maternity or paternity leave, though. Part-time work can ensure that you can carry on exercising your skills and growing career-wise while also not having the stress and pressure of your usual job. As such, you should consider using job search websites and your connections to find part-time work that can suit you and your current situation in terms of your kids. A lot of this part-time work might also be from home, which can ensure that you will be able to complete it while keeping one eye on your children at the same time. If you want a break from your current job but you still want to work, some of the best part-time jobs for parents include a dog walker, a virtual assistant, a school receptionist, a blogger, or roles in childcare. This can then help you to make money and maintain your confidence before you can go back to work full-time.
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- Do Your Own Projects
When you are on leave because you have become a parent or if you have quit your job because of this, you should try to put effort into undertaking your own projects. These projects will allow you to keep up and develop your knowledge and skills at your own pace and can allow you to enjoy working in an industry in a way that you may not have been able to when you worked full-time in your industry. As such, you should consider investing in the equipment that you need to perform your own projects or even start up your own small business that can keep you occupied until your children are older. You can then utilize what you learn from these projects when you return to work.
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- Look the Part
When you have recently become a parent, you may constantly feel exhausted and stressed, and this may mean that you lose self-esteem in terms of both your skills and your appearance. As such, to make sure that you feel as if you belong in your industry even once you have had kids, you should try to look the part. Looking the part can naturally give you a confidence boost and can help you and others to see you as a professional and to take you seriously. As such, you should make sure that you invest in clothes that can help you to fit in when you return to work, and which can help you to feel as if you never left your workplace for an extended period of time. This can also help you to stop thinking of yourself simply as somebody’s parent and can help to remind you of the person that you are.
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- Set Targets
One of the best ways to get back into a working mindset and ensure that you can stay motivated to succeed in your career after you have kids is to set targets for your career. For instance, you might decide that you want to get a promotion within a few years, that you want to take on more responsibilities, or that you want to improve certain skills, such as leadership. By having these targets, which may be separate from your everyday to-do list, you will be able to give yourself a boost when you meet them and will ensure that you can make yourself interested in your career again.
When you have kids, your confidence in your abilities and career can drop simply because of the time that you are spending outside of your role and the fact that you are not using your skills every day anymore. However, just because you have had kids, this does not make you any less competent in terms of your career. As such, you should make sure that you maintain your career confidence by ensuring that it does not fall onto the back burner and that you are constantly looking for ways to advance your career and stay in the loop even alongside parenting and caring for your children. This will then ensure that you are in the perfect place to return to work when you are ready to.
Disclosure: This is a featured post.