Get Back to Your Career Grind: Proven Tips and Strategies for Ambitious Moms Making a Comeback!

Hey there, mamas! As a stay-at-home mom, the thought of returning to the workforce can be daunting. The idea of balancing family life, job searching, and pursuing your passions can be overwhelming and leave you feeling uncertain about the future. But here’s the thing – it is possible to return to a career or job you love, even after taking a long break. In this post, I’ll share my personal journey of returning to the NICU as a registered nurse after a seven-year break and give tips and advice for other mamas in a similar position.

Overcoming the Fear of Searching for a Job:

When I first started looking for job opportunities, fear consumed me. I wondered what it would mean for my family life and how I could possibly juggle it all. However, as I continued to search, I realized that it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. I found a job that was the perfect fit for me and my family, allowing me to pursue my passions while still being there for my kids.

Trusting Your Gut:

One of the most significant lessons I learned is to trust my gut. I came across job opportunities in the past that seemed like a good fit, but I always talked myself out of applying because I was unsure of the outcome. This time, however, I followed my instincts, and it led me to the ideal opportunity. Trusting your gut can help you navigate the job search process and find a position that aligns with your values and goals.

Embracing the Journey:

Returning to the workforce after taking a long break can be challenging, but it’s essential to remember that, as mothers, we are resilient and resourceful. We always do what’s best for our families, and even if it feels scary at first, you can make it work. For all the multipassionate women out there who may be taking a break from their career or job, I want to remind you that it’s never too late to follow your dreams and pursue what makes you happy. Embrace the journey and know that you got this!

“Why, Oh Why, Can’t I?” Season 1, Episode 3 Transcript

Christy: [00:00:00] Hello all you happy little Bluebirds this is a very special episode today because I am currently driving to shadow an interview in a nicu. Ah, I’m like freaking out. A little backstory, I was a neonatal intensive care nurse for 10 years. Back that up. I was a postpartum nurse for two years and then went straight into the NICU from there.

And I’d always, always loved my job, and I’ve always known that I would go back to NICU nursing, but over the last seven years we had three kids. My husband had a very high tempo deployment schedule, and then everything with Charly being deaf, navigating those first few years, the timing just wasn’t right for me to be away that much.

But I have been very patient and I have been searching[00:01:00] oftentimes to see if a position would come up in a NICU that is a flexi position, and that is a very apparently hard position to come by. And one day I was looking around and saw this position come up and I’m excited. It is a NICU position at a level two nicu.

All this to say here, I am . Why or why can’t I go back to being a NICU nurse after seven years? And I thought a really interesting topic would be navigating the seasons in life, where in the last episode we were talking about being in that season where you are a very busy and overwhelmed mom, and the thought of this time coming seems so farfetched and so far reaching.

It’s like a fantasy. And it’s so crazy because it seems like just yesterday I was in that fog, I was there. Everybody would ask me, did I ever think that I would go back to [00:02:00] NICU nursing? And I was always saying, yeah, of course, one day. But really in the back of my head I was thinking, I am getting further and further away.

 Is this gonna be possible? And I’m very nervous. with a little patience and just a little trust in where God and the universe has been nudging me. Here we are. I’ve had such cool experiences and I’ve had such great time being a stay-at-home mom because that’s what worked for our family, even though technically I, as a work from home mom and now my husband’s not deploying, my kids are in school full-time and it’s just the season is here.

Hopefully that’s encouraging for the moms, like the ones that I was talking to in my last episode, women like me have been there and we totally empathize with what you’re feeling and hopefully hearing from me and seeing that I’m sharing this journey with you today will give you a little bit of hope that you can take as much time as you need to [00:03:00] do the important work that you’re doing as a mom.

This will come back to you, but with that being said, I am freaking the F out because I’m just hoping it comes back to me. It has been seven years, and these are normal thoughts when you’re taking an extended break from anything, nursing a job in general. Let’s talk about these feelings that we have as we try to go back into it.

The first thing, even searching for a job feels weird, right? It just doing the search button, you have such anxiety thinking, oh my gosh, what is this going to mean for my family life? What is this going to mean for our dynamics and schedule of the day? Can I do this? You’re talking yourself in and talking yourself out of sending that application the entire time.

And I will say I did that several times over the last seven years. this time was different because when I saw this position come up, it wasn’t as scary. I was like, oh, [00:04:00] this is a great fit. I can imagine being home with my kids a lot still. I can imagine running my media company and still being able to be a NICU nurse and help the tiny babies and it wasn’t as scary.

So that’s a big thing. Your gut is going to tell you a lot along the way in this process because I would see interesting jobs over the last seven years and I’d be like, wow, that would be a good job to apply to. But I was just like, what would I do? And you’ll figure it out if you have to figure it out.

That’s the thing about us. We will never let our kids starve. We will always do what’s best for our families. And I know that is what tops anything. So if I was in a position before where I needed the job, even if I was scared, I know I would’ve navigated it well. But for my family in that season, I was like, oh, this is gonna be bad for my family.

My husband has a lot going on. We are having issues with childcare, and I feel like I would be doing my kids a disservice [00:05:00] at this point if I took this job. But when this one came up, or when a job for you comes up that really starts to feel like a good fit, that fear goes away a little bit and you start to get excited.

I was talking this morning with my husband about those nervous, anxious, excited butterflies. Not the ones that are like, oh, why am I doing this? I’m dreading going to work. Cuz we all know those ones too. The one that’s oh my gosh, this is such a good position and I’m so excited.

And, but oh my gosh, it’s been so long. What can I do it? But I know I can do it cause I’m good at this. But I’m very nervous cuz now I have to meet new people and all the realms and I think those feelings are really good and they’re very life giving . When you’re 38 and in the daily grind, I suppose there’s not as much opportunities to have those feeling.

So if you are in the position where you’re looking to go back to work after a break, I think that’s something that you can look forward to as a positive, of, wow, cool. I’m gonna have this feeling again. And it’s been a while I remember feeling that way when I was a young hungry, fresh, new grad.

Other [00:06:00] thoughts that will come to your head when you are transitioning back into work after a long break is, are you still qualified? Can you still do it? Am I even still a nurse? Those are such valid questions. I made sure to maintain my nursing license no matter what. I never let a gap go in having my nursing license, because I worked way too dog on hard to let that go. I take a lot of pride in being a registered nurse, and I knew that I would be back on this path one day. In five years time when my daughter turns 12.

I do not plan on having a big social media presence. It’s her time. It’s my girls’ time to dream at that point. And I’m hoping that my media company can be very self-sufficient and these podcasts and other forms of value giving opportunities that build community and not necessarily the influencer side of things, but we’ll see.

I’m a fly by the seat of my pants kind of gal. I did not know I would be [00:07:00] going to get my BLS free certification in seven minutes and going to the NICU and interviewing and shadowing at 10:00 AM today. Today I feel like will be a very good inventory of where I am at in my nursing skills, what I need to work on.

I guess I’m talking very specifically about the NICU because I’m just rambling cuz I have very nervous energy driving to this BLS

 I think what I’m most excited about is going back as a NICU nurse with three kids, now three babies, because I can already tell, there’s absolutely no way that I can give the same care now that I’m a mom.

 It can only be better because I look back at my young, naive self as a nurse, great nurse, very skillful, but I didn’t have that other human element that could connect with the moms who are in the nicu. I am not just a mom of three healthy term babies.

I’m the mom of a crash c- section. [00:08:00] I’m the mom of a child with additional needs who’s deaf. So I have been on the side of being so confused and not understanding what went on. I’ve been on the side of being the mom who has blamed myself and wondered if it was something that I did to cause this.

I have been the mom who has to hand her baby off to a stranger and put her life in their hands, and there’s no way to replicate that sort of empathy in the way of somebody who’s gone through it. And I know being back in this role will be for a reason. 

So that’s like pretty damn exciting and pretty damn cool. Thanks for letting me share these thoughts with you. It’s a bit of a personal episode today, but I think there’s other people who might understand or might feel what I’m feeling right now.