# Reason for leaving : start a family



## laylalowman (Jan 24, 2013)

I know employers don't want to hear that you left your previous employer to have a kid then you took a year off (gap in employment) and then started a company with partner then went back to school and here I am.  So how do you answer reason for leaving was to have a child and stay home with him for a year but done with kids and they are in school now?!?!


----------



## Pam Brooks (Jan 25, 2013)

I don't believe that employers "don't want to hear" that you took time off to raise a family. You should be honest about your dates of unemployment and why you were not working outside the home. That's a perfectly reasonable explanation. What I will tell you, however, that knowing you have children, the employer will want to make sure you have solid daycare solutions and a backup plan. We can't ask this stuff of course, but it doesn't hurt to mention that you have reliable day care, a plan B and even a plan C. Nothing is more annoying for a manager than to have an employee with kid issues that repeatedly keep them out of the workplace. 

You can point out that you're in a place where you are able to focus on a career....the kids are situated, you have the time and enthusiasm for a new career, you have a good support system, and have taken the steps to insure that you are successful. You can use your business creation as an example of your entrepreneurial experience, and that you were able to juggle this with the demands of raising a young family. It doesn't hurt to say that you are 'done' with kids.....every hiring manager worries if an employee is going to be pregnant every second year, which we certainly can't control, nor can we discriminate. Your job will be to reassure hiring managers that you have your outside life under control and that you will be 100% invested in the work you'll be hired for.  Good luck!


----------

