Good careers for parents, especially mothers

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I have been thinking about this for a while because I would like to help my children think about the probability that they will become parents when planning their careers. Seeing another young mom has also been asking about suitable careers that fit with motherhood, what are your thoughts?

The obvious answers are teaching and nursing because of the flexibility with schedules and job security. As the daughter of a teacher I agree that we got to see our mom a lot and she spent all our holidays with us. We have a number of people with medical careers in our family and here are some ideas in that field:

Dentistry - very well paid, even for part-time, job security but no need to work nights or weekends like doctors and no ugly Internship when you don’t sleep for 3 days at the beginning of your career like doctors.

Physical Therapy - huge demand and very well paid 75k and up. Easy to find a job in almost any location. You do need a masters.

Nurse Practitioner or Physician’s Assistant - both these careers require a masters degree but start at around 70k + straight out of school. No weekends or nights - usually. Much shorter time in school than an MD but with many of the responsibilities and interest level.

Are there any careers that are great for parents but are less well known or unusual?
 
I’m a university teacher, and in my country that means about 5-8 hour-long lectures a week and looooong holidays. I have 24 working weeks a year. The rest are holidays 😃

My husband is a musician. He has gigs once to twice a week in the evenings. Some might think being gone at night is not very family friendly, but you don’t even notice it twice a week and it really works for us. He earns about a quarter of what I do, and it means a lot.

He’s officially a SAHD, and I’m officially a WOHM, but most days we both feel like stay at home parents, as we’re both at home the vast majority of the time. 🤷
 
Kindness said:
I have been thinking about this for a while because I would like to help my children think about the probability that they will become parents when planning their careers. Seeing another young mom has also been asking about suitable careers that fit with motherhood, what are your thoughts?

The obvious answers are teaching and nursing because of the flexibility with schedules and job security. As the daughter of a teacher I agree that we got to see our mom a lot and she spent all our holidays with us. We have a number of people with medical careers in our family and here are some ideas in that field:

Dentistry - very well paid, even for part-time, job security but no need to work nights or weekends like doctors and no ugly Internship when you don’t sleep for 3 days at the beginning of your career like doctors.

Physical Therapy - huge demand and very well paid 75k and up. Easy to find a job in almost any location. You do need a masters.

Nurse Practitioner or Physician’s Assistant - both these careers require a masters degree but start at around 70k + straight out of school. No weekends or nights - usually. Much shorter time in school than an MD but with many of the responsibilities and interest level.

Are there any careers that are great for parents but are less well known or unusual?
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Motherhood IS the career. Not only that, but one of the world’s noblest vocations.

I think we have seen the horrifying results of parents handing their precious children over to strangers or the state to raise.
 
Sailor_Kenshin said:
Motherhood IS the career. Not only that, but one of the world’s noblest vocations.

I think we have seen the horrifying results of parents handing their precious children over to strangers or the state to raise.
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And also the results of kids missing their overworked fathers from their lives. Fatherhood is also one of the world’s noblest vocations. We are all at times called to more things at once in our lives.

Anyway, I’ll see your mother-at-home-(almost)-all-the-time and raise you a father-at-home-(almost)-all-the-time ;). No ‘strangers or the state’ involved.

Short hours for *both *parents and parenting as a *team *work wonders for kids. It’s not a possibility for many, but I propose it as a possible ideal, along with family farms where both parents work *and *parent most of the time.
 
I think you should let them choose what they want to do, period. You pass on the value of family first. Let them do the rest. No need to “direct” them in to a “proper” career! What if she wants to become a scientist or happens to be math whizz? She should not educate her talent to its fullest potential because it may lead to a job with odd hours? She should not consider going into military service or be a youth minister (you should see their hours for little pay)?

Truth be known, most people don’t have much control over their work hours anyway and there is no guarantee of flexibility even with degrees. However, the higher the education level, the more chance of having some kind of control over that. Also, the average college educated person changes careers a few times throughout life… so, values is what counts. That will guide such decisions.
 
Bailey2 said:
I think you should let them choose what they want to do, period. You pass on the value of family first. Let them do the rest. No need to “direct” them in to a “proper” career! What if she wants to become a scientist or happens to be math whizz? She should not educate her talent to its fullest potential because it may lead to a job with odd hours? She should not consider going into military service or be a youth minister (you should see their hours for little pay)?

Truth be known, most people don’t have much control over their work hours anyway and there is no guarantee of flexibility even with degrees. However, the higher the education level, the more chance of having some kind of control over that. Also, the average college educated person changes careers a few times throughout life… so, values is what counts. That will guide such decisions.
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I agree with the above post for the most part. However, I have friends in their 20-40s in various professions, all good jobs that pay well (75k+/yr). Due to technology just about everyone is able to work remotely/from home if needed. Such as a rotation with the husband/wife so that someone is home at all times or if a child is sick you can do your job from home. Granted some professions are more favorable to providing time to raise kids and a good salary, there are plenty out there that you can really adapt your schedule to meet parenting needs. I don’t think it is a good idea to limit options…just stress the value of family, etc and the rest will fall into place.
 
I am a stay at home mom, I do not mean to disparage parenthood in any way. However, before I had children I worked outside the home and when my children get older I expect to start working part-time and then full time again. We are all free to make choices about how we provide for our families. Of course my children will be free to choose whatever they want to do in the future as a career. When we discuss that I will bring up as a topic of discussion the fact that if they feel called to marriage and parenthood that is a good thing to take into account when thinking about the future. I know a number of people (moms and dads) that say if they realised the number of hours or the travel needed for their career and how it would affect their family life they would’ve chosen differently. I meant to examine career options which give you more ability to stay at home with your children for large amounts of time if you desired.

Some people are able and choose to have a parent stay home and never work outside and I support that choice too. However many mothers work part-time or full-time for various reasons.If a young woman is good at science dentristry could be a great career. She could take off years of time and still come back to the work force and make a good living which would help support a family IF SHE SO DESIRED.

I am sorry if anyone thought that I was undermining parenthood in this thread. This was definitely the furthest thing from my mind. I just have provided for myself from a very young age and I always think it is prudent for any person to have a skillset which helps provide for a family - if you believe marriage and family to be your vocation.

Of course this does not include those called to other vocations that do not have the responsibility of raising and providing for children. And of course there are parents who feel called to make great financial sacrifices to serve others. I am purely coming from the point of view of career advice to young adults. Many do not realise or think too hard about whether what they are studying will help them be able to marry and have children or will actually hinder that because of the amount of student debt they take on or hours they are working for example.

As people have mentioned it is great if both parents have enough flexibility where they can parent as a team more effectively - if they choose too. Also, until your child meets that special person I’m sure you expect them to be supporting themselves. I have had many conversations with young adults about careers (in my previous life I was a recruiter and also worked in a non-profit guiding young adults) and many had never really thought out how their choices would play out in the long run.

I think my mistake here was I considered in a given that the values that the majority of us share on these boards would have been communicated with our grown children all their lives. I am not interested in micro-managing or helicoptering around young adults, this was meant as a brain-storming session for good ideas nothing more.

I hope I have explained myself. I meant this purely as an interesting topic for thoughts about careers and in SUPPORT of the sacrament of marriage and raising children. 🙂
 
Kindness said:
I have been thinking about this for a while because I would like to help my children think about the probability that they will become parents when planning their careers. Seeing another young mom has also been asking about suitable careers that fit with motherhood, what are your thoughts?

The obvious answers are teaching and nursing because of the flexibility with schedules and job security. As the daughter of a teacher I agree that we got to see our mom a lot and she spent all our holidays with us. We have a number of people with medical careers in our family and here are some ideas in that field:

Dentistry - very well paid, even for part-time, job security but no need to work nights or weekends like doctors and no ugly Internship when you don’t sleep for 3 days at the beginning of your career like doctors.

Physical Therapy - huge demand and very well paid 75k and up. Easy to find a job in almost any location. You do need a masters.

Nurse Practitioner or Physician’s Assistant - both these careers require a masters degree but start at around 70k + straight out of school. No weekends or nights - usually. Much shorter time in school than an MD but with many of the responsibilities and interest level.

Are there any careers that are great for parents but are less well known or unusual?
Click to expand...
I was fortunate enough to stay home with our girls when they were young, which was great because their dad’s schedule has always been different from most (goes to work at about 1 pm, home at 10:30 pm; he’s a TV news anchor.) When the girls were older, I went to work with our local ballet company in development; older daughter headed off to college out of state about then, but I was able to work in the same place my younger daughter danced/rehearsed every afternoon.

Work in non-profits, like that small ballet company, often is flexible, though benefits are usually meager at best.

Our younger daughter and her husband are now in a grad program for a doctorate in audiology (Au.D). That, and speech pathology, seem to be good paying, flexible careers, particularly if you work in private practice or a school system.

Another poster mentioned how the number of people working from home is growing; that is something that likely will continue, which will be a blessing for parents.

The bottom line is that, while you can discuss and provide information, your children will have to ultimately decide for themselves. Thankfully, they will likely have plenty of opportunities to earn a living while attending to their parental duties.
 
Actually, I think every single poster here is in full agreement with a slightly different slant! No one is undermining anything! 👍

I did want to note that a dentist or lawyer or doctor most other professionals cannot take years completely off without falling behind. Most of my friends who did that had to change careers, take entry level positions or have trouble finding jobs at 45 or 50 competing with the “fresh” updated young professionals out of school, or go back to school in order to practice at all, etc. Just to note that.

But otherwise, as all agree here, values is the key with education about options. 👍
 
My DH is an MD and I would agree. But I know two moms who are dentists that were able to keep their foot in the door by working one day a week and keep abreast of changes in their field and then increase their hours years later with no problem. They still chose to work-part time. Medicine and law are very different and law can be merciless on young parents or medicine if you start having babies during med school/residency.
 
I’m not sure that looking at it this way is a good idea. I feel that a person should make the absolute best use of the gifts and talents God gave them. People who do this feel fulfilled in their lives and are much more joyful.

I tried for a while to pursue a career for the sole purpose of the fact that it would allow me to have a flexible schedule for when I did want to have kids (being an actuary, which I could do on a consulting basis and make good money)…unfortunately, I simply did not feel that my life had any purpose when I was pursuing that. Now I am pursuing my real love, working with mothers and babies, either as an OB or a nurse-midwife, and I cannot tell you what that has done to my life. I know this is the path God wants me to be on.

I am planning on simply putting my career on hold when we have our first child and frankly I’m not sure when I’ll start up again (I still have a lot of school ahead of me) - but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I am going to go full blast on my passions, both my work and my family, and I will let God continue to guide me in making the choices that will come up every step of the way.
 
Midwifery and being a doula works well for moms too, I agree pursue what makes you fulfilled but go into whichever field with your eyes open understanding the pros and cons ;). So happy to hear you’ve found what brings you joy - I recently stumbled across the field I want to pursue myself and it is so exciting to be excited!! And have a clear path of exploration.
 
I have one year left for my nursing degree…

One good thing about being a nurse is that the schedules can vary. My fiance is in the USAF, so he may get assigned to day or night shifts. When we are raising our family, I can work the opposite shift. Also, since nurses make a decent ammout of money, when the kids are little, I’ll only have to work one or two evenings a week, or even just be on call, in order to help us financially.
 
While teaching is usually thought of as a great career for mothers, I disagree somewhat because it is very inflexible. I didn’t like that when my daughter was sick I could not take off. I know there are sick and personal days, but it is not so easy to take those at the last minute unless it is a dire emergency. That being said, I now teach classes at community college and that is great - very few hours and good pay.

One woman I worked with when I was an engineer, I thought, was very clever about it (or it just happened for her this way by accident, I didn’t know her that well…). She was working (very hard) for several years before she and her husband had babies, and made herself indispensible at work. Then when she had her first baby she pretty much wrote her own schedule. She went down to part time and worked a day or two at home. They had 4 children total, and each time she had a baby she’d work the schedule out again to suit her. Smart.
 
Thanks so much for all your thoughts because I hope to be… drum roll please… a Career Adviser and Counselor for young adults. Big surprise huh? :rolleyes:
 
wow, that sounds like fun.

i own my own business. 😃
beautiful son, sexy car and own house.
 
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