In 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, LinkedIn did something really interesting. The platform added new job titles to reflect the realities of COVID for parents of small children. Now on LinkedIn, you can put your title as “Stay-at-home Mom,” Stay at home Dad,” or “Stay-at-home Parent” to show that you are a full-time caretaker. When I saw this update, my instinct was that this was a great move.
Another big update was if you use one of these new job descriptions and set your employment type to “self-employed,” you no longer need to specify an employer as a way to more accurately reflect career gaps.
I applaud LinkedIn for this, and more importantly, all my respect goes to the parents who either did double duty of balancing work and childcare or had to fully leave their jobs to take care of their kids. But now in 2023, what doesn’t sit right with me is that raising kids full-time is still stigmatized. You’d think that something as old as procreation would have been analyzed and its benefits made abundantly clear & legitimate in our oh-so-advanced society.
So is there a way to use a Stay At Home Mom LinkedIn headline that is professionally acceptable?
Is a Stay At Home Mom LinkedIn headline considered professional?
So is a Stay At Home Mom LinkedIn headline considered professional? Personally, while I love that LinkedIn is offering parents the chance to show their full-time caretaker work, I also believe that parents shouldn’t have to come up with some corporate justification for taking care of their kids.
But that said, this topic is divisive. While most are sympathetic as to why a person would use a “stay at home mom” LinkedIn headline, some experts recommend other ways of explaining resume gaps or full-time caretaker work.
If you are searching for a new job or looking to get back into the workforce, professionals remain cautious about using the stay at home parent headlined on LinkedIn. Alison Green’s popular Ask A Manager blog recommended that a reader who wrote in leave her time spent as a full-time stay-at-home mom off of her resume for two reasons.
The first is that it could be considered “inappropriate” to have details related to family under your work experience and that while caring for your children is absolutely work, it is not work that you could be held accountable for or equate to like a full-time work position. The second reason is that it could potentially invite bias (something that women in the workforce already face) and could complicate future job positions or job seeking. She instead recommends using your cover letter to explain work time gaps for caretaking reasons.
But what about if you’re not applying for jobs? Is there a time when the Stay At Home Mom LinkedIn headline is ever ok? I would say yes, it absolutely is to that question, and here’s why.
Here’s when to use a Stay At Home Mom LinkedIn headline
If you are using LinkedIn to create content around your experiences, then I believe the Stay At Home Mom LinkedIn headline (or any stay at home parent headline) can be quite useful. Sharing personal details and being your authentic self on LinkedIn makes for far more interesting and relatable content. People who stick to only sharing dry business updates tend to not get great LinkedIn engagement. If you can share what it was like to be a stay-at-home parent during the COVID-19 pandemic or how you and your family struggled with balancing remote work and remote school or other experiences, there are millions of people who went through the same things and will resonate with your content and be much more likely to engage with you.
Don’t be afraid to be yourself! If you’re stuck on where to go or what content to create that showcases yourself as a brand, here’s the GMI Rocket blog post on how to create authentic and engaging content that showcases your whole self.
