Did you know that the percentage of fathers who stay at home with the kids has been steadily rising since 2007? Yep. It’s true.

With so many guys choosing or being forced into the primary caregiver role, is a stay at home dad resume even relevant anymore?

Absolutely. More than ever.

When the titans of finance, primarily men, damn near took down the entire concept of capitalism, it was women who stepped up into the primary breadwinner role for a lot of households.

And good on them, but it left us in an unfamiliar position.

Relaxed gender roles and economic implosion are just a couple reasons that all of the stay at home dad statistics have been seeing an uptick since the great recession. Unfortunately this also includes stay at home dad stigma and stay at home dad depression.

Both of those negatives have been increasing as well. Which is a problem, but the first step in solving any problem is admitting there is one.

So here we are.

Interesting Stay At Home Dad Statistics

• In 1989 4% of stay at home dads reported: “taking care of the family” as the primary reason. As of 2016, that number was close to 25%.
• Millennial dads were twice as likely to be a stay at home dad than their Gen X counterparts.
• 38% of new dads worry about their mental health during the first year.

If you’re a dad who hasn’t fully embraced the stay at home dad role quite yet (I know I didn’t for a long time) one of the best ways to combat that feeling of slight irrelevancy you might be feeling is to keep that stay at home dad resume polished. It sounds silly, but it works.

Let’s look at some other reasons why you want to have a strong stay at home dad resume.

Battle the Stay at Home Dad Depression

As men, we’re used to being in control. We’re used to going out there, killing what we eat, and brining it home to be prepared for our dinner. It’s an out dated stereotype, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t brought up to think it’s true.

It plays havoc with our brains. We don’t know where we fit in. Our day-to-day life doesn’t look like Don Draper’s, our Dad’s, or even our contemporaries. This is unsettling and can lead to serious mental health issues.

Keeping our stay at home dad resume polished keeps us sharp. Yeah, we’re on the bench as far as the workforce is concerned, but any sports fan will tell you that you’re one awkward pivot away from finding yourself on the field.

So you want to keep that resume shiny.

An Overdue Stay at Home Dad Resume Polish Helps with Self Assessment

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been out of the workforce and playing the primary caregiver role. You’ve learned some new stuff. You’ve learned some new life skills that are going to translate well when you reenter the workforce. You’ve acquired a breadth of knowledge that can take some of the venom out of the stay at home dad stigma.

How about leadership skills? Crisis management? Hostage negotiation? Yeah… absolutely you’ve leveled up in those areas.

Time management? Of course. You’re no longer in charge of your sleep schedule… when you work… you’re living with the most demanding and sometimes annoying micromanager you’ll ever encounter.

And you’re turning that little tableau rasa into a productive member of society. At least one that doesn’t bite at day care. You don’t want to be the dad of the biter.

Stay at home moms have been dealing with this for years. Learn from their experience and we’ll all have a stronger resume for it.

Up Your Freelance and Side Hustle Dad Game

Hey, you know how that little adorable goober took you out of the workforce for a while? That isn’t just their prerogative.

Any employer, for any reason, can do that too. They don’t really owe you any loyalty. If they are a publicly traded company, an employer’s loyalty is to their bottom line and the shareholder. Yeah… that’s not you.

Don’t be a workforce or one of the stay at home dad statistics. Break out of the mold. Did you know that according to the IRS the average millionaire has seven distinct streams of income?

A job… even a career… is but one stream.

There’s no better time to start, as James Altucher would say, choosing yourself and getting that side hustle going. And there is no better way to combat the stay at home dad stigma than to be financially independent. To not be a dad who is reliant upon the workforce he’s on the bench for.

That’s a dad goal worth striving for.

Your Network May Demand a Current Stay at Home Dad Resume

Did you do your networking today? No? Too busy? P’shaw.

You need to always be networking. Simple, authentic, mindful networking is the backbone for any side hustle dad. Here… tweet me right now (@jamesjgriffin) <- Boom, done.

Not the crazy “after work” drinking fests of our youth. Those weren’t networking. Come on. Networking, when done properly, not only feels productive, but it actually is. It has the added benefit of curbing some of that stay at home dad depression we might be feeling.

But if you’re putting in the serious leg work to do some basic networking, then those efforts will pay off. In the form of a career enhancement when you do go back to the workforce, a partnership, a part time gig, or some freelance work.

Whatever it is, you want to make sure that you aren’t going to the well only when you’re thirsty. I really like Jordan Harbinger’s 6 minute networking course for this reason. It’s easy and doesn’t impinge on family time.

You can do most of the exercises during your morning bathroom/office time.

Updating a Stay at Home Dad Resume Helps You Find Gaps

And I’m not talking about the formal employment gaps that make us feel like the stay at home dad stigma might have legs. No, I’m talking about the personal gaps.

Sometimes when we read over a resume it just reads like a series of career bullet points. I went to school here. I worked at this firm for this period of time… Without context, it can be something of a drab exercise.

Are there any areas on your resume that jump out as lacking? The volunteer experience area maybe? How about those hobbies and interests? Maybe those haven’t been tended to.

Maybe that stay at home dad depression you’ve been feeling isn’t so much because of the stay at home part… Just sayin.

When I did my resume review when I was transitioning into the stay at home / work at home / side hustle dad, I noticed that I was lacking in some areas I didn’t think were a big deal, but they just kept showing up.

Like, I may have known PowerPoint in 1997… Do I know it now? Ummmm…

But you know, with Udemy, SkillShare, MasterClass, and any number of other MOOCs, there’s no reason we can’t start filling some of these gaps. Screw you stay at home dad sigma.

Conclusion

Transitioning from the workforce full time to being a full-time caregiver is jarring. There are no two ways about that. The stay at home dad statistics backs that up.

Despite the demographic trends, stay at home dad stigma remains a real problem. Being asked what your “allowance from your wife” is doesn’t feel good. This can be a serious cause of stay at home dad depression.

But, fear not! The oft neglected resume can actually be a savior here. Just doing the exercise of polishing and punching it up can actually make us better men and better dads.

That’s why, even if you’re not currently in the first string workforce, having a stay at home dad resume polished and ready to go is absolutely essential.