Raising a child is filled with challenges – sleepless nights, tantrums, tending to a sick child, endless scheduling and deadlines, remembering to fill out numerous forms for doctor visits, schools, games etc. Women are built to take on these motherhood challenges and overcome them. The go-getter executives, the office secretaries, the nurses and the scientists, the pilots or the stay-at-home moms, all face them in varying degrees. No exceptions there.

For every challenge that a mom overcomes, she learns a new skill!

Work under pressure – The sleepless nights and long days spent in taking care of a child teaches a mom to handle difficult and stressful situations with integrity. You’ve mastered the art of functioning in chaotic and unpredictable situations.  This means that at work, you can get a lot done without getting frazzled easily.

Keen sense of perception – Raising a child makes a woman fastidious, protective, intuitive, and perpetually vigilant. Your increased sense of perception and observation skills help in a whole host of jobs.

Power of negotiation – Ever watched the Optimum ad where the epic big sister-younger brother deal is reached?  Mediating sibling rivalries through diplomacy is nothing short of a feat. You’ve learned this on the job and executed it frequently. These interceding abilities make it easy for you to hammer out small and big issues at the workplace.

Champion Networker – The inherent mommy desire to know the best bouncy place, the better summer camp, or a competent tutor sharpens a mom’s hobnobbing skills no end. When at the workplace, you can easily strike a good rapport with colleagues or work effectively as a human resources manager or a social media coordinator.

Passion – No candidate is as good as the one who is enthusiastic. A mom spends years being a boo-boo healer, a nurse, an errand girl, etc. Despite the joys of motherhood, the repetitiveness of it all makes her anticipate the return to the workplace with a strong sense of eagerness. When you get back to work, you have a real hungry need to prove your mettle. This makes you an ideal employee – hard-working, dedicated, and passionate about making a difference in the workplace just as much as you did being at home with the kids.

Multitasking– If you’ve ever found yourself struggling to teach one kid while checking another’s quiz and turning the chicken in the oven at the same time, then you are multitasking and rocking it. When crisis mode strikes in the office, it is this ability that makes you roll up your sleeves and take on additional responsibilities with ease.

Efficiency- Whipping up multiple breakfasts, while simultaneously packing school lunches, tying shoelaces, braiding hair, etc. to make it to the bus stop on time, every day, require a certain degree of planning and efficiency that should not go unrecognized. A 9-5 job for a woman means just that – diligent organization & productivity to complete tasks on time.

A mom getting back to work is tenacious, compassionate, competent, and a great team player! Companies and recruiters who understand this will surely benefit from hiring the right candidates.

If you are a mother reading this, the next time you wonder about your skills, make sure you keep this in mind – because you are way more than the sum of all parts.

This article was first published on Maroon Oak http://maroonoak.com/motherhood-skill-amassing-side-effects/