For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 10, 2023

In which case, wife and mother should be first on the list.

What do you think ‘wife and mother’ is, Michael? Play? One of the world’s biggest jobs…

To Elly, a mom and a wife are jobs. Well, jobs she’d never be fired from and has no boss supervising her – heck, she’s the boss in that household. In that regard, I’d think she needs to delete these – nobody wants to hire a boss if the position doesn’t call for it. Listen to Mike. The employers want to see applicable job skills for the specific position they want filled. They don’t need to know if you are a wife or a mom. Heck, they might even discriminate against you for being a mom. They don’t like moms. They leave or call in on a drop of a hat when kids are sick, need ride home, etc. You don’t want them to know you have kids, Elly.

Then you take over her responsibilities Mike…

You can either write a resume to flatter your own sense of worth, or you can write a resume that presents your skills and education that appeals to the needs of the prospective employer. Your choice, Ellie. Just remember virtue signaling doesn’t pay for the stuff you want to buy.

Nothing is more work, but maybe just list away from home jobs.

These kids, every time Elly is working, they’re standing there, eating, drinking, consuming..

That last experience is a very important addition to the resume. Almost every employer would want to know off the bat that you will be wanting to leave the office at three everyday to pick up the 3 children from school!

He will be up to something !

Let’s see . . . wife and mother: experienced in accounting, procurement, diplomacy, practical nursing, interior decorating, maintenance . . .

A typewriter, how quaint! When was this one first printed?

being a mom is such an underappreciated job… but what would I know, just ask my mom, she would know. I’m just her son. :}

Just need to specify some of the many jobs involved in being a mom.

Raising children IS work, but also very rewarding.

Domestic engineering ought to be certifiable occupation with measurable parameters and a compensation chart. Of course some employers think that “married with children” means distracted employees and time off for kids activities.

I got ones coming in who are covered from head to toe with tattoos. This is for a pharmacist position. I can’t have you dealing with the public looking like your a freak show from some carnival that just came to town.

Count to ten, Elly. Then POW!

Mike, do you really think being a mother isn’t work?

Mike can be such a derp sometimes…

Unnecessarily snide, Michael. It takes lots of organization, not to mention the physical work.

Mr know it all

Employers(the bad ones) ask if you have any plans to get pregnant(implying you’d be quitting as soon as you got there).If you encounter one of these,run like heck.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if she has two years of university, she didn’t finish the degree. If that’s so, why is she saying she was a double major? Isn’t that a bit like starting a marathon, dropping out after a few miles, and using the pace of those miles to extrapolate your time if you had finished?

And cleaning up after, cooking for, and generally raising 3 kids is NOT work? Boy does Michael have a lot to learn ;-)

Lecture coming from Ellie in Three……………Two……………One…………………….Kablooie!

While Mike’s comment may have been insensitive and out of place when speaking to his mother, he’s not wrong. Employers want to know about the skills you will bring to a particular position. That being said, they also want to know how well-rounded you might be.

And parenting isn’t work experience? She could put down “Homemaker” or “Domestic Engineer” or something fancy like that.

She should leave anything personal off the resume, but back when this was first written, I think many people did put their home situation in a resume. Plus, this is Canada – I don’t know the laws there.

It does speak to her organization skills(inspired by the Third Reich!), but Mike means they want more downtown, in-the-office training.

Shows she knows how to juggle and organize her time….

Ah yes, unemployment. The Pattersons do not live in CAN-ada for nothing.

She can start working for herself. She can lease a place with a sign that rotates for motorists to notice:

ELLY’S DELI

These days you can’t ask about that last line when you are doing a job interview.

Smack him.

Good one from King of the Hill, where they were trying to fill a job opening at Strickland Propane. Hank interviews an old man.

Hank Hill: Mr. McGillicuddy, there are some gaps in your resume.

Applicant: Well, in 1933-1945, FDR had the New Deal, so I was on the welfare. Then in 1963-1969 we had LBJ and the Great Society, so I was on the welfare. Then in 1977-1981, Jimmy Carter, so I was on de welfare, you know? In 1993-2001 Bill Clinton was in the White House, so I was on the welfare

Hank places resume in trash

Mike is correct. Fair or unfair, very few jobs are going to take your homemaking experience into account. It’s also illegal for a employer to ask if you’re married, if you’re pregnant, if you have kids, or are planning to have kids. Don’t volunteer information like that. It’s bad enough that they try to violate employment laws as it is, don’t give them ammo.

And this is why some animals eat their young.

A huge number of people could put “wife and mother” or “husband and father” on their resume. We all know wives, mothers, husbands, and fathers who work hard and gain skills in those roles. We all know the other kind, too. None of those things have a value in differentiating skilled and hardworking candidates from those who are neither. Being a PTA member or classroom volunteer would have more relevance.

Everyone all in an uproar about the “Mother of three” entry, but nothing about the rest of her resume. The cashier entry is really the only marketable one, unless she’s going for another government job.

Young lad, you will understand the work involved in rasing the kids, late. Forget for now and let mom keep that last line. Infact she could underline that.

At least in Canada, there is a children’s allowance…American women don’t want it.