Explaining gap in employment

[MelbourneClown03]

Apologies for the long background info.
DP worked for the same big company for just about 20 years, in various roles. The company has changed beyond recognition and just wasn’t offering DP what it had done when he joined.

This coincided with us going through our second round of IVF. I work in a full on, quite well paid job so we decided that DP should leave his job which he hated anyway and take on all the domestic duties at home.

Now the time has come for DP to find a new job - all the subsequent IVF rounds failed and we now need DP to have a wage to pay for more IVF!

So, the question is how does he describe the gap in his employment history? Unemployed sounds like he was sacked, self employed is just not true. Should he put house husband?
He’s been away from work for 4 months, if that’s relevant.

Couldn't he just call it a career break? It's pretty common for people to have a bit of a gap here and there. Four months isn't that long.

Career break? Four months isn’t that long so I can’t imagine it being a big problem!

Is "Break from paid employment to start a family" not appropriate?

If it is only 4 months, I wouldn't even list it as a career break on his CV. I would make sure the end date of his employment was clear though. Very common to take a break - the 20 years fully employed speaks volumes.

A career break to pursue a personal writing project. Or whatever related field he is in.

Thank you for your responses.
He’s applying for admin roles in schools, so I was worried that any gap in employment would look suspicious on a safeguarding level.

When chatting to my DM about it this afternoon, she went all ‘cat bum’ face when I said he might put down ‘time out to starting a family’. She thought his application would be passed over as potential employers would think he’d be wanting time off to attend future IVF stuff

Does career break sound OK? Lots of you have suggested it, so I’m guessing it’s acceptable.

I think if you put "time out to start a family" they'll assume you've got kids now and he could have an unhappy conversation when they interview him.

I'd definitely go for career break. After 20 years it's understandable and won't raise any issues.

Career break is fine don't mention ivf or starting a family (had 4 cycles myself so I do sympathise)

I once saw a man explain a two year gap on his cv by remarking that he had been looking after his wife who was very ill.

So, it's only four months in his case.

He could write career break if he wanted to.

He could say, 'supported my wife through a course of personal medical treatment.'