Can motherhood be classed as experience with children?!

[pancakes22]

I have seen a job advertised for speech and language assistant with preschool children and although it says no experience in SLT required, it does say experience working with children...

Is there anyway of spinning being a stay at home mum for 5 years as childcare experience? Is it worth having a go at applying and saying that I really enjoy being with children now I'm a mother?

Any tips?

Thank you

It’s worth a go I spose but I wouldn’t hold out too much hope. However now covid restrictions are lifting, why don’t you look into starting a playgroup/stay and play type thing - that will be much more relevant and look far better on a CV than just having your own kids, which is no guarantee of being good with kids or even liking them!

You could also look up a bit of CPD and do a couple of courses - I’d suggest one EYFS based and one SLT based, to show that you are interested in the subject and willing to put in the work to be good at the job.

I mean you can always try, but tbh working with children is very different from looking after your own children. If you have any experience of working with other people’s children that would help, even volunteering at a playgroup or something?

Have you volunteered with other people's children at all? Maybe ran a playgroup? Round our way the children's centres had lot of volunteering opportunities, I did some breast feeding support they trained me for, while another volunteer watched my children!

As someone who has worked extensively with children and young people, I don't think being a parent is comparable, really. You won't have the professional experience or knowledge of issues like safeguarding, child protection etc that most employers will be looking for.

Have a go if you like, but be realistic about your chances. If you're keen to work with children in the future, maybe see if you can get some voluntary experience? This should give you access to some basic training etc.

You could try, and stranger things have happened, but I’d be surprised if you were employed on that level of experience. I used to work as a manager at a nursery and even our lowest paid staff were well qualified and every member of staff was always working on additional qualifications whilst with us; gaining extra skills working with children with SEN for example. Many of the staff were had achieved degrees and a couple were completing Masters. I would think with a job advertisement like that they will be inundated with people who have lots of qualifications and experience in childcare settings.

If it’s something that interests you, many local colleges run free CACHE level 2 courses in childcare that you could complete to give yourself a better chance in future though.