10 Parenting Skills You Should Put on Your Resume

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Skills like making sure you get your kids to school on time and settling arguments between your children help make you not only a good parent, but also a better employee, new research finds.

Nearly 70 percent of employers surveyed by CareerBuilder in a new study said they think the skills you gain as a parent qualify as relevant experience in the workplace. Overall, patience and multitasking are the two parenting skills employers find most valuable.

However, less than 10 percent of working parents have included their parenting skills in their résumé or cover letter, according to the study. Other parenting skills businesses find helpful include the following:

• Time management
• Conflict management
• Problem solving
• Empathy
• Mentoring
• Negotiation
• Budgeting and managing finances
• Project management

Roughly 80 percent of the people surveyed in the study said it's possible to be both a successful parent and a productive employee. However, the survey also found that moms and dads define success differently: Working moms are more likely to rate their success on how much money they earn, if they're able to provide for their family and if they enjoy what they do. Working dads, in contrast, are more likely to define success by whether their family is proud of what they do.

In addition, the study revealed that although working moms spend more time with their children each day than working dads do, they're also more likely to feel that their work has negatively affected their parenting and the time spent raising their children. Specifically, working moms are nearly twice as likely as working dads to think their job has hurt their relationships with their children and to say that being a parent has caused their professional work to suffer.

To find a better balance between being a parent and an employee, working moms and dads should see if their employers are open to letting them have flexible hours or work remotely, said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer of CareerBuilder.

Another way to gain more flexibility is by working compressed hours. For instance, instead of working five 8-hour days, see if it's possible to work four 10-hour days, Haefner said.

"Employers are increasingly open to providing flexible work arrangements to employees, so long as they can maintain a high level of productivity," Haefner said in a statement.

The study was based on surveys of 2,138 hiring managers and human resources professionals; 464 working moms; and 340 working dads of kids ages 18 and under living in their household.

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