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Lawyer turned stay at home mom

adamse16adamse16 member
in Parenting
Hi friends.  I became a stay at home mom in August 2017.  Previously, I worked as a lawyer for a government agency in Chicago in a very niche area of law (attorney ethics).  We moved to Cleveland to be closer to family.  I never thought I wanted to be a stay at home parent until I had my oldest daughter in 2013 and now I have 3 beautiful daughters (ages 7, 4, and 1).  I've mostly been at home since we moved to Cleveland (2017), except a short 3 month stint at an immigration law firm, where I was let go due to an unforeseen firm merger, and my position was eliminated (right at the start of the COVID shut down).  Since 2017, I've battled feelings of inadequacy, worthlessness, and hopelessness at my future career prospects.  My entire legal network is in Chicago and I don't know many lawyers here.  In August, I applied to a job that was the exact same thing I was doing in Chicago, but they chose a different candidate and gave no explanation other than he had different experience.  There aren't really other opportunities in this area of law, unless I open my own practice (no thanks) or defend attorneys for ethics violations (also no thanks).  I hate networking-I get such bad social anxiety and don't want to feel like I'm bothering someone.  I'm not sure what to do.  Are there other lawyers who became stay at home moms?  Other stories of stay at home moms who successfully returned to work?  
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Re: Lawyer turned stay at home mom

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    coldlife2coldlife2 member
    adamse16 said:
    Hi friends.  I became a stay at home mom in August 2017.  Previously, I worked as a lawyer for a government agency in Chicago in a very niche area of law (attorney ethics).  We moved to Cleveland to be closer to family.  I never thought I wanted to be a stay at home parent until I had my oldest daughter in 2013 and now I have 3 beautiful daughters (ages 7, 4, and 1).  I've mostly been at home since we moved to Cleveland (2017), except a short 3 month stint at an immigration law firm, where I was let go due to an unforeseen firm merger, and my position was eliminated (right at the start of the COVID shut down).  Since 2017, I've battled feelings of inadequacy, worthlessness, and hopelessness at my future career prospects.  My entire legal network is in Chicago and I don't know many lawyers here.  In August, I applied to a job that was the exact same thing I was doing in Chicago, but they chose a different candidate and gave no explanation other than he had different experience.  There aren't really other opportunities in this area of law, unless I open my own practice (no thanks) or defend attorneys for ethics violations (also no thanks).  I hate networking-I get such bad social anxiety and don't want to feel like I'm bothering someone.  I'm not sure what to do.  Are there other lawyers who became stay at home moms?  Other stories of stay at home moms who successfully returned to work?  
    Regarding the job you applied for, that sounds like a pretty reasonable reason to go with someone else. Even though you’d done the exact job previously, you never know if they have slightly higher qualifications or they just want to go in a slightly different direction than your experience is in or whatever. 

    For advice about getting a job, I recommend the Ask A Manager website. It’s an advice column and has lots of info on brushing your your resume and cover letter. 
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