How can a bored stay-at-home mother develop a plan for getting back in to full-time work? Dr. Pat Spungin has some advice.

Raisingkids member's problem
My husband and I always agreed I'd give up working when we had kids. Now our children are five and three - and I'm really bored. I'm not very good at being a getting-down-on-my-knees-and-playing mum. I wish I'd gone back to work but I used to be in computers and my skills are already out of date.

Dr Spungin's advice
Once you've stepped away from full-time work, it's very difficult to believe you can get back in again. Not because there are no vacancies for skilled people but because you lose the three Cs - your Competence, your Contacts and, most importantly, your Confidence. The good news it that you can regain all three with a little research and planning.

A re-training course is a good place to start and there are many courses available, especially in IT. You may even be able to get help with the funding. For more information, contact Learndirect (www.learndirect.co.uk) for free and impartial information and advice on over 500,000 courses nationwide. The Open University (www.open.ac.uk)is another recognised and respected route for retraining.

Ask everyone you know about opportunities. A high percentage of people who lose their jobs will find a new job through personal contacts.

Going back to work part-time at first, if you can, will help you adjust more gently. I assume that both of your children are in either nursery or primary school but oonce they are both in full-time education you will be able to build up your hours. You probably have thirty plus years of work ahead of you, so you can afford to start slowly.

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