KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An East Tennessee stay-at-home mom has launched an online platform aimed at helping other stay-at-home moms find jobs and help tailored to their needs.
Kimberly O'Neal is a mother to two young children and has been a stay-at-home mom for about four years.
"I suffered from postpartum depression when I became a stay-at-home mom and after having my first child," she pointed out. "What I realized that helped me tremendously with that was doing small tasks throughout my day."
That's how Modern Day SAHM started. It is an online service connecting stay-at-home moms with companies willing to hire them. The companies know they are hiring stay-at-home moms, so parents do not have to worry about their child screaming in the background while they work, O'Neal explained.
She added this help can have a big impact on local families.
"Just little bits of income here and there that they can bring in for their family helps tremendously because, unfortunately, when when we become a stay-at-home mom, it forces one parent to remain in work and it causes financial stress on the families," O'Neal mentioned. "And so this is really just going to help them tremendously."
The companies on the platform are hiring for both part-time and full-time positions, including administrative work, sales and social marketing.
However, O'Neal said Modern Day SAHM is about much more than finding a job. She said it is about offering these mothers valuable resources.
"We also have guest speakers come in, like, a couple of weeks ago, we had a clinical psychologist come in and talk about postpartum depression," she commented. "And so these moms can benefit from those programs."
They will soon also have someone helping with interview preparation and building up a resume.
"A lot of times, when moms become stay-at-home moms, they have this huge resume gap for five or six years," she explained. "And this is really going to help them to fill that gap."
There are currently more than 2,900 mothers on the Modern Day SAHM Facebook group. Most of them are from East Tennessee, but there are others from as far away as California and Texas.
"It is just so empowering when all of us moms just come together and we really get in here and we talk about the things that people do not want to talk about," O'Neal emphasized. "I really do truly enjoy this and I am not going to stop. I am going to continue to help these moms and get this platform where it needs to be."
There is a seven-day free trial to join Modern Day SAHM. After that trial is over, the cost to be a part of the platform is $5.99 a month.