Domestic engineer, household CEO and director of child development are just a handful of clever job titles used to describe the work performed by the typical stay-at-home mom. While staying home to raise the kids can be a rewarding experience, it does require a lot of work. In fact, moms juggle so many daily tasks that Insure.com estimates that if moms were monetarily compensated they'd earn about $78,000 a year. As with any position, the essential stay-at-home mom responsibilities and tasks can be summarized in a job description.

Job Description

Staying at home to care for children is significantly more work than just hanging out with kids all day. A stay-at-home mom job description encompasses dozens of careers that earn her the title of “domestic engineer.” Here are just a few occupation titles for stay-at-home moms:

Teacher: Mothers teach children their first words, colors and shapes. They continue to enrich their learning by helping them with their homework and school projects. These tasks occupy around 10 hours of the typical stay-at-home mom’s time per week, and that’s not including the noneducational things they teach their kids, such as manners, culinary skills and self-confidence.

Chef: The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the role of a chef as one who develops recipes, plans menus, orders food inventory and ensures sanitary kitchen conditions. Does this sound like a stay-at-home mom's responsibilities? You bet it does! Moms generally plan and prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for their household, shop for ingredients and clean the kitchen afterward. This accounts for about 14 hours of the typical mom’s week.

Event Planner: Even the busiest mom squeezes in time for fun. Whether it's planning a themed birthday celebration, coordinating schedules with extended family for the holidays or signing kids up for recreational activities, moms constantly have something to do and somewhere to be. In order to make all of these events possible, moms need strong organizational skills and a dash of creativity.

Housekeeper: Maintaining an orderly house can be quite the daunting task for a mother. There is no shortage of things to clean or organize, whether the children are toddlers or teenagers. Moms spend an average of 10 hours cleaning each week. Duties include vacuuming, mopping, dusting, laundry, dishes, scrubbing toilets, picking up toys and removing stains from the carpet and furniture.

Accountant: In most households, moms perform many accounting functions such as creating and balancing a budget, paying bills and identifying cost-saving opportunities. Because households with stay-at-home moms often operate on a single income, they are sometimes tasked with ways to stretch their dollar to cover basic expenses such as the mortgage, insurance, utilities, groceries and car maintenance.

Chauffeur: Moms also serve as chauffeurs by providing an average of nine hours transporting kids to and from doctor appointments, school, shopping and play dates. If the children are involved in after-school sports and activities, stay-at-home moms are tasked with coordinating taxi hours around practice times and game schedules to ensure they arrive at the right place at the right time.

Education Requirements

There are no specific education requirements to be a stay-at-home mom, but education in certain areas can make some tasks more manageable and playtime more fun. Moms who have training as a chef can whip up healthy meals and snacks in no time. Stay-at-home moms with degrees in education might have some clever tricks for teaching kids. Those with degrees in accounting can more easily budget and keep track of expenses. If a mom has a degree in music or art, she can come up with endless ways to entertain her children. Even if a mom has no education, she can be the queen of domestic engineering. All her children require is love, communication and patience, which are in supply to matter how much education a stay-at-home mom has.

If moms received an annual salary for all of their responsibilities, they would earn an estimated $78,185. This salary estimate has seen an upward trend since 2014.

Industry

Stay-at-home moms work primarily out of their homes, as well as parks, libraries and beaches. The hours are long and demanding, with very few breaks. Some stay-at-home moms babysit for other children while caring for their own. Others work part-time during nap times and after dinner.

Years of Experience

There is no experience required to be a stay-at-home mom. Of course, the more time a woman spends as a parent, the more experience she has multi-tasking and figuring out how to get things accomplished with another person hanging on her body all day.

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