If You Can Raise Kids, You Can Get a Good Job

The ``returning mother,'' defined as ``A woman who has known the joys of being with her children and now wants to return to the workforce or join it for the first time,'' is addressed in this sprightly compendium of approaches for merging successfully from home and going into a new career. Goldman (My Mother Worked and I Turned Out Okay), a mother of two who works in advertising, has collected the stories of many moms who, in various ways and at different periods in their lives, marshalled their child-rearing and homemaking skills into presentable resumes that identified them as marketable. Believing that the home is a classroom, or that, as political newscaster Cokie Roberts would say, ``The best preparation for covering Congress is being a mother because they all behave like a bunch of two-year-olds,'' Goldman encourages self-confidence in women who may have thought they did nothing while raising children. With her 14 reasons why returning mothers can find a career niche, Goldman's boosterism is compelling. $40,000 ad/promo; author tour. (Feb.)