How do I own my caregiving years when returning to work?

You return to work owning your time away as part of your story, not a hole in it. That is a hard-won stance, and a true one. The years you spent caring were not a pause in your life. They were some of the fullest, hardest, most human work a person can do, and you carry them as such. What you have done is refuse the shame that others might have handed you. A gap is only a gap if you agree it is empty, and you do not. You know those years built things in you, and you walk back in whole rather than apologetic. That wholeness is not just good for you; it quietly gives permission to everyone watching who is afraid to own their own story. So keep telling it straight, and help one other person tell theirs. When you speak of those years, speak of them as part of the arc, not a break in it. And find someone standing where you once stood, afraid their time away disqualifies them, and show them it does not. You made your story whole. Help someone else make theirs whole too.