Stay at Home Work for Moms, What's Out There?

Well, any job, whether you do it from home or not, requires child care. So a regular M-F office job makes more sense than what you are doing now. And if you literally don't want to leave the house? Do in home day care.

I think you're better off trying to find more of a traditional 9 to 5 job where you could still have a couple of hours with your kids in the evening.

Have you considered trying to find a job at your kids' school or a nearby school? Schools have jobs besides teaching. They need classroom aids, custodians, office workers, kitchen help. I think I would start there and see what you can find.

some might perceive what I'm about to say as rude - but you need to hear it.

I won't pay you to stay home and take care of your kids.
Open your own day care. Get licensed, get insured, get infant/child CPR certified and then start advertising. This is the ONLY way you're going to get to spend time with your kids and get paid to do it.

Funny how you say "not a ton....$1,300...." you realize that $1300 is someone's rent? And for some? That **WOULD BE** a ton of money?!

You're NOT a stay at home mom. You're a working, single mom. Do you realize that you would be expected TO WORK, right? You want to spend time with your kids, but I'm not going to pay you to spend time with your kids. You need to adjust your "thinking".

Working from home is WORKING. I work from home and have for over 10 years. I NEVER walk away from my job. EVER. As a recruiter and staffing manager? If someone calls me at 11pm because they can't make their interview the next day? I can't say "oh shucky darn, it's after 5 pm can't take that" NO. I have to take the call.

I'm sorry. These questions pop up and it just drives me nuts. If you use the search bar? You can search "work from home jobs" and you'll see just how many are asked.

I think I must have missed something here... are you currently working 10 hour days 5 days a week (or is it only 4) and only earning $1,300 a month? Or are you saying that if you didn't have to pay child care, you wouldn't need to make but $1,300 a month to get by?

At any rate, I agree with Gidget. Why the terrible hours? Why not try to find a 9-5 M-F job? Sure, you'll still have to have child care, but you will be home for dinner and bedtime with the kids. And you will get more than 4 hours sleep per night (which is not sustainable by any measure).

I think there are very few jobs for work-at-home parents. Both my husband and I work at home (largely) but those jobs are for people with very specific skills and a strong client base. I think if you had those skills and connections, you would know it - whether it's copywriting, graphic artist, medical transcriptionist or medical billing/coding.

I see that you have a good sense about working being work, and you are not looking to sit around getting paid for nothing. I hope you don't get any harsh responses there, and I hope you don't click on any get-rich-quick responses that might show up here (we get spam a lot on Mamapedia although the moderators are quick to delete those if they are reported).

I agree with you that working all afternoon and evening, and sleeping 4 hours is unmanageable - you are sleep deprived, and you shouldn't even be driving a car with yourself in it, let alone driving your children or risking the lives of others on the road. This is taking a huge toll on your health and it's got to stop.

Depending on your skills and interests, you might look at something in the school system because at least you would have the same schedule and snow days as your children. Young children in our town can ride on the bus if a parent is a bus driver, but you would need something on top of that I would think.

In home day care or working as a nanny is possible, but you have to be trained and certified in a number of things. Check your state's Office for Children or whatever the licensing agency is. That would take some cash outlay on your part to start, whether it's to get training or to get your own home up to code in terms of safety precautions and whatnot. Being a nanny for someone else means having a plan for your own children though, not just after school but if the parents don't get home when they are supposed to, and a plan for when your kids are sick. And both jobs require criminal background checks.

A single mom friend of mine drops her kid at the day care provider, who puts them on the bus. She watches other little kids during the day, and my friend's kids get off the bus at the day care stop and she watches them until my friend gets home. If they have a snow day or a vacation day that my friend doesn't have, the day care provider takes them all day, and if they are sick my friend takes the day off. Another friend of mine works at home as a recruiter, but when her first child is born in another month, she will take the baby to day care all day (at about 8 weeks I think) and return home to work in her home office. Other friends work outside the house and hired a nanny until the youngest went to full day kindergarten, and even then, they hired her after school. I think she also did house cleaning for them too. Another neighbor felt she wasn't seeing her children at all, so she took the night shift in the ER (she's a physician). She gets home at 7 AM to get breakfast and see her kids off to daycare (the husband takes them in), then she goes to sleep, and she's up when they get home around 5. They have dinner together, play, do baths and bedtime. Then when the kids go to sleep, she goes to work. She never sees her husband much, and that's a problem, but her kids are 4 and 5 and they are willing to make this sacrifice for the time being. My point is, there are many solutions, and none of them are that great.

And if you work for yourself, you have to pay into the Social Security system (since there is no employer to deduct it for you). Be sure you do this because the big bill at the end of the year is huge if you fail to comply. And you have to provide your own health insurance, which is essential. So factor those costs in as well before you commit to anything.

Good luck! I hope you figure something out soon, because the current system is not at all working for you.

not really. i mean, if all you want is to start in the mornings instead of afternoons you'll have a way easier time just finding a different job that lets you do that.
working from home is vastly overrated. instead of more time with your kids, you'll find that your kids expect you (naturally) to be available to them and instead of positive interaction with them, there will be tension and unhappiness as you continually shoo them away so you can get your work done.
even with a mother's helper, you still have to work. and that means not focusing on your kids.
it's easier to do when you're not there, even if you can find something that will pay you to work from home.
sorry to be a bummer, but them's the facts.
the only people who do well working from home are the ones who are so established in their field that their bosses are confident they can get it done. and they get it done by not focusing on their homes and families while they're working.
khairete
S.

Can you run a home day care business? I have a friend who did this for many years so she could be with her kids and it worked well for her. My son went to her house and she was great...her big focus was physical activity and outings which was just what my son needed when he was little. Another idea is to be a teacher...or substitute teacher.

Ditto Wild woman. No reason to single her out in your SWH.

As a business owner/employer.... I will not hire anyone to work from home. Too many people think it's an easy way to sit home and play with their children.

$1300 is not s lot of money to me but in my area, a crappy 1 bedroom apartment starts at $1300 a month and that's tough for some people.

Sorry but work at home jobs are still work - you won't be able to get work done and watch your kids at the same time.
I worked at home for 8 yrs until my job was off-shored.
I had to prove myself at the office first before I was allowed to work at home.
I'm pretty much resigned that I'll never have that again - but it was nice while it lasted.

From the way I read this, you are sensible enough to understand that working from home is not sitting around and playing with your kids all day. You sound like a HARD worker! Not sure why this type of question always ruffles so many feathers and brings out the worst in people? Seems to me you just want ideas of what people that work from home are doing. I know a lot of people that work from home and they pretty much fall into two obvious categories. Working for yourself or another company.

Those I know that work for someone else are:
Outside sales, medical coding, scientist working remotely from his home, a sports radio host, a realtor, a grant writer, lactation nurse consultant, sports writer for espn

And then there are those with their own businesses, based out of their homes:
Two daycare owners, sustainability consultant, seamstress, interior designer, tutor, marathon director, Japanese translator, music teacher, museum display consultant, health and wellness coach, home organizer, shredding business owner, real estate developer, a notary public

Hope this sparks some ideas! You may need to go to school or get some training to reach your goal but it would be worth it!

No, there aren't any magical jobs where you can sit at home with your child and spend time with him while getting enough money to live on....Even if we knew of a dozen jobs your child doesn't get to go to work with you. An employer pays you to work for him, not to have a child in the home. So you'd have to pay for child care during the day and NOT in your home. Plus you wouldn't have any benefits.

You have a job that allows you to support yourself. That's real life. If you want to be home in the evenings then you need to be out applying for jobs every day. Put your child in Pre-K so you can have your days free, if he was 4 by the cutoff date for your district then he should be easy to enroll. If he was still 3 and can't go to Pre-K then you might have to make do until you get him in kindergarten next fall then you can take a nap.

Find a Mother's Day Out program and put kiddo in it 3 days per week so that you can spend a little time with him then take him to MDO and go take a nap for 3-4 hours. The rest will help you a great deal.

There are legitimate jobs out there. But they will not allow you to have pets or children in the home while you are on the clock. So you'd lose your job very quickly.