Stay @ Home Moms

[mkmoro311]

I am pregnant and trying to find a way to earn money while I stay @ home with the baby. I am looking for some good legitamit homebased jobs to help with household expenses!

[dannic]

I don't really have any ideas, but just wanted to say that I honor you for this! I hope you find your answer!

[hapersmion]

I babysit for not-stay-at-home moms. It's not a big source of income, but it's fun, and it gives my ds someone to play with every day.

hapersmion

[savvybabygrace]

I'll look around for you; I've been struggling with this same thing for awhile now.

I'm being really pulled in the direction of becoming a doula, so I think that once my newest daughter is a bit older I'll start to work with my own doula.

[bryonyvaughn]

Originally Posted by mkmoro311

...I am looking for some good legitamit homebased jobs to help with household expenses!

Daycare mentioned by PP is a popular option. If you don't want to be tied down all day and live near and elementary school (or a school bus stop), you could offer before and after-school care.

Do you have any hobbies, special skills, or training that you could market? Some moms do after school tutoring in their homes, some give foreign language lessons, some give music lessons, some run etiquette classes, and in college I ran biology labs for homeschoolers. If you sew you could do custom tailoring (especially popular during wedding season) and mending, do piecework sewing for businesses, or give sewing lessons. I know one mom who read and taught herself to make herbal tinctures and balms and another to make soaps and lotions. They sold these to co-ops, online, and at the local farmers' market. I know one mom who loves to organize who set up a business advertising, preparing for, and running garage sales for folks who wanted to get rid of stuff but didn't like all the tasks involved in a garage sale. She had sales booked probably three weekends a month May through September. I think her rate was 1/2 the take. I have a friend who knows American Sign Language. Because all the home daycares that get government funds are required to take continuing education classes, Marybeth's classes are always full. I know another mom who did well enough shopping garage sales and thrift sales and reselling on eBay to make up her entire lost full-time income. If you take a good inventory of your skills and interests, it should be easy to find folks who need your help. Most of it is just commitment, networking, and marketing.

Traditional office jobs that work well from home include transcription, medical billing, and bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is especially flexible if you get several small business that might only need 4 to 8 hours a week worth of work. Jobs that are easy to take your baby along include housekeeping, dog walking, and delivering newspapers.

Hope that helps kick off your brainstorming session.

~BV

[Bird Girl]

Remember that there are some jobs you can do while the baby is awake/wanting attention, like day care, and there are some jobs you have to do while the baby is asleep, like sewing or medical billing. If you want to have time off while the baby is asleep, choose something you can do while he/she is awake. If you want to have total freedom for you baby while he/she's awake, choose something you'll do in the down time.