Ideas to stay at home?

[Cherished]

The tears have been flowing today as the reality is sinking in that I may have to go back to work Both dh and I would prefer me to stay at home but after another look at the budget today we are still 'in front' but that is very quickly changing and soon we will be going backwards FAST so we need more money.

I had thought about returning to my old job but my boss drove me nuts most days and even if I do go back I don't think I can make 'enough' money only working on teh days that dh can care for bub at home.

What I need is a work from home job that really does make money, not some scam or something that requires so much work that you end up working for $5/hr

I have thought about maybe starting a family day care but I have never been in the child care industry or even baby sat for anyone. I do love kids though... maybe I could go and check out a real day care for a day and see if I could hack it.

Has anyone else done family day care and can tell me some of the pros and cons I may not have thought of. Or has anyone got any other great ideas?

[hj1981]

Pro's - you can be with kids all day!

Con's - your with kids all day every day!

Sorry not much of a help am i?!

But can i ask if you do start up a family day care business can you move near me and can you be flexible and have occassional care? hehehehehe

[Mum2SweetCs]

yes i think that was one of the major cons i had and the fact that i wont be paying that much attention to DD when im with her with the other kids, I dont think i can handle that.

How about start selling stuff on ebay or online? are you good at making anything? crafty? what was your profession before bub? can you do freelance work?

[helle]

when you find something, let me know to, eh?

[Joeve]

Hey lovely girl - sorry you might have to go back to work its a reality for so many mums hey. I have no idea, other than one of my firends got a job recently doing nightfill for about 5 hours a night - its good because she gets to be home with bub during the day. Just throwing it out there!

[Indadhanu]

I'm in the process of starting FDC, and the pro's are working from home, and being able to make your own hours and be with your children.

The cons are:
- your home is your work
- you can't just chuck a sickie or mental health day, because people depend on you, and without you who would look after their kids?
- you have to work longer hours than you would at an away from home job to earn similar money, and technically you dont' earn much because it can cost so much to start and run
- the red tape and paperwork
- you can't go have a break if you need it, because theres no one to cover you
- set up can be tricky, your home has to follow fairly strict safety checks, you get random visits once a month and you have to be compliant
- holidays have to be planned pretty far in advance and you have to make sure you put some money aside for possible sick days, your holidays, and also your tax and super

PM me if you want more info. I haven't started yet, but am going through the startup stuff, just waiting on the perfect house and will hopefully be up and running by April

[hj1981]

I haven't started yet, but am going through the startup stuff, just waiting on the perfect house and will hopefully be up and running by April

Can you find that perfect house on my side of town???????????????? Pleeeeeeeaaaaaaassssssssssseeeeeeee than it will be easier for me to be ur Middy for next bub AND u can look after my 2 cherubs! hehehehehe

[MummaSue]

I was wondering about this too. I saw a woman the other day with a pram delivering catalogues, is that something you think you could do? I might think about this for myself. If there is something I could do with my baby in tow then that would be perfect!!

[AndiE]

Just throwing this out there, and I don't know much about what sort of $$ they bring in, but could you hire your services as a home cleaner? You'd probably have to look into insurance/liability cover though. Just a thought ... possibly a very unwelcome one

[Shanti]

You could iron for people?? I think it's about $30 a basket... Not bad.

[Indadhanu]

I wish! Find me the perfect house! Bit of land, bit of space in the house for FDC, we'll move in, and we'll hire you for October

[Lily Dust]

Hey hun!

Have an IRL friend who doea family daycare so that she can be home with her kids, although with #3 on the way, other peoples children are less in numbers now lol BUT she also does is a rep for Under Cover Wear as well as The Body Shop....perhaps thats something that might take your interest. Another does Mary Kay Cosmetics, anyway you see what im trying to say. I did Family Day Care way back years ago and it drove me insane, odd really since Im a preschool teacher I think it was just having so many people in my home and then at the end of the day its all still in front of you even though the kids had left iykwim. Thats said, I know many mums who absolutely love doing FDC

[mummato1]

What about a your own business? Is there anything your good at, that you can make money from? What sort of work did you do before?

If you have an admin background how about a Virtual PA
Are you arty / crafty - maybe a small hobby business and set up an online store (I have a store on madeit, and while the income isnt huge it helps pay the bills)
What about dog walking/grooming - if you good with animals
Cleaning / Ironing / Gardening / Basically something that not everyone has the time to do

I was in the same situation as you, and I have had to return to work.. but I have only gone back part-time 5 days a fortnight. So with that and my online business it has helped us to stay (only just) above water. I looked into FDC and Sales but decided in the end it just wasnt me.

[boobaloo]

nightfill is actually really good money, my sil did the 4am - 7:30 shift, and got $25p/hr.

[MrsB26]

I was going to say Ironing too. You can do it when bub is asleep or happily playing. You can do mine!

[Cherished]

Thanks so much for all of your replies girls. Yesterday I had a big chat with dh and cried some more but it was also a constructive chat! We talked about everything and even selling the house and or moving to a place that has a lower cost of living and is more affordable than the sunshine coast. We both love it here though and dh has a great job where we get to spend lots of time together. Our original plan was that if I went back to work it could be for 2 of his days off and DS would not need to be put into care BUT now even if I worked 2 days a week it still wont be enough... but at least it'd be a start. I can't even bare to leave him for a day though even I know he'd be in great hands with dh.. I'd just miss him too much and I physically feel ill even thinking of dropping him off at day care I would sell the house 1st and move I think. Gosh that sounds so silly but I feel that strongly about it. I wish I was more flexible and not such a big sook. Then I feel guilty because so many mums have to do it and I am already so lucky that dh has the job and hours that he has. Can't I just this once have my cake and eat it too?

There have been so many wonderful ideas! Most of the physical things are pretty much out unless it's something I can take at my own pace, which letterbox deliveries would be but I don't think I'm fit enough to commit to something like that yet. House cleaner, gardening, I lack motivation to even do those things at my own home, I'm such a sad case!!!!! A friend who has a 4 year old is doing that and making some good money. I know there is work in that area but my body just wouldn't keep up with it. Bit of background on my body... It took me a good 3 years of intensive chriopractic, massage and acupuncture to get my neck to a point where it wasn't in pain every day so physical stuff just isn't on the cards and dh wouldn't let me do it anyway which is nice as he puts my health 1st.

I had thought of the night fill, the local IGA is wonderful here and I already know a handful of the staff and all of the workers there actually seem happy which I think says something! BUT I'm such a morning person and by around 4pm I'm really starting to wind down and then by 5 I'm pretty much good for nothing. It's something I will keep in mind for when DS is older if we still haven't found a permanent solution, at the moment he's still feeding and waking lots during the night.

I'm already in one of those multilevel marketing type of thingos but I have never signed anyone up or sold anything to anyone else It's Melaluca and I'm even thinking of letting my membership go as it's really expensive and I'm sure there's much cheaper environmentally friendly stuff in the supermarket. Besides I don't have a big enough network of people to market something like that but it's fantastic for people who do.

FDC I think we'd tick all the boxes, I imagine we'd just need a shaded play area outside and play equipment and that would probably be it as far as house set up goes. I had thought that it'd be great to be able to get toys and other educational equipment etc as a tax deduction woohoo but after our chat dh does not want to do family day care. I'm going to keep it in the memory bank though as I'd rather do that then have ds in day care if it looks like it's going to come to that.

So that leaves me with a few of my other skills... I have been a PA before which I enjoyed and before having bub I was running an office. That job is still available but the hours wont suit and the income wont be high enough. BUT we have a friend in the states who I may be able to be his virtual PA He mentioned to us when he visited a month ago that his partner doesn't want to do it anymore but it was only yesterday during our chat that we thought we'd ask is he'd be keen for a virtual PA so we sent him an email and hopefully he will come back with some good news! The other thing that I'm up to is starting a hobby... something that I've been interested in for years is crystals/gem stones and I've wanted a hobby for about 5 years now so decided that I'd spend some money and get the gear to make jewelery. I've ordered the stuff on line a couple of days ago. I initially hadn't thought of selling any of it as I don't even know if I'll be any good at it but I could make a website and sell some necklaces etc online and maybe on ebay. OH and the ironing idea, I like it but I did have to laugh because I'm pretty bad at ironing! hahahah but I could get good at it if I got a client LOL it could be worth putting a notice up on the community notice boards. And if all else fails I guess there is always a waitressing/bar job. I really liked running restaurants and cafes years ago but it's a fast paced environment and I've slowed down a lot... Maybe I need to get my but into gear and speed up again!

Again thanks so much everyone sorry for such a mammoth post, I guess I'm thinking out loud.

[Shanti]

I hope you find something that works well for you and your family and makes you happy so you can stay home with your very little bubba

[peanutsmummy]

OP what sort of work do you normally do? There are definately legit jobs you can work from home, but a lot of the E-bay selling type jobs really only make a bit of spending money (well as far as my friends have found).
I work in govt. and you can sometimes apply to work 1 or 2 days from home but of course that depends on what your job description is. I have heard that there are legitimate jobs such as medical typing that you can do from home but you would need to know somebody who does it to point out the genuine jobs from the scams.
Good luck!