Work-life balance can be difficult to achieve for many people, but especially when you’re a parent! If you have kids at home, you know family has to come first.
Home working jobs can be a great solution for stay at home mums, so I’ve collected a list of 12 stay at home parent jobs that are all completely flexible and pay well.
Many of the jobs on this list allow you to set your own schedule, and work as many or as few hours you like – perfect for busy parents who need to work around their children’s timetables.
If you’re wondering how to make money so you can stay at home with the kids, I hope this list of work from home jobs for mums gives you some ideas.
I hope I can inspire you to find a new career that works for you and you family!
Best Flexible Work From Home Job Ideas for Mums
Proofreader
Do you have an eagle eye for spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes? You could be a fantastic proofreader.
Proofreading is one of the best work from home jobs for mums who have a high command of the English language.
As a freelance proofreader, you can pick the hours you want to work and the projects that interest you.
General proofreaders get paid to check books and blog posts. There are even more opportunities in specialist fields, such as proofreading court transcripts.
Whether you just need an extra few hundred each month or a full time career, proofreading can be a great way to make money from home.
Top proofreaders, such as Caitlin Pyle from Proofread Anywhere, make up to $40,000 per year proofreading from home!
Interested to know more? Caitlin is offering a free online workshop so you can learn the basics of proofreading and see if it’s for you.
The workshop even covers places to find online proofreading jobs and freelance clients.
Related post: 38 Sure-Fire Ways to Make Money From Home
Online English teacher
Imagine getting paid to speak English!
Sound easy? Why not look into becoming an online English teacher.
Millions of people around the world are studying English, and they’re ready to pay for your help.
And thanks to the internet, you can earn from home as an English tutor without even leaving the house. All you need is an internet connection and headset.
Websites like Education First or iTalki connect teachers with prospective students. The qualifications and scope of work depend on the website or agency you sign up with.
But even if you have no experience or qualifications, you can offer an hour of simple conversation practise on iTalki for around $10.
This is a great flexible online job for stay at home mums because you can work as much or little as you like.
You will have to coordinate a lesson time when your students are available, but thanks to the many different time zones around the world, you should be able to find a time that works for you.
Also, keep in mind that you need a quiet environment to work from. So this home working job is best for mums with kids in school or daycare, or who can get help with child care a few hours a week while you work.
Related post: 11 Tried-and-Tested Ways to Make Money Online in the UK
Online tutor
Interested in tutoring online, but English isn’t your thing?
Course Hero is currently recruiting tutors in fields such as business, maths, psychology and more.
You don’t need to be a qualified teacher, but you do need a degree.
The Course Hero platform is slightly different from standard tutoring, because you don’t have fixed tutoring sessions with the same pupils each week.
Instead, you simply log on to the platform whenever you have free time, check what questions students have been asking in your field of expertise, and respond to as many or as few questions as you have time for.
This kind of flexibility is the most important factor for me when I’m looking at online jobs for mums.
The amount you earn on Course Hero depends on how many questions you answer.
According to Course Hero, their average part-time tutor earns around $300 (£240) per week. And some earn up to $500 per week!
Related post: 29 Legit Online Jobs For Students (To Earn Money At Home)
Blogger
Blogging started as a side hustle for me, and now it’s my full time job.
When I was wondering what jobs I can do from home, blogging was one thing that kept coming up. As I’m based in the UK, I wondered if this would limit my audience, but of course the internet has billions of users so your potential reach is unlimited!
In less than two years, I started making £2,000 per month blogging just doing it part time, around a full time office job. Within a few months of quitting to become a full time blogger, I was able to double that!
I love blogging because it’s the ultimate flexible job. Bloggers have no clients, no deadlines, and nobody to tell you what to do.
You can write about whatever topic inspires you.
You can work on your blog at any time of day or night, for as much or little time as you have available.
This makes it perfect for busy mums!
There are even lots of blog tasks you can do on your phone when you’re on the go – you don’t have to be tied to the computer.
You can start a blog for as little as £2.95 per month on Siteground (my top recommended web hosting company).
Related post: How I Exploded my Blog Traffic from 10k to 38k in One Month
Freelance writer
If you enjoy writing, blogging is one way to make money with your skill. But it takes time to build up an audience for your blog, and it can be several months before you start to see the money come in.
If you want to start making money straight away by writing, you could look into becoming a freelance writer or professional copywriter.
This article has a very detailed action plan for becoming a freelance writer, including advice on how to find jobs. And here’s a list of places to look for writing jobs online.
It helps to have a niche as a freelance writer. This can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field.
If you had a profession before taking maternity leave or deciding to stay at home with your children, this would be an obvious niche to start with. You already have the knowledge and credentials.
Otherwise, your niche can be anything you’re interested in and familiar with! Here’s a list of over 200 writing niches to inspire you.
Amazon seller
Selling on Amazon is a perfect home business for work from home mums.
Amazon gets millions of visitors each day. Why not tap into that customer base?
The easiest way to sell on Amazon is the Fulfilled By Amazon model (FBA). You simply find products to sell (either online or in physical stores) and send them in to an Amazon warehouse. Amazon then handle the storage, packing and shipping.
Easy!
Jessica from The Selling Family has been selling on Amazon since 2009. She and her husband both now do FBA full time so they can stay at home with their son.
Jessica has a free 7 day training course to help you sell your first product on FBA. In this free email course, you’ll learn:
- Why leveraging FBA is essential for Amazon sellers
- Which niche you should sell in
- Picking items to buy
- How to price your items
- How many items should you buy
- And more!
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Virtual Assistant
Virtual Assistant (VA for short) is an awesome work-from-home job for anyone interested in online business.
A VA is someone who offers online services to support bloggers, entrepreneurs or small businesses. Some of the many different services offered by VAs include:
- Social media management
- Creating Pinterest graphics or other images
- Moderating Facebook groups
- Replying to emails
- Writing and/or editing blog posts
- Research
- Outreach
- Curating recipes, crafts etc for roundup posts
- and pretty much anything else!
The great thing about being a VA is that you could choose to offer all of these services, or focus on one service that best suits your skills.
Personally, as a Pinterest addict, I’m super interested in the idea of becoming a Pinterest VA.
This is a virtual assistant who specialises in Pinterest – creating pin graphics, scheduling their clients’ content in Tailwind, researching group boards etc.
If this is a route you want to go down, there is an awesome course called Become a Pinterest VA TODAY! which teaches all the practical skills needed to be a Pinterest VA, plus things like how to find and pitch clients, and how to set your prices.
According to the course tutors, it’s common to set a recurring monthly fee for Pinterest management packages of anywhere from $250 upwards per client. So this can be a pretty well paying work at home job, and fun to boot!
You can pick up as many or as few clients as you have time for, making it a perfect flexible job for parents. Many VAs manage to make £1000 a month or more within their first few weeks.
Imagine the difference that could make to your family budget!
If you’re considering Pinterest VA as your new work-at-home career, you can sign up for a free workshop here to learn more about what it involves.
Transcriptionist
A transcriptionist turns audio recordings into text. If you have a good ear and type fast, this could be a great side hustle or even full time career for you.
Transcriptionists transcribe for many different clients, including academics, writers and podcasters. You could also develop a specialism such as legal or medical transcription, if you have the necessary experience in the field.
There is no shortage of transcriptionist jobs listed on freelancer sites, and there are also specialist agencies you can apply to – here’s a list of good places to find transcription work.
Like proofreading, this is one of the best ways to work from home for mums who are good at English and want a flexible, freelance career.
Many agencies do not require any experience or qualifications. However, if you want to get a head start in this industry it’s a good idea to take a specialized training course.
Janet from Transcribe Anywhere offers a free 7 lesson mini course so you can learn if transcription might be the right fit for you.
Sign up for the free introductory course here.
Dog sitter
Are you are a stay at home or work from home mum who’s usually at home while other people are in the office? You have the ideal situation to provide dog boarding or doggy day care!
Dog sitters look after other people’s dogs while they’re out at work or on holiday. If you like animals and you have a pet-friendly household (check with your landlord if necessary!), this could be the perfect home job for you.
Rover is one popular site to find doggy related jobs online, including dog boarding, doggy day care, dog walking, house sitting and drop ins. There are jobs for cat lovers, too!
Rover also provide ongoing pet care education, and they have a great support team. They even provide vet assistance, just in case anything goes wrong.
You can also ask around for work locally, or advertise in local shops, Facebook groups or online community groups.
It should be noted that you need a licence to look after animals in your own home in many jurisdictions. In the UK, this is issued through your local council.
The cost and requirements vary by area, so check your local council’s website for more info.
Your kids will probably enjoy helping you out with this site hustle. Just make sure the dogs you choose to work with are OK with children too!
Related post: How To Make Money As A Kid
Pinterest affiliate marketer
Did you know you can get paid to pin on Pinterest?
Yes, it’s one of these things that sounds too good to be true… but I know it works, because I worked this side hustle for several months and made a decent supplementary income.
I don’t really do this any more because I focus on blogging instead now, but here’s how my earnings looked when I was regularly pinning affiliate pins last year:
How?
Affiliate marketing.
This is when you recommend products that you use or love, and you get paid a commission when anyone buys through your special tracking link.
Lots of people use Pinterest for shopping and finding great new products. You can pin your favourite products with affiliate links to help others, and earn money.
Affiliate marketing on Pinterest is a perfect home business idea for busy mums because like blogging, it is 100% flexible.
You can do as much or little as you like. You can even do it from your phone when you’re out and about, or nursing a little one.
It’s a great way to get started making money online if you want to test out affiliate marketing without starting a blog.
The course is suitable for complete Pinterest beginners – although you can make money faster with an established account! Plus, it’s simple enough for you to implement in an afternoon.
You’re unlikely to make a full time income just from affiliate links on Pinterest, but it’s perfectly possible to make an extra couple of hundred pounds a month.
It also combines really well with working as a blogger or Pinterest VA!
Related post: 4 Fantastic Ways to Make Money on Pinterest
Mystery shopper
Mystery shopping is a fun and flexible side hustle.
As well as earning some extra cash, you can also score loads of freebies including meals out, free supermarket products and even children’s clothes!
Mystery shopping usually involves visiting a shop or restaurant, asking a few questions (you will be told what to say ahead of time) and making a purchase like a normal customer. Afterwards, you fill in a survey about your experience online and upload a picture of any receipts.
You will usually be reimbursed for anything you were told to buy, plus you get a small fee for your time.
It’s difficult to make a full time income from mystery shopping, but it can be a fantastic way to make a little extra income each month and enjoy the odd meal out for free.
It’s an ideal side job for stay at home parents because you can fit it around your grocery shopping or other tasks and you can take your children with you to the shop. The aim is to look like a normal customer, after all.
And yes, you can even work from home as a mystery shopper. There are also lots of mystery shopping jobs that are online or by phone! Red WigWam is good for these.
Here are a few of the best mystery shopping companies in the UK (if you’re elsewhere, look for local companies):
- Red WigWam (good for online mystery shops)
- Market Force
- HGEM (specialises in mystery dining)
- Lionbridge (currently recruiting for online mystery shoppers)
- ESA Retail (often has phone jobs)
You can also try tasking apps such as Roamler, BeMyEye and Field Agent for similar tasks.
Related post: The Ultimate List of Paid Survey Sites in the UK
Matched better
If you’re looking for an interesting work from home opportunity in the UK, you could do worse than look at matched betting.
Don’t be put off by the name – it’s not gambling.
You don’t even need to know anything about sports!
Matched betting works by using the free bets that bookies give out all the time. You use online software to place two opposite bets with different online bookmakers. The opposite (‘matched’) bets then cancel out any losses, and you pocket the free bet.
It sounds complicated, but it’s easy to get your head round if you watch a few videos! I use the matched betting service Outplayed.com (previously Profit Accumulator) which has videos to walk you through every step so you can’t go wrong.
This is the one of the best jobs for stay at home mums in the UK because it’s so flexible, and the potential earnings are very high compared to time required once you’ve learned the basics.
As a beginner matched better, I was easily earning a couple of hundred pounds a month in a few hours a week. My personal best was about £600 in one month. I have heard of experienced matched betters making a lot more.
Also, did I mention it’s tax free?!
Even though it’s not gambling, matched betting profits are not considered ‘trading income’ by HMRC (source), so they are not taxable.
So, unlike most of the other online jobs on this list, you don’t have to register as self employed or declare your earnings.
If you’re looking for stay at home jobs UK parents can try, this is easily one of the most profitable options out there.
Learn more by reading through my other blog posts here:
- Matched Betting for Dummies: Your Questions Answered!
- My First Month of Matched Betting
- Side Hustle Milestone: My First £1,000 From Matched Betting
- Thinking of Starting Matched Betting? Here’s What You Need to Know
- How to Make Money Betting Online – WITHOUT Gambling
- Matched Betting: The Best Flexible Work From Home Opportunity For Busy Parents
Note that you will have to be a resident of the UK or Ireland to sign up. Matched betting is not recommended for anyone with a history of gambling problems.
Home work for mums: choosing the best option for you
There are loads of different offline and online jobs for mums out there. I’ve tried to include a selection of different home working options that will appeal to different people.
Not every job on this list will work for everyone. When choosing the best online job or side hustle for you, you need to consider a few different things:
- Do you want to earn a full time income from home, or just a little extra every month?
- Do you need to start earning straight away? (If so, I recommend matched betting – you can see profits literally the same day.) Or can you invest some time upfront into building up a sustainable online business (such as blogging)?
- Can you commit to the regular weekly hours needed to be an online English tutor (best for mums with childcare a few hours a week)? Or do you need a 100% flexible job (most of the other jobs on this list can be done at any time of day or night!)
You can also consider a portfolio career, where you combine two or more different work from home jobs or side hustles.
This takes a lot of organisation, but it allows you to follow your various interests and skills, and it is useful to balance out the busy/quiet periods that happen in many jobs. For example, you could focus on matched betting during the football season, pick up some extra freelance work when matched betting is quieter, while working on your blog for long term passive income.
I hope this list will help you find ways to make money from home while still be there for your family!
Have you tried any of the jobs on this list? Can you share any other work from home jobs for mums?
Feel free to comment below so we can help each other out!
This post was first published on 29 May 2018 and was last updated on 22 October 2019.
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- How to Make Money on Maternity Leave
- How to Earn Extra Money in the UK: 75 Ways to Make Extra Cash
- 38 Sure-Fire Ways to Make Money From Home
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