
There are so many mothers out there who have decided to either give up their full-time job and look for a part-time rolethat suits their lifestyle and parenting needs or have simply stopped working altogether. Whether you are a home-basedmother looking after family, household, and children or looking to get back into the world of paid employment, hereare a few top choices for careers that will fit in with a busy mother’s lifestyle.
The type of job that works for busy at home parents
Parents that are at home and looking after the home as well as looking after children and want to work will have to look for employment that is able to provide for the financial security but also the time and space to continue to run the home. Whether you are currently aiming to work from home or looking to get back into the new world of work, the type of job that you need to be looking for must meet the following standards.
A level of flexibility
Anyone who intends to return to work while still quite busy at home and looking after children will need to have a level of flexibility guaranteed from the outset of the role. You will still be able to engage with full-time employment and even a high-level professional role as long as you have arranged a level of flexibility.
Many moms have noted their displeasure with current and ongoing workplace practices that are found to be unfair and inflexible for working moms and caregivers. They want flexibility and the good pay as well as opportunities for progression. Nobody wants to have to choose between time with family and meeting childcare responsibilities or the opportunity to have a productive, engaging career. This is where the flexibility becomes critical and must be discussed and determined before you accept any work and employmentopportunities. There is no point accepting the job only to find that the hours don’t work for you and won’t allow you to keep on top of your family responsibilities.
Look for a career in care
If you are already looking after children and involved in-home care, then looking for a career in care makes perfect sense. You already have the skills and experience, and being able to train and become accredited will be a cinch. A career in care will also provide some of the most fulfilling work that there isout there. It is one of the best areas of employment exploitedby working moms and parents and has become the go-to place of employment for those looking for a flexible work-life balance. Private live-in care as a self-employed person is also a possibility, although the insurances and liability cover may make it quite an expensive process to follow through on and set up the business. The bottom line is that care work has become one of the top options for moms who already have some of these skills.
Keep it online and virtual
One of the easiest ways to keep your flexibility and be able to spend enough time with children and family and also develop a decent career is to work virtually. The rise of remote and hybrid work has seen the acceptance on a wide basis that remote workers are able to provide the same commitment and performance as those who are in the office. If you don’t have to commute into the office on a daily basis, you will be able to spend this time in a more productive way. Either working from home via a virtual office set up or using the time to care for and look after children is one of the best ways to use any additional time that would previously have been used for the commute. The main reason that this way of work will persist and continue after the pandemic is that working people have realized the importance of a work-life balance and strive to maintain and achieve such balance by spending less time at the office.
Specific known examples of top career choices for the busiest of moms
• Nursing
Nursing has always been seen as one of the top caring professions and one that is totally in sync with the nurturing and care shown by mothers across the globe. Being a mom won’t automatically make you a great nurse, but the skill set required is incredibly similar. As a nurse, you will need to be patient, caring, and committed to those that you look after and care for. Furthermore, it is nursing that has offered many a working mother a route back into the world of work.Returning to work, parents use the flexibility and ease of entryto be able to become a qualified and registered nurses. Depending on the type of nursing, working times will also be more flexible and varied than other professions, providing the flexibility as aforenoted for the working mom. There are a host of advantages of being a nurse practitioner, and it will be worth looking at all the possible routes to qualify, online learning being a definite option that could have you working in a new career in no time at all.
• Nursery care
Having looked after your own children and having this experience makes the nursery care sector one of the best recipients of the working mom. The demand is high, the hours flexible, and the pay will provide the additional income you’relooking for. Working in a nursery or pre-school setting has been noted as one of the best routes back into full-time work for the busy mommy out there. The internet will provide a wealth of advice, free courses, and ideas as to how you, too,could make this work for you. For many moms with young children, there is a constant debate as to whether returning to work and sending the children to childcare is a viable option. The money spent on childcare can make this a non-starterfrom a financial point of view. One way around it is to simply look for work at the nursery or start one of your own. Startinga nursery at home may be a bridge too far for many mommies, but it is a proven means to make some money and so be able to keep the home fires burning, look after your own children and maintain some semblance of flexibility.
• Elderly care
Elderly care is a little more specific than general nursing, and you will need to have the additional patience and training to be able to provide live-in care or sessional care over the hours that work for you to be out of the house and make a little money. The positive difference made by care workers is immense, and the elderly especially have been allowed to reclaim their lives or parts of these as a result of increased professional care. It is a noble career to follow and will provide for hours of fulfilling interaction and communication.
• Self-employed
The best way for a working mom to make some extra money and still keep on top of all the other household responsibilities and have some fun is to monetize a hobby or exploit existing skills. Becoming self-employed using the skills that you have built up as a mom in either care, admin services, writing, and editing, or returning to a skill set that you’ve had and used professionally before. There are a number of options, as mentioned herein, from nursery care to teaching and elderly care. These have all become some of the options explored and implemented by the busy moms out there. Many of whom have managed to turn hobbies into a real business that provides for themselves and their families.
• How to retrain for such jobs
Your starting point as briefly mentioned above, has to be the internet. Online courses for all of the possibilities discussed in this article are now readily available, and many of the introductory courses and training will likely also be free. The idea would be planning for this return to the coal face and then beginning by researching the possible options to improve skills and training around these ideas for employment. Many a stay-at-home mommy has tried to re-enter the workplace without this retraining or skills update and found that it is nigh on impossible. No employer wants to take on people who they will need to spend more time training, so ensure that you’vehoned your skills before you start sending out those resumes.
The work–life balance and how to use this idea to plan ahead
The work-life balance is the idea of having a clear balance between the amount of time spent at work and that spent on yourself and on enjoyment and fun. There are a few ways to ensure that you keep this work-life balance.
Conclusions
There are certain types of jobs that work best with and for busy parents, and the internet has been instrumental in developing these and making them available.