Finding stay-at-home mom jobs that pay well and offer you the kind of flexibility it takes to raise your kids while making extra money can feel a little overwhelming. There are so many options to research and try, and you already have your hands full.
Even though the balance is hard, finding a good side hustle that lets you stay home with your kids can ease a lot of stress. Making a meaningful financial contribution to your family is an empowering feeling!
If you want something fast and easy, check out Branded Surveys and Survey Junkie. These two online survey sites pay $1-$3 per completed survey.
What are the Best Legitimate Stay-at-Home Mom Jobs for 2023?
1. Proofreading
Proofreaders provide editing services for a variety of clients. You might work for bloggers, have regular contracts with larger companies, or work on small one-off type projects. You're helping them publish accurate and error-free content.
I’d say most entry-level proofreaders earn around $20/hour. As you build a reputation and grow your skills, you can earn $40+/hour.
Want to make money proofreading?
This FREE seminar teaches you the fives steps to becoming a well-paid proofreader.
2. Freelance Writing
You don’t need an education in creative writing or English to have a stay-at-home job as a freelance writer. Some of the best writers are ones who simply have an interest in it!
Your earning potential is contingent on your experience and the jobs you take. Some people start really low, earning just a few cents per word on content mill work, others get gigs right away that pay $200+ for a 1500 word article.
Make $1,000 to $5,000/month as a freelance writer
Go from “I don’t know what I’m doing” to “I landed my first client!”
3. Bookkeeping
Freelance bookkeepers help business owners record and manage daily financial transactions. This can include paying bills, managing payroll, and collecting payments. Bookkeeping is not the same thing as accounting, and that difference is why you can start bookkeeping online without a degree or certification.
Bookkeepers need to be familiar with popular financial software like Quickbooks and know how to read and create balance sheets. Pay averages $20-$40/hour, and you can work online and get paid daily or weekly. It's one of the best stay-at-home mom jobs if you like to nerd out with numbers.
Make up to $5,000/month bookkeeping!
Learn the skills and strategies necessary to start a successful bookkeeping business from the comfort of your home.
4. Blogging
When you look at lists of stay-at-home mom jobs, this one always pops up. That’s because it’s a great creative outlet for moms who are looking to bring in some extra cash. Blogging easily has the highest income potential out of anything on this list — some bloggers make $10,000+ every month!
Blogging is a long game. It can take months to earn a dime. But the draw is that you get to write and share whatever it is that you’re passionate about, whether that's parenting, health and beauty, fitness, cooking, woodworking, entrepreneurship, etc.
If you're interested in blogging, check out:
- How to Start a Blog: This in-depth article walks you through the process of starting a profitable blog in 2023.
- Bluehost is the platform this site was built on. It comes with WordPress for free, and you can start a blog for as little as $2.95/month.
5. Work as a Virtual Assistant
Parents know how to put out fires and manage schedules. I mean, those are some of the most valuable and marketable skills we have (if you could put “parenting” on a resume). This is a lot of what virtual assistants do, and M$M’s very own Mel does that while staying at home with her four young children. I know for a fact that she’s the glue holding this entire operation together.
Virtual assistants take on a variety of tasks for their clients, including:
- Scheduling meetings
- Managing social media accounts
- Contacting clients
- Managing billing and payments
If it’s a job that doesn’t need to be done by the business owner themselves, then it can be done by a virtual assistant. And, many virtual assistants earn from $35-$50/hour.
6. Earn Money on Pinterest
I know lots of parents, including myself, who use Pinterest as a guidebook for surviving life at home with kids. Pinterest can also be used to earn money while working at home with your kids as a Pinterest virtual assistant.
The idea is that online business owners need help leveraging Pinterest’s vast reach. And as a Pinterest VA, you’ll:
- Design, create, and pin pins
- Creating a pinning schedule
- Do keyword research
If you’re interested in learning more about this stay-at-home mom job, you can read more at the Pinterest VA Course and will hear how you can earn around $500/client.
7. Start an Etsy Shop
If you want a job that feeds your creativity, Etsy is an online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods. It’s easy to set up a shop, and you’ll need high-quality photos, on-point descriptions, and be able to ship things quickly.
As a maker myself, I will offer one caveat – in a competitive marketplace like Etsy, it is difficult to earn a fair wage for handmade goods. Take a handknit hat. You have may have paid $10 for the yarn and put four hours into the knitting, but you may not be able to sell it for over $25. Just keep that in mind and be passionate about the craft.
Now, there are things like printables that take considerably less time and can turn into pretty passive sales. Etsy seller, finance enthusiast, and new mom Julie Berninger has created an Etsy printables course that teaches you how to sell printables on Etsy.
8. Flip Furniture
If you can see potential in furniture that has been set out for trash or is in thrift stores, this could be a great money maker. Your materials cost is low, sometimes even free, and you’re just doing things like sanding, finishing, tightening, and/or painting.
You can sell your pieces in local Facebook groups or the Facebook Marketplace, or even one day open an online store.
9. Sell on Amazon FBA
I have a friend who recently quit her full-time accounting job after spending just one-year selling books through Amazon FBA. The FBA part means Fulfillment By Amazon, and the idea is that you ship your wares to Amazon, list your items, and then Amazon ships out the goods when you make a sale.
Books are good sellers on Amazon FBA, but so are wholesale items, retail arbitrage, and used or returned items. Amazon offers tools for helping you source items that will sell well. And my friend, she made nearly $20k in her first year of Amazon FBA.
10. Run a Digital Marketing Agency
This one might sound intimidating, but it’s basically running online ads for small businesses from the comfort of your home. And as far as a stay-at-home mom jobs that you can start and earn from quickly, running Facebook ads is a really great bet. It takes around 3-5 hours a week to manage ads for one client, and each client is worth around $1,000-$1,500/month.
See, small businesses are trying to leverage Facebook’s wide reach and targeted marketing, but many small business owners lack the time or knowledge to run an effective strategy. Because they know what a powerful tool Facebook is, they’re willing to pay for expertise.
If you’re interested in learning the skills it takes to run Facebook ads for small business, the Facebook Side Hustle Course covers it all. You’ll learn:
- How to create and design an effective ad strategy
- How to find clients who need your services
- How to get those clients to hire you
11. Freelancing
Many stay-at-home moms come out of the workforce with valuable and in-demand skills that can be used to earn money while at home. Many of these skills can be marketed as freelance services, including things like:
- Graphic design
- Web development
- Consulting services
- Transcription
- Accounting
- App development
There are literally dozens of options for freelance work. You’ll want a website so clients can find you and what you offer. You can start networking to find clients, tell your friends and family what you’re doing, and find clients on sites like Freelancer, Guru, and Fiverr.
As far as stay-at-home mom jobs, freelancing is 100% something that can earn you a full-time income. It will take some work to build your client list, but freelancing is a legit job that people build entire careers out of.
12. Sell Stuff Online
This is a great low-stress option for stay-at-home mom jobs. You can start by selling things around your house and find things in thrift stores or garage sales to resell.
While you’re not going to get rich with this option, you can easily pocket some extra cash. Selling gently used clothes on sites like Depop and Poshmark can be a nice way make extra money.
You can find a full list of some of the best apps for reselling goods (plus ratings!) at: 21 Apps to Sell Your Stuff Online (and How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off).
13. In-Home Childcare
This job isn’t for everyone (it wasn’t for me). But, if you love other people’s kids as much as you love your own, you can make around $25-$35 a day for each child you watch.
Before you start, here are a few things to consider:
- Insurance
- Food costs, or will they bring their own food
- Supplies (extra wipes, cleaning supplies, craft supplies)
- Whether you need extra equipment
- Is there special licensing required by your state
- When you or your kids get sick, you can’t watch other people’s kids
My personal advice is to have fun with it while taking it seriously, and don’t take on more than you can reasonably handle.
Final Word on Stay-at-Home Mom Jobs
Being able to contribute to your family’s financial well-being is a great feeling. Not only are you helping keep up with the bills, pay down debt, and save for retirement, you're showing your kids valuable lessons for their future.
The ideas on this list are all flexible stay-at-home jobs for moms and dads, and our top picks are:
About Ariel Gardner
Ariel Gardner is the editor-in-chief of M$M, an elder millennial, and really wants to keep her lattes. She’s seen both ends of the financial spectrum, from trust funds to a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle, and uses that experience to empathize and connect with a wide range of readers. She has been editing and writing professionally for personal finance websites since 2015.
Comments
Goat Finja
My wife started insurance agency from home as a stay at home mom. After four years I quit my job and joined her as well. Now it’s a real small business that pays much better than my middle market banking job.
Bobby Hoyt
Nice!