How can I make a comfortable income from home

I don't see the responses as being anti-SAHM

If a poster had said that she'd spent the last few years working as a TA or doing basic office administration and now fancied working part time flexibly at home, during school hours for an unrealistically high salary, people would be equally quick to point out that her expectations are unrealistic.

I've spent the last 20 years working in IT. If I posted that I wanted to earn more money and could see that there were opportunities in the financial sector and wanted to earn 150K whilst always being home for the school run, I would want people to actually give me sensible advice about changing career whilst pointing out that walking straight into such a job was very unrealistic. Not give me humouring platitudes.

@AliceRose1971 @Kitte321 both such well written posts

I HAD to give up work because we couldn't afford the nursey fees. I was happy with it but I would have had to anyway because nursery fees would have completely overtaken our salaries

I hear you.

i just think women have it very tough. I guess the issue of ‘commercial reality and personal accountability’ is a big and complex one

Looking after children and running a home is work, and it is invisible and unpaid but it supports so many others (largely men) who support commerce. Also worth looking into the stress levels of sahms. Some very interesting research projects on this. Also high depression rates.

Also if more money was put into good quality childcare (and wraparound for primary) more sahm would work as their pay packet wouldn’t just cover nursery fees etc. So many are faced with this and either leave work because they don’t want to pay someone else to ‘raise’ their child (that’s a shorthand but you get the sentiment) or they work and all pay goes on nursery fees and feel utterly f’d over and guilty. Plus they’re utterly exhausted trying to ride 2 horses of work and managing small children/nursery logistics, run a home etc

The solution must be to value women genuinely. Even when they’ve been out of the work place for years due to childcare or working ‘in the home’. Often they’re absolutely brilliant at organising and ‘getting the job done’ because of the skill sets of running a home, diary management, time management, can spin plates, delegate etc.

GP drop off rate for women after kids is a total crisis. They should be supported. We need them.

There is so much untapped potential in women who take time out (as the OP has done) to raise kids. I see it all the time. Really bright and capable women but they can’t get back into work because society makes it very hard for them. And they’re considered unemployable (a terrible thing to say to any human being.)

Anyway, there are some very nice women on this post who have made useful suggestions to the OP. She won’t go in at 50k (that’s pretty obvious) but if she’s in her 30/40s she’s got many working aged years ahead of her, so she may get there in time.

I don’t think it’s resentment towards SAHM. I think choosing not to work is an entirely reasonable, valid and worthy choice for some. But it is a choice. Choosing to exit the workplace means you sacrifice your financial independence (in many cases) and impact your employability if you take an extended period out. There are ways to mitigate this but you have to actively choose those too!
Choosing to stay in the workplace (though in many cases it’s a necessity) also comes with sacrifices; time with young children, time pressures, childcare issues etc
There are no perfect choices but as adults we should accept the consequences of the choices we make.
Having said all of that I am a massive advocate for flex working (and I have many working mums in the workplace I manage working very flex hours), I believe deeply in better funding of childcare and the removal of cliff edges and that many workplaces need to focus on improving the gender pay gap. But all of this has to be balanced with commercial reality and personal accountability.

You could start off in the nhs or approach a company called CEC healthcare coding to see if they have a pathway. I’ve gone full time wfh and wish I had when I had my boy at home. There’s a National shortage of us so you never know!

What am I projecting? Enlighten me.

@PropertyD

You are right with everything you say. I have to say I get annoyed with women who stay at home, unmarried and often smugly say they couldn’t possibly leave their children in childcare at a young age, partner supports all of it and then partner leaves. I have two friends who have done this.
MN is full of them wondering where it all when wrong.

100% this! ^

Exactly. Ludicrous and farcical post(s) from @AliceRose1971 with some bizarre generalisations ... Hilariously incorrect assumptions, and clearly projecting.

Can't even be bothered to engage with that poster anymore truth be told.

.

I have been looked down on from relatives and friends who have chosen to stay at home.

Been asked how I can possibly juggle everything etc. One relative is now wondering how she is going to rely on the state pension having no work for years (claimed CB) and manage a husband who shows no interest in her and has his own life which doesn’t seem to include her.

18% think the OP isn’t being unreasonable. Are they also women who have been out of the work place for years?

That’s completely my point.

women have exhausted themselves because they’ve had to dance to the tune of the patriarchy. Women are damned if they do or don’t. They then turn on women that have made other/ different choices because they’ve internalised this mentality. Why is the OP being turned on? Be angry at the patriarchy, not at her!

Imagine a completely different culture which truly understood what it’s like to be a mum. And didn’t end up with women harshly judging other women online for all having to live in the same culture. Genuine flexibility. Understanding that the school day and working days are utterly incompatible. Holidays. Endless events to attend at school. Sickness. A really slow return to work after a baby that isn’t seen as ‘sitting in your arse’, but is kind to women and little children. State funding high quality child care. Understanding the gender pay gap that already exists. How working from home can negatively impact promotion opportunities. Women are punished for having children like it or not. Or for stepping off the work merry go round. God forbid!!

What puritanical times we live in.

But I agree with your point. I’m saying the saying the same thing. But maybe not expressing myself very well.

But I’m genuinely saddened by the resentment towards women (mums) on this thread. Patriarchy will always win because women turn on women, and not on the real enemy.

Only Fans seems to work well for some people

I suspect the OP won’t come back but where on earth has she got the idea that £50k is the salary she is aiming for.

Sadly it’s an example where when you leave the workplace you lose touch with reality. If I was interviewing someone like this it would be clear early on that she is out of touch, would need significant training and support and harshly I would just look for someone more in touch with the real world

Get real. If it was possible to make £50k per year working from home around small children and with limited relevant experience, we’d all be doing it. Clearly we aren’t all doing it, so there’s your answer.

What courses and companies would you recommend

We literally threw money at childcare to enable me to work full time. Now have a good pension, am working part time at mid 60’s which is my choice.

I have two relatives who have done the opposite. Now stuck in relationships they don’t want to be in but financially are tied to someone they don’t really want to be with.

Based on this, in your shoes I'd set up a business as a self employed PA. Reach out to any contacts you have for remote PA work/typing etc and advertise. I dont know them off the top of my head but have heard of companies you can log on and get work from. Websites like fiver too might help.

You are right with everything you say. I have to say I get annoyed with women who stay at home, unmarried and often smugly say they couldn’t possibly leave their children in childcare at a young age, partner supports all of it and then partner leaves. I have two friends who have done this.

MN is full of them wondering where it all when wrong.

Learn clinical coding and work remotely. 🙂

Calling this internalised misogyny completely misses the reality many working mothers live with.
There are countless women who spent their children’s early years exhausted and split in two. Racing between drop-off, pick-up, and work, not out of choice or false consciousness, but to keep their skills relevant, protect their earning power, and continue contributing to family finances. Many do it precisely so they can stay on the greasy pole long enough to earn a modicum of flexibility later on.
To ignore that struggle, or to suggest it was unnecessary because £50k, genuinely flexible jobs are supposedly abundant, is wildly unrealistic and deeply insulating.

So, you haven’t worked for 15 years in a job, and not updated your skills, but want to earn 50k for term time school hours?

To be honest you are either being unreasonable and unrealistic or you are looking for information about how to get into sex work?

Well that would be my guess?

She only sound angry at someone who thinks that there are lots of 50k a year jobs for someone with no experiences or skills but those of normal life

Yes that's a hugh wage for 15 years not working and a recent TA course. You could use it work as a TA so it fits in with school times?

But you weren’t a working mum to primary aged children. Sounds like you were at secondary age, which is a very different prospect.

You (and others here) sound quite angry about mums, women, working women, sahm. Each choice comes with pros and cons. The poster was asking for job ideas. As I said she will need to adjust her salary expectations but I’m amazed at the anger from ‘working mums’ towards her (how dare she!), the resentment is interesting.

The poster may be out of touch but the massive angry reaction is something else entirely. And I think it’s good old internalised misogyny. I’d explore why you’re so outraged by her ‘entitlement’.

I know so many working mums are utterly on their knees trying to do it all. Work
cultures that don’t acknowledge what having children really entails. Children often pay the price. Children who never have a parent at a play or sports day. Parents feel crap
about themselves.

Anyway, I hope the Op finds something that works for her.

With you, my full time wage before having my son and going to part time was 27k