Please inspire me! WFH jobs for new mums...

[Sash95]

I'm a soon-to-be single mum (baby due next week!). I had to leave my main job after escaping DV a few months ago. Since then, I have been working freelance, mostly tutoring, to pay the bills.

I will go back full-time after maternity leave. I am looking for part-time work, ideally WFH, that I can do in the day/evenings to start ASAP for 6-12 months, as maternity will not be enough to live on. I'm open to anything as this will only be short-term - customer service, admin PA work, translation, data entry etc.

What work did you do postpartum? How did you juggle work and childcare before nursery?

I would carry on tutoring; the only problem I see is that when I have a student, I need at least 30 minutes to 1 hour of uninterrupted time per lesson, which I can't do while looking after a baby.

I'm just exploring options at this stage, any suggestions would be really appreciated. As I mentioned, I have a long-term plan; just need something to find something short-term to make ends meet for the first few months.

Are you looking for work you can do while in sole charge of a baby? Because that doesn’t really exist.

Are you receiving maternity pay or allowance? I don't think you're allowed to work at the same time (apart from things like KIT days). I could be wrong though.

Childminder or babysitter is the only role I can think of if you wish to look after your baby at same time. Looking after a baby IS a full time job unfortunately.

virtual PA?

Exactly this. You need to have someone in that looks after baby or babsit another baby and bring yours.

I'm not exactly sure but perhaps something where you work to long deadlines rather than something where you need to be in meetings or frequently message on teams. That way you can work when the baby is sleeping.

You can't just 'WFH' with a young baby in the mix. It will not go well.

This, unfortunately.

Maybe leaflet delivering? Or ironing?

I can’t see customer service roles working at all while you’re in sole charge of a child - my husband does exactly that working from home and has to be shut away in his office with no interruptions during his working hours; he can’t even pop to the loo or grab a cold drink without logging it on their system and pausing the phone software. He certainly couldn’t respond to a baby needing attention and I have to keep our 4 year old twins downstairs so they don’t disturb him!! Oh, and he’s on constant calls all day, except when he works on a Saturday, so it’s not like he’s sat with time to do anything else even if he wanted to.

I don't think anyone will employ you

You would need to find something like virtual PA where you are employed directly by someone or a small business : not an agency

I did Virtual Assistant work whilst I had sole charge of a baby.

Do you have any friends sue a baby around the same time? Maybe you could each look after the babies two mornings a week leaving the other one free to work for a few hours twice a week. Would be complicated as you never know what kind of baby you’re going to get - clingy or chilled and happy to go to others. Good luck OP!

Thanks for all your comments. I will be getting a maternity allowance (I'm eligible from my previous job), you can do some kinds of work, but it's limited to freelance or self-employed work. I'm already registered as self-employed from tutoring. If I could find something with proper pay, I wouldn't mind ditching MA in favour of an income.

I realise I'm trying to do a near-impossible task, but I want to avoid claiming benefits. My situation is NOT ideal, but I'm trying to make the best of it.

I've done WFH before where I was tied to a computer all day. I get that it's not to be taken lightly.

Ideally, I'm thinking of something with a deadline, ie. get a task and work throughout the day to get it done...as @BippityBopper said, 'something with long deadlines'. Maybe I'm living in dreamland, but I thought it was worth asking!

I was watching a US financial advice show, and they were telling the mum to get back to work and look for WFH customer service jobs. I was wondering if something similar exists in the UK.

Who will look after your baby whilst you're working? WFH only works with children in the house when they're much older and can fend for themselves.

There is a long running thread in the money section here called "make £10 a day" which has lots of ideas of work where you can do small bits of work to make money. you could combine several to make a bit of extra money, they are mostly fairly casual online work. In the past I have taught conversational English online through a site called Cambly. It's about $10 US per hour but is 24/7 as there are students all around the world on there, and I think you get paid oer minute so although not ideal, if your baby stirred you could jump away, though it may affect the ratings you get from students.
I also do casino offers using a website called Team Casino. I make a pretty solid £300 per month from that on average but there are lots of people who make a lot more than that. You totally pick and choose when you do it so it could work well if you have a baby. It's not for everyone and you do have to have a bit of money up front but it's really helped me over the past few years doing it, and is tax free too. If you find the thread in the money section there are lots of other possibilities too, none of which would toe you down too much, good luck op!

What are your qualifications? If you're tutoring, could you do editing? I wfh full time editing, and while I couldn't do it with my kids here, it works for after school (I make up the time to finish tasks) and during sickness, as I have less than 1 call a week and my role is entirely based on producing all the content - which can be done any time.

@Longwhiskers Unfortunately, I had to leave my home, belongings, job and everything, so I don't have any friends where I live yet. I'm very lucky that my dad lives nearby, so I have some family support, but obviously, he's working full time, so wouldn't be able to help with childcare.

Hang on lovely - why are you trying to avoid claiming benefits? If ever anyone needed the safety net… you’ve paid tax all your life and will do so again…

I think there are customer service jobs that are 100% WFH, but keep in mind you would still have to travel to the office for the initial training, which could be a few days or a week.

If you are in Scotland I can recommend a Scottish flexible working Facebook group. There must be others for England etc.

Is there not a different way of tutoring? I tutor qualifications and the main ones I provide email support and then do the marking, the other are a tutorial every 6 weeks perhaps of an evening and then the marking and email support.

I did some technical authoring when my baby was a few months' old. I'd get some done early in the morning, then afternoon nap time, then a couple of hours in the evening. Single parent who needed the money or I don't think I'd have been so disciplined to get it done.

I was mainly rewriting technical guides into plain English. I wasn't particularly technical but that didn't matter; my writing was passable. I also picked up some other writing assignments eg wrote a series of guides for a relocation company. This might sound bizarre - I didn't know the areas, just desk research and called some estate agents.

This was before the days of PeoplePerHour etc so I imagine this would be much easier now. (I've hired copy writers and PR people from People Per Hour).

Yes - my thoughts exactly.

I could have done maybe 3 or 4 hours a day once my DS was about 4 months as he was in a more predictable routine with longer naps but for most of the first few months, it would have been a cycle of feeding/changing/him sleeping on me which made it tricky to get work done. I did have to do something for work when he was a couple of weeks old, a super simple task that would have taken 10 mins and it took ages not least as I could only type with one hand while baby snoozed on me.

Honestly though, benefits are there for exactly this kind of situation. You've had a tough time of it; they can help you get back on your feet and reduce some of the pressure in the short term.

You will need childcare. The company I work for explicitly states that childcare must in place for children aged under X (I cannot remember the exact age) in the home working policy. Looking after a baby yourself and working is not going to work. However much you think you will catch up around the baby, you will falter and your performance and productivity at work won't meet the expectations.

A lot of customer service/call centre type rolls are remote now so that could be an option provided you have childcare in place and can cover an initial few weeks onsite training.

@Blessedbethefruitz I'm ex-military and so my main skills and qualifications are pretty niche.
I have done a real mix of jobs in the past though. I'm a qualified tutor, pharmacy technician and personal trainer. I worked as a network engineer for a while. I speak 2 languages and am confident in editing, but I have struggled to find projects.

@fringeofclaudia Thanks for your advice. I use Cambly at the moment as a side hustle and have taught hundreds of students. It is a great platform but just not sustainable; I wouldn't be able to survive without private tutoring. Because it's paid in US dollars, the currency conversion and PayPal fees take a big chunk of that; it's also per minute. BUT for anyone after some extra money as a side hustle, I would absolutely recommend it!

Would it work to recruit a mother's help (possibly teen doing a childcare course) to look after your baby while you're tutoring? If you're charging a decent amount per hour?