To ask your advice on becoming a work at home mum?

[UnexpectedStepmum]

I am on maternity leave and only have a nine month contract to return to. Although I think I'm well paid, after childcare, travel, cleaner and added expenses like lunches, we are only about £700 a month better off for me working. However we can't afford not to have this. How can I find flexible work at home?
My work experience is in the public and voluntary sectors. I am skilled at writing of all kinds, and at ensuring written work is of good quality. I can also take in a lot of information and process it quickly, and express complex concepts in a clear way. I have pretty good people skills, am good at meeting deadlines and am organised.
Does anyone have any ideas or experience which might help me?

you can get up and unload the dishwasher etc. during a quiet moment.
yes... you can get all the laundry done easily but not the ironing!

And the other pitfall is going onto MN for 'just a moment' ... be warned!

If you are asking about how to find the work, the best place to start is all your existing contacts. It's a little uncomfortable, but emailing people you've worked with to ask about contracts you could do from home is where I'd start. Also consider some time in the office, some time at home. Many jobs will allow some work from home now/some flexi working. Hard to get a work from home job 100 percent of the time with people you haven't previously worked with.

What about bid writing? I know some charities employ freelancers to write bids on their behalf. If you're good at persuasive writing, this may suit?

Thank you again everyone who has given thoughts, I appreciate your advice. SimplyRedHead that's a great idea, I did LOADS of bid writing a couple of jobs ago. Would I approach charities directly or do they advertise this sort of work?

There are work from home corporate writing jobs advertised here, OP.

I wfh editing a magazine. At the moment I fit it in around the kids (baby and toddler) but i only do max 10 hours a month. Come september I'm going up to about 20 hours a month. I will work one morning a week while ds is at playschool and dh looks after dd. If that works i may up my hours further. My boss doesn't care when i work as long as the mag is ready on time. I answer emails on my phone whenever and edit during naptimes, evenings and weekends. I dpn't earn a massive amount but i enjoy it and the extra money is handy.

Thank you Zola!

If you work from home your probably going to need childcare anyway bear in mind, it's horrible switching on your PC at night once they are in bed and I find it difficult to work accurately late when I'm tired.

Trying to work and care for an older baby on your own is very very stressful.

I'd say "don't do it" unless you are lot more controlled over the amount of time you spend on mumsnet than I am

I work freelance frm home but still use nursery two days a week. I dont' think you can start looking for work or contracts until you know how many days/hours a week you are free to work without childcare responsibilities.
Even if you choose to evening work, your DH MUST be home those evenings and do all the wakings etc. You can't 'sell' that time to a client and also be parenting at the same time.

I think I could manage for a couple of years Harold - at the moment I am doing some private work in my field and do two to three hours most evenings until I get it done. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of this sort of work around any more, and the consultants who get it mostly attend local offices. But getting a limited amount of work done in the evenings is realistic for me, I agree with everyone who has said you can't look aft children and work at the same time.

Another one who works from home. I've spent the past few months working in evenings and weekends and building my client base, getting up to date with training etc. But from August my children (3year old and 1 year old) will be going to a childminder 2 days a week. I just can't give my job the accuracy and concentration it needs if I'm squeezing it once the children are in bed. My clients pay me well and for that expect a good job with little errors. It also allows me to make phone calls, meet with clients during the day when needed. I couldn't do it longer term without childcare.
Why not go back on your contract and use some of that 9 months to get the qualification that some other posters have suggested?

Ive got one 2.5 yo and one 6 mo who is starting nursery tomorrow one day a week, Ive really wanted to keep a client so only took a week off and its been horrendous!

Its not great doing 2/3 evening hours a week which is what I have been doing, so in making your decision I would at least factor in some costs for childcare if you increase your hours.

When I had DC1 I didnt, I thought oh I`ll work evenings and when he naps. Lasted about a month! Horrendous.