Can you work from home and look after a child? If working from home with kids around is a dream of yours, read on!
If you want to make money from home but don’t want to pay for daycare that will cancel out those earnings, read on for some work from home mom tips and tricks to getting it all done!
Whether you are looking to transform your stay at home mom schedule to more of a work at home mom routine or are hoping to give up the day job, working from home with kids can definitely require some juggling but the rewards are enormous.
I’ve been working from home since 2007 but used a daycare until around 2016 when I had my second child.
At that point I realized that I could very likely have the best of both worlds by working around my kids and enjoying time with them during the day.
Since becoming a full-time work at home mom blogger in January 2018, my schedule has evolved to maximize my productivity and minaimize my time away from the kids.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my Disclosure for more information.
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How stay at home moms can make money from home?
Before you sort out your work at home mom schedule, you need to have a job or stay at home mom side hustle nailed down.
Maybe you have a job that will allow you to work from home or maybe you are interested in starting your own business like a on Etsy or Shopify.
If you want to find regular employment that will let you work from home with kids, make sure to clear it with them first.
Not all employers are ok with this and some even require their WFH employees to sign a contract stating they will use daycare or a nanny.
Here is a list of 70 Side Hustles For Single Moms that you will find useful.
If you want to make money for yourself, then you will have much more control over your schedule and childcare solutions.
There are tons of ways to make money from home such as:
- Freelancing
- Selling crafts or homemade projects.
- Babysitting or other in-home services
- Food delivery like Door dash.
The best work at home job for moms is one that allows you flexibility for things like doctor’s appointments, sick kids and those days where you have been up all night and just can’t handle anything.
Time management for work at home moms
Time management is the most important part for working at home with a child.
Bear in mind that every second is going to count and you want to be as productive as possible when you do get a chance to work.
How do I schedule my work day from home?
1.Prepare things the night before
Do as much as you can at night – packing lunches, laying out clothes, prepping a crockpot meal (which will be a huge time-saver).
The quicker you can get your day under way, the better. This also gives you some buffer time in the morning.
2. Plan your weekly/daily/monthly tasks
Keep a running list of everything you want/need to achieve both at work and in the house/family.
For work, I always make sure to focus on the money making tasks first.
So for my blog, that would mean affiliate posts, sponsored work and boosting traffic.
The order I do things in is normally:
- Showstoppers – Anything that could prevent me from making money like website updates/paying due bills etc
- Money makers – What can boost my income this week or month? What would actually make a difference?
- Medium priority – Things that can wait but do need to be done such as scheduling an oil change.
- Low Priority – Tasks that can be pushed to the following week if necessary – admin like book-keeping.
I always give myself a few hours buffer each week to catch up on anything I didn’t manage to complete.
Sample Schedule For Working At Home With Kids
Here is the rough schedule that I try to stick to.
As you probably know, with kids nothing is guaranteed and I’ve had plenty of unproductive days due to sickness, rough nights or just a build-up of household tasks.
The bonus of having a set schedule is that I can lose a day or so here and there and I don’t get too far behind because of how productive my days normally are.
5am-6am – Wake-up and Work
Personally I am a morning person (although 5am is almost the middle of the night!).
If you are not, you can adjust this to do more work at night.
I find that I am most productive in the morning so I use the 5am-6am slot to knock out a larger project that requires my full concentration.
I normally grab a cup of tea, do some stretches while it is brewing and then set to work.
6am-8am – Kid time and Exercise
Unfortunately for me, my children wake up early.
By 6am or 6.30, at least one of them is awake so my work time has to end. If you are lucky and your children sleep later, you can maybe get in another hour or two of work each morning.
Once the kids up are, I focus completely on them.
I often have a shower with them to save time or I let them bath while I clean the bathroom around them.
I only use natural products so I don’t worry about them being exposed to chemicals while they are in the bathroom.
One thing we like doing together are YouTube workout videos so it’s a double win as we have fun and I get my exercise in.
We do ballet barre classes or yoga together.
Then I give them breakfast and set them up with a craft or some toys while I do my make-up and hair.
I prepare lunches and prep water bottles the night before so it’s just a case of packing school bags and laying out their coats and clothes depending on the weather.
If we have time, I try to do at least some house cleaning and I involve the kids so I give them cloths and spray and get them to clean the kitchen floor and cupboard doors while I do the higher up stuff.
They also like polishing the wooden furniture while I clean the floors.
8am-12pm – School drop-off
My 5 year old is in kindergarten so we take her to school and then we (myself and my 3 year old), head out for the morning. This is our time to go swimming, skating, attend play dates or do other activities.
I don’t get any work done in the mornings but as I have often already done at least an hour, I feel ok about focussing on my kids for a few hours.
12pm-1pm – Lunch time
I give my daughter her lunch and use this time to catch up on social media and quick emails while she eats.
I also use this time to clean counters and vacuum twice weekly.
1pm -3pm – Productive Time
Nap time/Quiet Time.
My daughter no longer naps (unfortunately!) but this window is still one of my most productive work-wise.
If you have nappers, then you can get a lot of work done now but even if your child is home with you, they will likely need some down-time after a busy morning.
The key to working at home with kids and getting stuff done is to have lots of tricks up your sleeve.
I keep my daughter busy while I work with quiet activities such as:
- Sensory bins
- Easy crafts with stickers that she can do on her own
- Puzzles
- Blocks
- When the weather is nice, I often set myself up in the backyard while she plays in the sprinkler or on our backyard trampoline.
- On bad days, we often do a half hour or so of “homework”. She sits at my desk and I work while she does some Preschool worksheets (you can find great ones for free on Pinterest).
- Once a week, we have a movie afternoon, sometimes based on a “theme” I picked for the week such as “the Farm” or
“Snowy days”. I get DVDs from the local library for free.
3pm-4pm – School Pick Up
We walk over to the school, do pick up, come home and have snack and relax.
I rush around cleaning up the house for 15 minutes at this time.
4pm-6pm – Extra-curriculars
Both my daughters are in dance and gymnastics so most afternoons we are busy.
Depending on the activity, I can sometimes get an extra hour or so of work in.
For example, at dance class, parents are not allowed in and we just wait in the lobby so I often use this time to create pins for my blog.
On the days we are not scheduled, we normally head to the gym for an hour.
The girls get to play at the daycare and I catch up on video trainings or conference calls.
6pm-8pm – Dinner and Bedtime
Crazy time!
This is a super busy time of dinner (I normally have it pre-prepped in the crockpot or leftovers so I’m not rushing).
I prep the lunches for the next day while we are cleaning up and the kids are putting their pjs on.
8pm-9pm – Last hour of work
This is my flex hour.
I don’t really like working at night so I sometimes slip this or just do a quick 20 minute task.
I use this for replying to emails, If I have a big project, I can stretch this to later at night but normally I am too tired by this time after a day of juggling working at home with kids’ activities.
830-930pm – Me Time!
Time to wind down for the night.
10pm/10.30pm
I try to hit the hay by 10.30am so I am up and about by 5am again!
How Many Hours A Week Can A Stay At Home Mom Work?
My schedule gives me about 3-4 hours a day of productive work time plus moments here and there for quick tasks like social media and emails.
This adds up to around 20 hours a week which is a great part-time routine for stay at home moms.
On the weekends, I often work an hour or so in the morning but not much else as we dedicate that time to family activities.
If I need to, I can add a few hours to the weekend to get to almost 30 hours a week when things are busy.
Some weeks I don’t get as much done as I would like, but part of working at home with kids is accepting that things can change on a dime.
One call from the school and my whole week can go sideways.
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