Having a family was the best thing I could ever have done. I stopped working for many years to raise my children and financially I was lucky enough to be able to do this. Not every mum can or want to stay at home. Some women decide that after the baby is born they want to go straight back to work and I respect that. Mums working from home face many challenges but although it is not easy, it is achievable.

If you have the finances or the support network around you to enable you to find childcare then that is fantastic, but not everyone finds themselves in that situation. Some need to go back to work and some start working from home.

Although I could have decided to put my child in nursery early on, my husband and I decided that I should be the one to stay with the children during the day while they grew up, and to be honest I don’t regret that one bit. It is amazing being there for every milestone that your child passes and knowing you haven’t missed a single thing. Also you have total control over how your child is brought up rather than relinquishing a certain amount of control to whoever is caring for your child while you are at work.

Time to start thinking about looking for jobs for mums working from home.

The years ticked by and my two littles ones grew and grew and as they started nursery and then school, I began to feel that I had a little bit more time on my hands than I had before. Baby brain started to fade and I began to feel as if I had the capacity to think about something other than nappies, food, playgroup, sleep, washing, cleaning and Peppa Pig!

This is where my thoughts started to drift back to working from home and what jobs for mums were out there.

My first working from home situation arose from a visit to a Bowen Technique therapist to help relieve my second child from colic. If you are not familiar with colic, it can be summarised as a condition which makes a baby cry for long periods without any obvious reason. It can be difficult to console them and makes the parents feel desperate and helpless. The crying can last for hours and, as far as I know, there isn’t really a scientifically proven cure.

Both of my children suffered with colic and the first three months of my eldest daughter’s life was miserable for me, my husband and, I’m sure, my daughter. We tried everything, from colic drops, to reflux remedies. Nothing seemed to work. The colic always seemed to start at about 5pm every night and would last until about 9pm. Literally for hours and hours my child would cry, and I would pace around the kitchen rocking her and singing to her, without any success. When she turned three months the colic just seemed to disappear, as if it had never been there.

How to treat colic

When my second child started to show symptoms of colic at around four weeks I was distraught and searched everywhere for some sort of remedy. I just couldn’t go through another two months of colic as I had before.

My mother-in-law, at the time, was regularly visiting a Bowen therapist and suggested I look into The Bowen Technique as a possible solution for helping with the colic. I had never heard of Bowen Therapy, but at this point I was desperate and willing to give anything a go.

What is the Bowen Technique?

For those of you who are not familiar with it, The Bowen Technique is a holistic, non invasive complimentary therapy. It is hands-on and involves gentle rolling movements over muscles and tendons using thumbs and fingers. It can be used on all ages from very small babies to the elderly.

If you want to read a bit more information about The Bowen Technique you may like to see my post Bowen Therapy – What it can treat and how it works.

Exploring The Bowen Technique

So, I found a therapist near to where we lived and took my daughter along for her first treatment. After a quick chat with the therapist and, what felt like about fifteen minutes of gentle manipulation by the therapist on my daughters back and stomach, (which she loved by the way), I was sent on my way.

I have to admit, I got to the car afterwards and did feel that the whole thing had been a waste of time. However, almost immediately after the treatment my daughter filled her nappy! Sorry, sorry, not very pleasant, but the therapist had told me this would probably happen, as the baby’s muscles started to react to the treatment. Driving home with a smelly baby in the car, I started to wonder whether the therapy might actually work.

Does the Bowen Technique actually work?

As the clock struck 5pm that evening I prepared myself for the hours and hours of the torturous crying that was about to ensue. The crying started, but this time it was different. It didn’t last for hours as it usually did. Maybe a few hours and then it stopped. The next night, NO CRYING AT ALL!!! And the next night, nothing! The colic never came back.

The Bowen Technique: A cure for colic?

Now I’m sure there are plenty of sceptics out there that would say it had to be a coincidence and I admit that, usually, I have to see something to believe it, but for me this was too much of a coincidence. To this day I believe the Bowen therapy had relieved the colic. My child was happier, I was happier and life started to become enjoyable again. I could start to take pleasure in the early years with my second child.

This is where my first idea for working from home came from. I felt that I wanted to help other children (and parents) suffering with colic, and it was a job that I could fit around my children, so I began my training to become a Bowen Therapist. Finding jobs for mums can be quite difficult but I was excited that this could be the answer for me.

Over the years I have experimented with many different ways to work from home and to be able to find that work/life balance. Some have worked well and others have not worked as well for me for one reason or another. I have no doubt that all of the working from home options that I will discuss in this post could be a huge success for the right person. Like any job, they all take hard work and dedication to make them truly succeed, but if you are prepared to put that hard work in, you will no doubt reap the rewards.

So, having said that, let’s move on to my next working from home idea.

Importing from China

I was lucky enough to have a contact who was already working in this particular industry. He was able to offer me plenty of advice. This gave me a head start, and that is what I will do for you on my blog. I was given the contact details of an agent in China who helped me to design and develop my own range of children’s bangles. I had them made and shipped over here and then I started selling them in the UK.

More ideas for mums working from home

The last two working from home ideas I have described to you are long term businesses. They take a huge amount of hard work and commitment, which is totally possible if you have the drive and the time. I understand as well as the next mum that, when you are trying to work from home and raise a family, time isn’t necessarily a luxury you have a lot of. With this in mind I have three more working from home ideas which take less time to set up and can be picked up and put down as and when it suits you. By the way, these ideas can also be scaled up to be a full time job if you wish.

Mums working from home sell on Vinted

All mums find themselves with an ongoing steady stream of children’s clothes and toys. Most have have been grown out of and barely used. We would all like to be able to just drop them off at the charity shop. But managing to reap back some of the money that had been spent of them is also very nice too.

In my experience Vinted is the perfect method for achieving this. I find it very simple to post an item on the website. The app also makes it super easy to print off a shipping label and pop the item in the post.

If you want to know more about Vinted go to my post “How does Vinted work?”. Here I tell you all the ins and outs of Vinted and how to get the best response from buyers.

Mums working from home sell on eBay

Now this is probably something most of you have already done, for the odd item that you needed to get rid of. But if you really want to you can make some good money from it. You could spend time listing all your children’s clothes and toys. However, I find eBay is a little more complicated to list items and can be time consuming.

Also the fees do eat into your profits quite considerably. If you are going to use eBay try to find things to sell that have large quantities. You can then divide them up and list them individually. One example I have done is buy a large box of old motorcycle brochures for a lump sum. I have divided it and sell each brochure separately. This can be very profitable if you don’t mind taking the time to list them all.

Mums working from home refurbish furniture and sell on Facebook Marketplace

Being an arty creative person, this is one of my favourite ways to make money. I spend my time flicking through pictures of preloved furniture on Facebook Marketplace looking for a bargain. Only look locally as you don’t want to waste time and fuel travelling halfway across the country. Remember that this item may only bring in a small amount of profit.

There are all types of furniture on there to buy. I find coffee tables are particularly easy to purchase at a good price, do up and resell quite quickly.

Mums working from home use what they have already

I try to use some pots of furniture paint or varnish that I already have in the cupboard. This I minimise my costs and maximise my returns.

Mums working from home make things and sell it on Etsy

Mums working from home turn their hobby into a business

Making jewellery from home doesn’t have to be expensive and can be relatively easy to do. If you are looking to do silver work or make more specialised jewellery, I recommend you find a local jewellery course you can do. This will build up your knowledge before you get started.

As with the other businesses, this one can be done part-time or full-time depending on your situation. Jewellery doesnt have to be the only thing you can make and sell on Etsy. I have a digital download Etsy shop where people can download my motivational and inspirational digital prints. Here is a link if you would like to check it out. Click on the picture below.

Etsy is very user friendly for beginners. It has very reasonable fees, so as a beginner this is probably your best bet.

READ MORE>>

How to become a work-from-home mum

Time Management – 9 tricks for work from home mums


More on my blog :

rachelmills7

Source link

You May Also Like

Want to Maintain Market Relevancy? Here’s What to Do

COVID-19 taught leaders a lot of tough lessons and revealed that even…

The first drop. Hopes and horrors.

So. We survived without any issues the first step of our withdrawal…

9 Printable Wheel of Life Templates & Worksheets

There might be affiliate links on this page, which means we get…

Movement – One Daily Activity To Have More Energy – Wisdom Wednesday

Have more energy, concentrate longer, and get more stuff done in the…