When you have children, your priorities change. Becoming a mum changes your outlook too, and you can become restless in your work – especially if your pre-children career isn’t so family friendly. Unsurprisingly, it’s really common for mums to look into (and embark on) a career change once family life takes over.
There are lots of reasons to want to explore different job options. For one, childcare is such a big expense, you and your partner might prefer to work around each other’s hours and keep childcare costs low. If you have slightly older children, you might be searching for a challenge. Likewise, if your family is very young (and keeps you up most nights) you might prefer a job that’s less demanding.
The most important thing to remember is that it’s never too late to change career paths.
6 Child-Friendly Job Ideas
With flexible working becoming more common, and the evolution of digital jobs, there are plenty of child-friendly jobs to choose from.
Below is a list of some of the most popular career change ideas for mums.
1. Become a teaching assistant
Working as a teaching assistant is a very rewarding job. You can help guide students to their goals, support children who need that little extra help and build relationships with the class as you watch them go. Not only is the job itself lovely, but the hours are great too. It’s common to just work school hours and get most school holidays off, meaning you can be with your children more but still have a fulfilling career. Some schools offer training to qualify as a teaching assistant, but lots of local colleges will offer a course you can take independently, before searching for teaching assistant jobs.
2. Work-from-home admin assistant
Certain admin roles can be done remotely, meaning that if you’re not needed at the office physically, you might be able to work flexible hours. A friend of mine starts work at 6 am before the kids get up, she takes an hour break to get the kids ready and out the door for school, eats her lunch at her desk, then finishes in time to do the school run in the afternoon. It’s an early start, but she works full time around her kids and doesn’t spend anything on commuting.
Just keep in mind when it comes to your home office, it’s going to be a make it or break it for your work performance. Well, for any home office, it needs to be productive and comfortable. For example, you need to invest in an ergonomic office chair rather than sitting all day on a hard wooden stool from the dining table. The same goes for your screen; you want a monitor mount rather than having your neck hunched down all day, and you can click here to find affordable ones. But the same goes for a good desk, too. Sure, these things can be seen as an investment (and can be pricey), but for your career, you’ll absolutely need them.
3. Run a mother-and-toddler group
This one might be a little more difficult to set up to begin with, but if you’ve got a passion for working with children and dream of being self-employed, this option is ideal. If you complete market research and create a realistic business plan, you might be able to obtain funding to get it off the ground and succeed from the get-go. If you’ve got toddlers yourself, you can bring them along, but if your kids are older, these groups generally run during school hours so you’ll be able to save on childcare.
4. Qualify as a child minder
Working as a child-minder is another rewarding way to work for yourself. Not only will you save money on childcare, your own children will have friends to play with every night after school. It’s important to consider where you live in relation to the area you’ll serve, as most childminders walk the children to and from school. If you live a little too far, you might need to upgrade your car to fit in all the children you care for on the school run.
5. Set up as a virtual assistant
With the rise of self-employed digital nomads, the demand for virtual assistants has skyrocketed. It’s not just famous influencers that need a VA, small businesses and lesser known bloggers and influencers will pay you to complete tasks such as write social media posts, keep accounts, share advertising material and answering emails. This job is usually flexible and to make a full-time income it’s essential to build your client base.
6. Become a parent blogger
Parent blogging is a great way to work while when you have children. It takes a little while to set up your site before it starts earning, but it can be a fabulous way to bring in some cash without having to be apart from your kids. There are lots of ways to blog, and if you don’t fancy putting your kids out there for the world to see, you absolutely don’t have to. Instead you can concentrate on sharing opinions, tutorials and reviewing products that relate to parents.