When my husband and I made the decision to start a family, I knew that it would be the end of my working career -- at least for a while. I was perfectly fine with that because I never wanted my child to be raised by a nanny or a daycare center. We thought our finances would allow us to stick with this plan at least until the children were older and able to take care of themselves, but the terrible economy has really thrown us for a loop and destroyed our savings account. I'm not ready to return to an outside job yet and leave my babies in the care of strangers, so I'm currently looking at jobs for stay at home moms.
Unfortunately, it seems like this might be a more difficult task than I first anticipated. There are a lot of scams out there, so I need to be very careful about what kinds of positions I apply for. I've read enough to know that if a company asks for money up front before they offer a job, I should run the other way and not look back. But there are some legitimate jobs for stay at home moms out there, and reading a handful of success stories has inspired me not to give up.
One of the most common jobs for stay at home moms seems to be in the medical coding and billing field. These types of positions involve data entry work, and pay very well. But they also require a certificate and lots of training, so I wouldn't be able to start working right away.
Transcription jobs for stay at home moms are also quite popular these days. To qualify for one of these positions, you need to have good typing skills and have to have some special equipment (such as software and a foot pedal) to make transcribing on your computer a bit easier. Unlike medical coding, there is entry-level transcription work available even to those with no certificates or experience. This is something I definitely want to check out.
Most other jobs for stay at home moms involve selling, which is not my strong suit at all. I know there are some women that make a pretty good income from hosting home parties, recruiting people for their MLM business, or selling cosmetics, but there is absolutely no way I could impose on my friends and family like that. If you can do it, more power to you. That's just not my style at all.
At least now I have a couple of leads on jobs for stay at home moms. I'm not done with my research yet, but I'm thinking I'll try to find some transcription gigs while saving money for medical billing classes. All I know is that I'm willing to do anything to continue staying with my kids every day, so I'll keep right on looking for legitimate work!