Going back to work after children

The other half had a boys' night out a couple of weeks ago, and one of his mates stayed over at our place. In the morning, while the other half was still nursing a hangover in bed, his mate was up and about with me and the kids, trying to be sociable long enough to look polite before he escaped to his single life and presumably a more comfy bed.

I asked him about mutual friends, he asked me whether I was thinking about going back to work. He caught me a bit by surprise. No, I wasn't but let's think about it; I'm already doing an important job, and I'm also taking some time to work on our web business 8 hours or so a week.

I felt defensive. In reality, it was just polite conversation, but it still got me thinking (and got me annoyed that the other half wasn't down here to talk about sport, and music, and the big night out with his mate, so I didn't have to face challenging questions at 8 in the morning).

What if the other half had mentioned something? What if he wishes I was back at work earning loads of money so he could ease off a bit. Paranoid? Probably, but life would obviously be easier in some ways if there was more money coming in, and it might give him the chance to take some time out and work at home for a while.

The plan for us, in as much as we have one, is that as the children go to school and pre-school, I start working part time. My objectives are three fold; to earn a bit of money, to have something else to focus on other than children, and most importantly, to still be home for the children when they are there.

In reality, this means I'm either working from home, or I have a part time job, which I probably wouldn't be able to do until Michael is in 3 days of pre-school. My major problem is that I don't know what I'd do. My previous career in IT and Finance doesn't lend itself easily to a 9:30 to 2:30 day, or work from home. I've moved away from the hands on, to team management, and that really needs you there, with the team. Also, I'm really not interested in IT or Finance anymore, and I'm completely over the corporate working environment (minor problem....)

So, where do I go from here? I have some time to get myself organised; after all, Michael is only 2 1/2, so I can do some research, maybe look at work experience, or additional training and try to get myself headed in the right direction.

If you're in this same position, there are various things you can try.

One approach is to get some help from a Life Coach. They can work with you to look at your objectives and priorities, your character and skills, and help you find the right career direction.

If you have a business idea, but don't know how to get it off the ground, you can speak to a business coach. They can provide both creative and practical advice, with knowledge of the financial aspects, registering your business, whether you need to register for GST, filing your tax returns and most importantly, how to market your business.

Sometimes just having someone to bounce ideas off and provide a bit of motivation can get you going in the right direction.

If you know what you want to do, but are not fully qualified, you might want to look at some additional training or education. There are plenty of part time or distance education courses out there, so it is possible to do it around the children.

If you think this is the way to go, but you are wary about investing in a full training course, why not try some work experience first. Organisations are often happy to have a willing volunteer and show you the ropes for a few days or a few hours over a number of weeks. That way, you can decide if the job would be what you're after, before you commit to training.

Finally, if you are just after some ideas, I have a list of work from home jobs that I believe are genuine opportunities and not get rich quick scams.

Making money and looking after the kids

I want it all! I want to be able to be home for my children, but I want to make some money. The transition from being a well paid IT Manager to being a stay at home mum has been a difficult one. The other half is the one who makes the money, I'm the one who spends it. It was quite a change suddenly not having my own source of income, and I guess ultimately I felt a bit guilty. Admittedly after 4 1/2 years, the guilt has worn off a bit, but it would still be nice to contribute financially.

So what are the options? With Holly in pre-school, and Michael in Occasional Care for 2 days, I have about... 8 productive hours to work in! Bit tricky finding a part time job that meets the requirements.

As the children get older though, part time work could be an option during school hours, allowing me still to be home when they are.

For now, there are some work at home options. When Holly was about 7 months old, I started a Family Day Care business through the local council family day care. I looked after up to 4 other children in our home for three days a week. That still gave me time just for Holly, and brought in some income. After Michael came along, it took a while to get back into the swing of things, and I haven't gone back to Family Day Care. It's still an option, if I can convince myself it makes sense financially and logistically with things like pre-school drop off and pick up.

There are many other work at home options, some of which you fit in round the children, some of which need evening and weekend commitments; Party Plans, Tuition, Internet based businesses, Life coaching, Telemarketing, Writing, Editing, Pet Minding, Translating, Transcribing and more.

What I'd be wary of are those adverts that say you can make thousands from home, but don't actually tell you what you'd be doing. In my view, if an advert doesn't tell you anything about what you will be doing to earn the money, it probably isn't something you would want to be doing.

Also, if you are paying to find out how someone else got rich, ask the question, do they make more money from telling me how they got rich, than from the actual underlying business idea?

Having said this, there are definitely some genuine options for working from home, and some of the advertised schemes can make money, just maybe not the millions the advertisers claim to have made.

This, for example, is my attempt to make some money through Blogging. As you'll see, there are Google ads on my Blog. If a reader clicks on one of these ads, I get commission. This is called affiliate marketing, and is not just used by Google, but by many other organisations. It is a way of advertising where the advertiser does not pay unless someone looks at the ad, or in other cases, actually buys something. In this latter case the referring web site owner receives a commission on a per sale basis.

The challenge for me is to get enough people to come to my Blog, to make it worth while.

If you look at my website, www.athomemums.com you will find much more detail on the different work from home and part time work options available, including making money through affiliate marketing.

Let me know what you think!