Best Side Hustles for Stay-at-Home Parents (2024)

Raising kids is expensive and hard to do on one—or even two—incomes. With child care costs rising, deciding whether to be a stay-at-home parent can be tough. Fortunately, the rise of part-time, freelance, and virtual work offers stay-at-home parents many opportunities to add to family income.

Whether you want to leverage skills from your past career on a more flexible basis or want to earn extra cash in your free time with a low-effort gig, here are some side hustle ideas for your busy family schedule.

Best side hustles for stay-at-home parents

Here are 19 side hustle ideas—all easily balanced with parenting duties:

Child care

Child care can be an excellent side hustle for stay-at-home parents. You can look after other children while still being there for your own, leveraging your existing skills and environment to provide a valuable service to other parents. Making money is only one perk; child care also gives your kids the opportunity to socialize and play with others in your own home, enhancing their development.

Pet sitting

If you want to make extra cash caregiving in your free time without the responsibility of looking after more children, consider dog walking or pet sitting. It offers flexible hours, lets you earn money around your family schedule, and you can enjoy outdoor time with your kids while walking dogs or watching pets at home.

Fitness coaching

Athletically inclined parents may enjoy fitness coaching. You can set your own hours to offer personal training sessions at a local gym or schedule virtual fitness classes to reach clients globally. It’s a great way to stay active and connect with others while earning extra income.

Online tutoring

Whether you speak multiple languages, are a pro knitter, or are a whiz at résumé writing, turn your skills in a particular subject into a side hustle by offering online tutoring services. Teaching online courses lets you reach students worldwide, expanding your client base. It’s a rewarding way to share your expertise, help others, and earn extra money from the comfort of your own home.

Create video lectures on platforms like Udemy and Teachable or connect with mentees live through networks like Wyzant and Preplay.

Consulting

Consulting—providing expert advice to organizations to enhance performance, solve problems, and achieve goals—can be an excellent side hustle for stay-at-home parents. Offering consulting services in your area of expertise means you can use your professional skills without committing to a full-time job. Many businesses—including your former employer and other companies in your field—may pay good money for part-time, flexible work, like evaluating marketing materials or offering financial advice.

Social media management

Social media managers can balance family responsibilities while earning money by running social media accounts for small businesses. Use your digital marketing skills to create engaging content, broaden audiences, and boost brand presence—remotely and with flexible hours.

To start as a freelance social media manager, build a strong online presence, create a portfolio showcasing your skills, network with potential clients, and use platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or LinkedIn to find job opportunities.

Freelance writing

Parents with excellent writing skills can create content for magazines, blogs, websites, and other publications on a freelance basis. As a freelance writer, you set your own schedule, making it possible to balance work and family life.

Start by creating a portfolio showing some of your writing samples. Then, connect with potential clients through freelance networks like Upwork, Freelancer, or Fiverr that provide access to opportunities.

Freelance proofreading and editing

Freelance proofreading or editing is a great side hustle for stay-at-home parents. With a keen eye for detail and strong language skills, you can earn good money refining text in documents, articles, or books. These tasks offer flexible hours and can be done from home, making it easy to balance with family responsibilities.

Offer your services on freelance platforms like Upwork or join editing communities like Editage for networking opportunities.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where businesses reward you, the affiliate, for driving traffic or sales through your marketing efforts, often leveraging social media platforms to reach broader audiences. If you have a strong social media presence, a YouTube channel, or your own website or blog, you can create engaging content to promote products and earn extra cash. Whether your niche is parenting, where you review the best strollers and toys, or another topic, there’s an opportunity for you.

Start by signing up for an affiliate program like the Shopify Affiliate Program or Amazon Associates.

Podcasting

Podcasting offers stay-at-home parents a creative outlet and a regular opportunity to socialize with co-hosts and guests. Record episodes on your schedule, discussing topics you’re passionate about or sharing parenting advice. You can monetize your successful podcast through sponsorships, ads, or listener support.

Photography

Stay-at-home parents with a good eye can earn extra income by offering photography services during their free time. This flexible job allows scheduling around your family commitments. You can work from home or on locations. If you’ve developed a knack for taking pictures of your kids, consider specializing in child or family photography.

Start by offering your services to families in your network and increase your portfolio and business through social media and word-of-mouth referrals.

Freelance graphic design

Parents with graphic design skills can offer graphic design services on a freelance basis. In addition to the flexibility of a freelance schedule, graphic design jobs offer an opportunity for creative fulfillment.

Create a portfolio of your work, including any logos, social media graphics, and marketing materials. Then, you can connect with potential clients through freelance networks like Upwork or Dribble, which is specifically for designers.

Freelance video editing

According to a Wyzowl survey, 88% of businesses view video as crucial to their marketing strategy. However, marketers cite lack of time as the main reason for not producing more videos. This gap presents a great freelance opportunity for stay-at-home parents with video editing skills.

Share your portfolio with businesses, publishers, and editors who need help editing footage. Freelance video editing offers the flexibility of remote work and flexible hours, along with diverse project opportunities, including YouTube videos, vlogs, social media ads, and TV commercials.

Freelance web development

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the number of web design jobs will grow 16% from 2022 to 2032, much faster than the average occupation. Parents with web development experience or technical skills have an opportunity to fill these gaps.

Freelance web developers benefit from remote work, flexible hours, and the chance to maintain their networks and skills in the fast-evolving tech industry.

Virtual bookkeeping

If you handle your family’s finances, you’ve gained valuable experience in budgeting, tracking expenses, and managing cash flow—skills that could lend themselves to a bookkeeping side hustle. Bookkeepers record their clients’ expenses, income, and other financial data, all of which can typically be managed remotely, so you can work from home.

Dropshipping

Entrepreneurial stay-at-home parents can start a dropshipping business to earn passive income by selling products through an online store. With dropshipping you transfer customer orders and shipment details to a third-party supplier that ships the products directly to the customer. This way, you take on minimal overhead costs and don’t have to directly handle inventory or shipping logistics.

Consider jewelry, CBD products, or another one of these 100 dropshipping ideas.

Virtual assistant

Stay-at-home parents often excel in multitasking, time-management, and organizational skills—all ideal for an assistant role. Many busy professionals need virtual assistants to manage their schedules, set reminders, organize meetings, and field emails. You may be able to find a busy professional who will pay for your virtual assistance on freelance networks like Upwork.

Online customer service 

Many businesses need customer service reps to assist customers via chat, email, or phone during all hours of the day. You can work from home while your kids are in school or asleep and use your communication and problem-solving skills, often honed through parenting, to provide customer support and earn extra money.&

Data entry

Data entry jobs can be an easy way for parents to earn extra cash while staying at home with their kids. Clients may hire you to type information from paper documents, enter numerical data, update records, or transcribe audio files. Data entry jobs require accuracy, and attention to detail, both of which are skills you’ve likely honed through parenting.