Tag Archives: stay-at-home parent

Boosting Your Finances As A Stay At Home Parent

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Photo by Steven Van Loy on Unsplash

If you want to boost your income, you’re not alone; a recent study found that 76 million Americans are struggling financially – and it can be even harder for single parents who have to pay child maintenance costs, especially if they are taking time off work. Thankfully there are a few ways to boost your income – and you don’t have to sacrifice the time that you spend at home looking after your children. Based on many blackout bingo reviews, you can even have fun playing games for real money. After all, there is very little point getting a job outside of the home if it only covers child care costs, as you won’t actually be earning any extra money for your family. Here are three ways that you can earn money as a stay at home parent.

Look For A Work From Home Job

There are lots of great jobs that you can do from home, including freelance writing and web design. While both of these jobs require some level of skill, there are other jobs that are easier to walk into, such as working as a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is someone who helps an individual or a business with basic admin tasks, from booking trips to responding to emails. If you want to have a little fun at the same time, you can even play games for real money. All of these jobs allow you to work from home and set your own schedule, which is ideal for a busy parent who needs to spend most of the day with their child.

Become A Seller

You can sell unwanted items from your home on eBay for a little extra cash, or if you are feeling creative you could try making things to sell (such as accessories, handmade ornaments or jewelry). Lots of people prefer to buy things online now because it is more convenient, so if you are selling a quality product someone is sure to buy it! This is an easy way to start a new income stream, but be aware if you are selling second-hand items you probably won’t get as much as you originally paid for the item.

Access Money Tied Up In Your Home

Most Americans have a lot of money tied up in their home, even if they have a mortgage; a recent study found that the average American has around $150,506 built up in their home. If you are a homeowner and you want to access the money tied up in your home, you can consider taking out an equity loan or a reverse mortgage. Both of these options can really help if you are struggling financially, but they are only available to homeowners. If you want to try and improve your financial state even more, you could try and learn more about the many investment options by visiting sites similar to https://www.sofi.com/investing-101-center/ where you’ll find guidance on many investing topics and goal setting strategies to see what’s right for you.

No-one likes worrying about money, especially if they have children to provide for. Thankfully these options make it a little easier for stay at home parents to get by.

Get Them Talking: Six Ways to Develop Early Vocabulary Skills

I wrote the post below over a year ago, when Avery only made a lot of noises, but now she’s starting to communicate A LOT to us and I know these tips helped. Going Mom and I have worked on all 6 ways to develop early vocabulary skills consistently which created the walking, talking, crazy talking little girl we have today.

Since they worked so well for us (and still going), I wanted to share this post again to help anyone in the same position. Parents, enjoy the tips and get your little ones talking sooner rather than later. Trust me, them letting you know when they pooped is more than worth it!


Me: Hey Avery, are you hungry?

Avery: ……..

Me: Okaaayyyy, how about we try walking?

Avery: …….

Me: What’s wrong, did you poop?

Avery: ………

And so on and so forth. Thus is the typical conversation most parents have with their babies.

When you start life as an at-home parent your infant, silence is inevitable and expected. Sure, there’s crying and cooing, but unless you’re caring for other kids at the talking age, you have no one to actually converse with when at home.

We only have one kid, so it’s just Avery and me spending every day together, learning and growing along the way. I love it. It’s fulfilling, rewarding, better than sitting in an office (to me), way better than daycare (financially and physically), and it sometimes drives me INSANE!

Oops, did I say that? It’s not when she’s extremely fussy and screaming out loud, or when she’s pulling out my leg hair as I’m trying to cook meals for day; it’s the silence. Crying, I can take, but sometimes it gets quiet, a little too quiet.

Don't mind me, I'll just sit here and stare.
Don’t mind me, I’ll just sit here and stare.

As I first mentioned, it’s expected from an infant, but at a year old and close to making actual words with her babbling, it’s just awkward when she turns silent. I’ll be working in the kitchen as she’s happily pushing her boxes across the floor (yes, we’re classy) or we’ll be playing in the front room, but all too often, she turns silent and stares into space.

I know you’re thinking, “Must be poop!”, and I used to think the same, but that’s usually accompanied by grunting and a strawberry-red face. I’ll check anyway because you never know (right?), but 8.3 times out of 10, there’s no poop in sight……or smell.

Luckily, there are solutions to most problems in the world, and I’ve found six that help combat the awkward silence as an at-home parent. As she grows, many of these will act as a wonderful base to build upon and hopefully expand her vocab skills and mind.

1. Explain what you are doing. When I’m in the kitchen (it’s a lot!), I’ll catch Avery staring at me as I work. Instead of just carrying on in silence, I’ll explain to her exactly what I’m doing as if she’s a student anxious to jot down all of my notes. I do this for everything from the exercises I do when working out and even during diaper changes. This gives me the pseudo-conversation I sometimes miss and helps keep her engaged in daily activities.

2. Explain what they are doing. Since it would be narcissistic to only talk about yourself, describe the actions your kid is making too. This goes along with number 1 above, and will help them begin to understand their capabilities.

Yes dear, you are accurately portraying Chucky, the killer doll.
Yes dear, you are accurately portraying Chucky, the killer doll.

3. Make eye contact when speaking to your child. In doing so, your child may be more inclined to communicate. Of course, watch what you’re doing too; like changing dirty diapers!! I’ve tried looking into her eyes while explaining how I’m cleaning her bottom and next thing I knew, well, you know. #ParentingFail

4. Read to them often. Even when they can’t stand still and try to tear the pages from your hands as they scream, keep reading! Avery does this to Going Mom and I daily, but trust me, you’ll help build vocabulary skills and maybe even have them reading before others their age. Make sure to choose books with big, bright colors and fun pictures. Moby Dick is not the best book to start with. 🙂

5. Acknowledge their sounds and actions. When Avery started blowing raspberries, we made sure to return the action and let her know what she was doing. Now that’s she’s babbling a lot, we repeat (as good as we can) the string of “words” she spouts out and encourage words like “momma” and “da da”. Lately, Avery has become an expert at sticking out her tongue on queue and it makes my wife and I so proud!

6. Play music. You don’t have to have “The Wheels on the Bus” on repeat, play actual music, whatever you like, and it’ll be fine. This is a big one for keeping sane and having some kind of background noise at all times. Almost every day, I turn on Pandora with a mix of my favorite channels and frequently sing out loud with Avery staring at me in bewilderment. Despite the strange looks you might receive, have no doubt that your kid will pick up on words that help expand their vocabulary. For this reason, I tend to stay away from the Eminem station….

Although you can never fully escape the awkward silence when you’re an at-home parent with only one kid who’s not yet talking, these six solutions will help get you through this time and help build your child’s speech and learning skills as well.

Have you made use of any of these before?

Do you have other tips/advice to share?

10 Ways Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads Can Make Extra Money-Kiplinger

This article has some great ideas not just for us at-home parents, but for anyone who might be able to take a little more time to earn some side cash. Of course, number 10 is best way!! 🙂

Take a look and let me know if there’s anything you’ve done already or will give a try now.

10 Ways Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads Can Make Extra Money-Kiplinger.