The best side hustles for stay-at-home moms fit around nap times and school pickups: virtual assistant work, selling printables on Etsy, teaching online classes for kids, and pediatric sleep consulting. Several moms on this list started right where you are and now earn $10,000 a month.
You’re far from alone. 26% of U.S. mothers didn’t work for pay in 2021, according to Pew Research Center.
On The Side Hustle Show, I’ve interviewed lots of moms who built income around their kids’ schedules. Jayne Havens went from a “bored stay-at-home mom” to a multi-six-figure sleep consulting business. Abbey Ashley started her virtual assistant business on maternity leave and never went back to her old job.
Below are 20 side hustles for stay-at-home moms, with real earnings from moms doing them. Need something with no experience or no phone calls? Jump to the list sorted by situation.
1. Become a Virtual Assistant
Busy entrepreneurs and small businesses need help with email, scheduling, social media, and admin work, and most of it can be done from your kitchen table.
Abbey Ashley started her virtual assistant business while on maternity leave with her first daughter. In just a few months, she’d booked enough work that she never had to go back to her old job. She’s since built it into a six-figure business teaching other moms to do the same.
Want to try it? Abbey has a free training on becoming a VA that covers where to find clients and what they’re looking for.
2. Sell Printables on Etsy
Printables are digital files people buy and print at home, like:
- meal planners
- chore charts
- party invitations
Etsy handles the delivery automatically, so you can make sales while the kids are asleep.
Rachel Jones averaged over $10,000 a month selling printables on Etsy, all while balancing a full-time job and two young kids. She started in 2018 and took her shop full-time in 2021.
If you want a shortcut, this printables course walks through her product research and listing process.
Etsy Printables
Create something once, sell it over and over again on autopilot. That’s the dream of a printable digital product business.
This free guide to seasonal product ideas will get your creative juices flowing on what you could sell.
3. Teach Online Classes for Kids
If you have a teaching background (or a hobby kids love), Outschool lets you teach live online group classes to kids from home.
Former tutor Jade Weatherington made $32 her first month on the platform. By month three, she was close to $5,000, and today she earns $10,000+ a month working about 20 hours a week.
Your class doesn’t have to be academic, either. Devyn Ricks, a mom of 4, teaches video game classes and social clubs. She was earning about $4,000 a month and has since more than doubled that.
4. Become a Sleep Consultant
Exhausted parents will pay for help getting their babies and toddlers to sleep through the night, and you can coach them entirely by phone or video.
Jayne Havens went from a “bored stay-at-home mom” to $10,000 a month coaching families. After fielding questions from other moms, she created the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management to train new sleep consultants.
5. Start a Virtual Bookkeeping Business
Small businesses need someone to keep their books in order, and it’s flexible work you can do from home on your own schedule.
When her youngest started preschool, Kate Johnson found herself with an extra 9 hours a week. She used that time to start a bookkeeping business, and now targets an effective rate of $70 an hour with several recurring clients.
Here’s a free training on how to get started as a bookkeeper.
6. Train AI Models
AI companies pay people to review and improve chatbot answers. The work includes rating responses, fact-checking, and rewriting answers that miss the mark.
There are no phone calls or set hours, so you can pick up tasks during nap time and stop whenever you need to. DataAnnotation lists generalist projects at $25–50 an hour, with higher rates for specialized fields.
The work can be on-and-off depending on what projects are available.
7. Create UGC Videos for Brands
UGC (user-generated content) means getting paid to film short, authentic-looking videos that brands use in their ads and social media.
You don’t need a big following, and moms are a natural fit for baby, kid, and household products.
Megan Collier landed her first $750 UGC deal within 10 days and now earns about $300 an hour filming with her phone. She built it into a six-figure income stream and quit her day job in 2023.
8. Join the Amazon Influencer Program
The Amazon Influencer Program pays you commissions when shoppers buy after watching your short product review videos on Amazon listings. If you’re already buying baby gear, toys, and household products, you can film them right at home.
Nate Jackson went from a brand-new account to 3,000 videos and up to $20,000 a month in just 10 months, filming everyday products.
You don’t need a big following to get approved, either. Nate says he’s helped people with as few as 3 followers get in. Here’s my full breakdown of how the Amazon Influencer Program works.
9. Start a YouTube Channel
Meredith Marsh started a blog and YouTube channel to help families capture better home videos. Her “accidental” channel took off, passing 3 million views, and she was eventually able to leave her day job to run it full-time.
She calls herself a “total introvert,” so you don’t need to be a natural on camera to make it work.
10. Self-Publish on Amazon Kindle
The birth of her daughter led stay-at-home mom Jyotsna Ramachandran to start an online side hustle. She built a portfolio of more than 50 Kindle titles in less than 2 years.
Self-publishing lets you earn royalties on books you write once. Through Amazon KDP, you can earn up to 70% royalties on Kindle ebooks.
11. Start a Paid Newsletter
If you love researching a topic, a paid newsletter can turn that into recurring income.
Danielle Desir-Corbett sends a curated list of grant opportunities to subscribers every couple of weeks through her Grants for Creators newsletter. With hundreds of paying subscribers, it brings in about $1,300 a month. Here’s more on starting a paid newsletter.
12. Teach an Online Course
Teresa Greenway, a mother of 10, went from working part-time in a bakery to earning $4,000–5,000 a month teaching sourdough baking on Udemy.
Her secret weapon was a baking group on Facebook she started “by accident” in 2013. Here’s how she used Facebook group marketing to grow.
13. Sell Products on Amazon
With Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), Amazon stores and ships your products for you, so you’re not running to the post office with kids in tow.
Toni Anderson, a mother of 7, launched a jewelry line riding the essential oils trend. She and her partner did $190,000 in sales in their first 7 months.
14. Online Surveys and Apps
Survey and rewards apps won’t replace a paycheck, but they’re one of the easiest ways to earn a little extra from your phone during nap time or school pickup.
Swagbucks pays for surveys, videos, and shopping, and KashKick pays you to try games and offers. Here’s our full list of the best online survey sites.
Swagbucks
4.4
Swagbucks has paid out over $650 million to users over the last 10+ years.
- Quick and easy to use
- Lots of ways to earn
- $10 sign-up bonus
- Surveys don’t pay much
15. Babysitting and Child Care
If you’re already home with your own kids, watching a friend’s or neighbor’s child for a few hours can be an easy add-on.
Care.com connects you with families looking for babysitters and nannies near you. If you want to watch several kids regularly, check your state’s rules first, since home daycares often need a license.
16. Pet Sitting
Hosting a dog or doing drop-in visits is a natural fit if you’re home most of the day.
On Rover, you set your own rates for boarding, house sitting, drop-ins, and dog walking. In my area, boarding runs $50–80 a night, and $25–40 in lower cost-of-living areas. Here’s our full Rover sitter review.
Rover
4.4
- Strong income potential
- Reputable platform and protection
- Flexible schedule
- Potentially difficult pets (and owners)
- Limited to local demand
17. Run After-School Enrichment Classes
May Najafabadi earned $12,000 in 8 weeks, working just 1 hour a day, running after-school crafts and jewelry-making classes.
She got the idea from enrolling her own son in these classes, and started with a lunchtime demonstration and flyers. Here’s how she built her after-school program business.
18. Start a Kids Party Rental Business
Tayo Lanlehin couldn’t find kid-sized tables and chairs for her son’s first birthday, so she ordered some, stored them in her basement, and started an Instagram page.
Four years later, it’s a $295,000 kids party rental business with ball pits, bounce houses, and plushie-making stations.
19. Start a Laundry Service
Laurie Fulford, a South Carolina mom of 2 young kids, is making around $30,000 a year simply by washing laundry.
She’s a personal launderer on Poplin, a nationwide on-demand laundry delivery service.
The company is relatively new, so there might be an opportunity to jump in as it grows.
20. Resell Mattress Returns
Sharetown lets you buy returned bed-in-a-box mattresses and other bulky items at a discount and resell them locally.
Staci Aburto, a Sharetown rep in the Phoenix area, shared how part-time flippers can make around $3,000 a month.
Become a Sharetown Rep
4.0
Sharetown reps make money by reselling gently-used furniture and bed-in-a-box mattresses. Top reps earn $4000+ per month.
- Low startup costs
- Great earning power
- No hunting for inventory
- Requires a truck or SUV
- Bulky items to store
- Not available in all areas
Side Hustles for Stay-at-Home Moms by Situation
No experience needed: training AI models, UGC videos, Amazon Influencer videos, surveys and apps, babysitting, pet sitting, and reselling mattress returns.
Online, with no phone calls: printables, AI training, Amazon Influencer videos, self-publishing, online courses, and surveys.
Mostly passive once it’s set up: printables, Kindle books, online courses, and YouTube.
Local, around your kids’ schedule: child care, pet sitting, after-school classes, kids party rentals, and laundry service.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How can a stay-at-home mom make money online?
The most popular options are virtual assistant work, selling printables on Etsy, teaching on Outschool, and AI training projects. All of them can be done from home on a flexible schedule.
What are legit side hustles for stay-at-home moms?
Legit side hustles pay you for your work or products. Every example on this list comes from a real person I’ve interviewed or a platform with published pay rates. Be wary of anything that asks you to buy inventory upfront and recruit friends, which is how most MLMs work.
How can a stay-at-home mom make money with no experience?
Survey apps, AI training, UGC videos, babysitting, and pet sitting don’t require a resume or degree. And according to Abbey Ashley, prior experience isn’t what VA clients are really looking for.
What’s the best passive income for stay-at-home moms?
Printables and self-published books are the closest to passive: you create something once and sell it over and over. They take real work up front, but you can do that work in small chunks during nap time.
How can a stay-at-home mom make money fast?
Babysitting, pet sitting, and reselling items you no longer need are the quickest ways to get paid. Survey apps are fast to start too, though they pay less.
