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Top 10 Part Time Jobs That Fit Around School Hours

You’ve dropped the kids off at school, and headed home. Now what? Maybe take care of some housework, and spend most of your time feeling bored. It makes sense to find a part-time job while the kids are at school, especially if making extra money would be helpful.

School hour jobs for moms are easy to find if you know where to look. The most obvious are those where you work in school — and you don’t always have to have a qualification, or know how to teach, to get them. But besides that, there are dozens of jobs in different fields and industries for you to consider. Not all positions are advertised, so you also need to know how to find hidden jobs.

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Top 10 School Hour Part Time Jobs for Moms

We’ve listed the ten best jobs for moms: jobs with school-friendly hours that you can fit around your schedule. All of them have decent pay, but some offer a surprisingly good wage and prospects, even for a part-timer.

1) Teaching Assistant Jobs for Moms

If you’re looking for 9 am to 2 pm jobs for moms, you can’t go wrong with becoming a teaching assistant.

Teaching assistants are a vital part of any classroom. They ensure that the teacher doesn’t get overwhelmed with the responsibility of running a class all by themselves. To do that, TAs help by performing dozens of different small duties, all of which are designed to support the development of pupils.

Responsibilities

  • Interacting with pupils one on one, to help them understand the work in front of them
  • Keeping pupils engaged, and making sure they stick to learning rather than playing around
  • Maintaining order in the class by preventing bullying and other social problems
  • Supporting the teacher with a variety of small tasks—stapling papers or handing out tests, for example
  • Occasionally assisting with extracurricular activity such as breakfast clubs or lunchtime duties

Aside from that, you have to be good with children or teens, depending on the school you work in. You also have to be patient and accepting. As a mom, this shouldn’t be a problem. And Needless to say, the hours you’ll have to work in a teaching assistant job are almost always the same as school hours. That is unless you have to do some extra hours outside of that time, such as if you have to monitor a breakfast club or after school club. You should ask before you take a job whether this is a requirement or not, and act accordingly.

Qualifications

The exact qualifications you need vary depending on the state you live in. According to the State Department of Education, there are a variety of requirements you have to meet in Oklahoma (as an example).

You need a high school diploma or a GED diploma, plus either an associate’s degree, two years of study at college, a passing grade in the Oklahoma General Education Test (OGET) or a passing score in the Praxis ParaProfessional Assessment Test. In other words, there are many routes you can take.

In New York State, you need a high school diploma; you then need to pass the Assessment of Teaching Assistant Skills test. According to Study.com, you can then start work as a teaching assistant, although you need to take further certificates to continue studying long term.

Salary

The average salary for a teaching assistant varies based on two metrics: first, whether you’re teaching in college or a school; and second, by state. Salary.com gives the average salary for teaching assistants as between $13,000 and $20,000. By contrast, Study.com gives the average for New York as $28,400 (in figures provided by the BLS).

2) Freelance Work for Moms

If you’re trying to figure out how to find family-friendly jobs, the answer might be closer to home than you realize.

Your next option is to start doing some freelance work! There hasn’t ever been a better time to work for yourself. According to Upwork and the Freelancers Union, freelance workforce growth has outpaced overall U.S. workforce growth by a staggering 3x since 2014. They estimate that almost 60 million people have already jumped on the bandwagon and that by 2027, the majority of the workforce will be freelancing.

school hour jobs for mums

Whether that will be the case is, really, up to you. The great thing about freelancing is that you make use of whatever skills you have—you essentially do whatever you’re best at, or whatever you have the time to learn to do. That’s why it’s such a good option for anybody who hasn’t been able to make use of their degree or diplomas. So, for example:

  • If you studied English language, literature or creative writing, you could write for a living
  • If you studied art or creative design, you could be a graphic designer
  • If you studied computing or IT, you could transfer your skills to web design easier than most
  • If you studied acting, you could make money providing voiceovers or stock footage

There are many benefits to freelance work. You can work any hours you like—when the kids are at school, when they’re asleep, or when they’re busy in the evenings, for example. You can also charge a rate commensurate to your expertise, which means you can make quite a lot of money. There are drawbacks, though. You don’t get benefits or bonuses, dental or health plans when you work for yourself. It can also be more difficult to access financial products like mortgages and loans.

To do well as a freelancer, you need many skills. First, you need to be able to motivate yourself. If you can’t, you’ll never get enough work done. You also need to be a great organizer, so that you can keep track of your work, and what you’re doing when. Finally, you also need to be a good communicator. You need to be able to sell yourself and your services well, and to be able to liaise with clients and get them on board as quickly as possible.

Qualifications

You don’t need any qualifications to start freelance work. In fact, you don’t even need a high school diploma. That being said, freelance work does require you to be good at something, whatever that might be. Studying something at university is one way to gain that expertise. But if you’re good at a hobby, that can be enough to get you some work.

For example:

  • Playing guitar or piano, you could write jingles and background music for online content and adverts
  • With crafting, you could sell your goods online—birthday or Christmas cards, for example
  • With art and drawing, graphic design is an excellent choice for freelance work, even if you don’t have a qualification

Salary

The ‘salary’ for freelance work depends on the amount of work you put in, and the amount you charge. You could earn far less than minimum wage if you had rock-bottom prices. But if you have the expertise and experience, you could earn more than you might expect.

The only problem is finding regular clients, although this is easier with sites like PeoplePerHour and Fiverr available.

3) Part Time Childcare Jobs

Childcare is one of the oldest professions, and it’s one that gets an unfair reputation. It’s anything but easy—looking after one kid is hard enough, let alone a whole group of them.

If you didn’t know, childcare refers to looking after other people’s children, typically in a crèche or nursery. This is normal while the parent or parents are at work themselves. Not everyone can afford childcare, so most people who hire one typically work high-paying jobs.

Responsibilities

  • Teaching the child
  • Safeguarding them (and their home, if you’re working as an au pair or nanny)
  • Providing proper nutrition—not just snacks
  • Interacting with and engaging the child, not just letting them sit, bored
  • Taking them to wherever they need to go, if necessary (e.g., swimming lessons or appointments)

If you’re self-employed as a nanny or au pair, there’s also another side to the job. You have to advertise your services, submit any relevant forms and do your taxes. Of course, this isn’t the case if you’re employed by a nursery. To become a childcare or daycare assistant, you need to be patient and kind, good with children, and well-organized. Otherwise, things could get very out of hand, very quickly, with that many kids running around.

Qualifications

You don’t necessarily need a degree or a diploma to work in childcare. That is unless you live with a host family, who want you to help teach their children, in which case they might want somebody with good general knowledge.

That being said, you do typically have to be licensed. It varies by state; Texas, for example, requires that you take part in 15 hours of professional development each year. This includes going to seminars, workshops, and conferences, or taking self-instructional programs.

Salary

The salary for childcare is fine—more than enough to be worth your time. According to Chron.com, the average hourly wage is $9.40. At full-time rates, that would come to almost $20,000.

If you worked 20 hours a week instead of 40, you would earn around $10,000. Working five hours a day while your children are at school, you could work 25 hours a week. In short, then, it all depends on the hours you’re willing to put in.

4) Cleaning and Janitor Jobs for Moms

Finding cleaning jobs is easy: no matter where you live in the world, some places need cleaning. Hotels, offices, parks, and public spaces, houses, mansions and more all need cleaning on a daily basis.

That’s why there are almost two and a half million cleaners in the U.S. alone according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number will most likely increase by 10% between 2016 and 2026, too.

Responsibilities

  • Tidying and putting things back in their proper places
  • Sweeping and mopping the floor
  • Reacting to any spillage or problem that requires your attention promptly
  • General polishing, cleaning and similar

It’s also an excellent choice for a part-time job because there are plenty of places like schools and offices that need janitors just between school hours. To become a janitor, you need to have an eye for detail and not be afraid to put a little elbow grease into your work.

Qualifications

You don’t need any qualifications to become a janitor. That being said, employers might prefer to hire you if you have at least a high school diploma. And since you may be required to do some basic planning and administration—like creating and filling in rotas—they may want you to have basic math and English skills, too.

flexible jobs for mothers

You may also have to go through a criminal record background check, depending on where you choose to work. Schools are an excellent example. Most schools require background checks that look at your federal and state criminal record, especially for instances of child abuse, as well as your employment history, education, and even your credit.

Salary

According to the BLS stats page on janitors linked above, their median salary is almost $25,000. That’s just north of $12 an hour. If you were able to work 25 hours a week, that’s $300, or around $1200 a month.

Like all of our jobs on this list, the more you choose to work, the more you’ll earn. If you got a job at your kids’ school, you would be able to get to work even quicker and work even more.

5) Part Time Admin Work Around School Hours

Another option for you to consider is part-time admin work. You can often find these positions available through temp agencies, which offer work on an as-needed basis. You can work anywhere you like, or anywhere that’s available; almost every business needs help with admin or secretarial duties. You could work for:

  • Schools
  • Attorneys
  • Medical clinics
  • Local businesses
  • Charities

The choice is yours, based on what you prefer and whatever’s available. If you didn’t know, admin is a necessity for any business. Your duties would include financial planning, keeping records, sending and receiving bills, keeping records of personnel, ensuring that the logistics of a business run smoothly and more. This used to be done using paper records—in some workplaces, it still is—but the majority of this work now takes place online or through business-wide software programs.

That being said, it isn’t one admin assistant’s duties to look after every aspect of a business. The responsibilities are divided among many admin workers. Receptionists, for instance, manage diaries and meetings and ensure mail reaches the intended recipient. They also act as the first point of contact for anybody wanting to talk to somebody at the business.

Personal assistants, by contrast, are tasked with whatever their boss wants. They act as a liaison between clients and their boss, for example. They also have to be comfortable managing their boss’ schedule, and be comfortable reading and responding to emails on behalf of their boss.

Qualifications

You don’t usually need qualifications to become an admin assistant. The job is more about what you show you’re capable of doing, rather than what you learned at school. You usually learn on the job by experience. Speaking of experience, it’s highly prized in admin assistants—so you might struggle to find work if you haven’t already worked as one before.

To get around that problem, you might want to try temporary agency work. Agencies find jobs that suit you, on your behalf. They’re a perfect solution for stay at home moms because they can find part-time temporary jobs to suit your schedule.

You’ll probably also need decent math and English skills to get by. The role involves a lot of reading and typing, no matter what position you have in a business. Bonus points go to anybody who’s excellent at time management and multi-tasking, which are both excellent skills for any admin assistant to have.

Salary

The salary for admin assistants is surprisingly good. It gets better the closer to a big city you work. Admin assistants in New York, for example, get an average of $44,000 per year pro rata. On top of that, you can expect to receive bonuses north of $2,500 per year, too.

Working part-time, you won’t get quite as much. Because of the nature of the work—9 to 5—you won’t find many positions open at big businesses that let you work to your schedule. That being said, there are plenty of schools out there that need admin. There are also charities, medical clinics and small businesses that would let you work whatever times you like, so long as you get the work done.

6) Driving Instructor

Know how to drive, and know how to drive well? Then you could easily become a driving instructor. The vast majority of driving instructors teach first-time learners how to drive a car, but you could also choose to specialize in:

  • Commercial vehicles like lorries and trucks
  • Minivans and SUVs
  • Motorcycles and mopeds

Because of the nature of the work, you can choose to work whenever you want. If you wanted, you could work 60 hours a week, or just 6. You can also schedule it perfectly around your available hours, although you would be cutting out a sizeable demographic (teens) if you only chose to work during school hours.

You can choose either to work for yourself or work for a driving school. Working for yourself, you’d have to cover all the costs of insurance and car repair. If you work for a school, you may be able to pass on some or all of these costs to your employer. You can also choose between teaching behind the wheel, or teaching in classes.

Qualifications

Most states have specific prerequisites that they need you to meet before you start teaching others to drive. You’ll probably need a high school diploma or GED at the least. You may also have to meet an age requirement, typically around 21. You also need to be qualified to drive.

If you meet these requirements, you’ll then need to go through a training program, which normally lasts about a week. This is intended to be a refresher course on state driving laws and protocols. You’ll also receive guidance on how to train novice drivers, and develop lesson plans. These programs are administered through local instructor schools. Make sure that yours is licensed before attending.

Once you complete training, you send off for an instructor’s license. You may need to go through a criminal background check, and a driving record check. Aside from that, you have to be a confident and capable driver. If you get nervous or angry behind the wheel, you wouldn’t be a good fit. You also have to be a good teacher: patient and accepting of mistakes.

Salary

The average salary for driving instructors is an unbelievable $41,000, according to Chron.com. That’s based on a 40 hour work week, so you wouldn’t earn quite as much, but even a part-time job as a driving instructor is enough to earn a very respectable living. The salary is even more in some states, New York and California for example.

7) Becoming a Care Assistant

A care assistant or care worker is a person that gives support to somebody—usually an elderly person, or somebody with special education needs. They offer a personalized care and treatment regime that takes the person’s unique needs into account and makes them feel safe and happy.jobs that fit around family commitments

Responsibilities

  • Helping people to wash, if they can’t wash themselves
  • Assisting people to dress, if they can’t dress themselves
  • Helping people get out and about
  • Assisting people to cook, clean and eat where necessary
  • Shopping for people who can’t do it for themselves

In essence, you’re taking care of another person and helping them live their life—hence the name of the job! As a care worker, you have to be exceptionally patient, as well as kind and diligent. You have to be comfortable helping somebody else dress, undress or wash.

It also helps if you’re chatty—elderly people love having somebody to talk to and keep them company. As you can imagine, becoming a care assistant is about far more than just learning how to care for somebody physically. It’s about building bonds and friendships with the people you take care of, too.

Care involves shift work. You have people who work the early mornings, people who work daytime, people who work evenings and people who work nights. You may have the option of choosing to work during your available hours.

Qualifications

The qualification you need varies depending on whether you want to be a home health aide or a certified nursing assistant. Home health aides, naturally, work at the person’s home. Certified nursing assistants work in skilled nursing environments like care homes, hospitals and similar.

According to HealthAideTraining.org, the distinction is as follows:

  • Certified nursing assistants require an applicant to pass an accredited training course, totaling 75 hours. You also must be immunized against tuberculosis, pass a state and federal background check, a drugs test, and pass a Certified Nursing Assistant Exam (CNAE).
  • To become an HHA, you need to do everything that a CNA does (minus the CNAE). However, you also need to go through a background check with your employer, and you also typically need at least a year’s experience as a homemaker.

Salary

Home health aides aren’t paid as much as they should be. It’s an incredibly demanding and complex job to take care of somebody else and requires extensive training and in-depth person specifications. According to U.S. News, home health aides make around $23,000 per annum. On a pro rata basis, you might make around $13,000 working part-time during school hours.

8) Part Time Recruitment Consultant

If you’ve never known one or worked as one, you might not know exactly what a recruitment consultant does. Essentially, they’re responsible for finding candidates for open positions—they’re head-hunters. Many businesses have an in-house recruitment team. The bigger they are, the more likely they will. But if they don’t, they outsource the work to recruitment consultants, to do the legwork for them.

Responsibilities

  • Calling, emailing and otherwise liaising with candidates
  • Matching candidates to jobs that they would be likely to get if interviewed
  • Advertising jobs on online boards
  • Manually tracking down great candidates through online resources like LinkedIn

It’s a little like sales. You have to a) be able to ‘sell’ the candidate on the open position, and b) be able to ‘sell’ a business with an opening on the merits of your candidates. You have to be open, confident and persuasive. Often, there are bonuses and commission to be earned, the more candidates of yours succeed.

The majority of your work is over the phone, or through email. However, as a recruitment consultant, you’ll have to be able to interview candidates too. As such, it’s a perfect job to work part time and fit around your hours.

Qualifications

Unlike many of the entries on our list, there aren’t any requirements to become a recruitment consultant. The main thing you need is experience, or at least the ability to demonstrate your ‘sales’ skills.

If you have experience in anything related to sales or marketing, anything which requires confidence or public speaking, or any customer-facing work history then that will set you up well for working as a recruitment consultant.

You’ll also have to be comfortable with employment law. In today’s world, it’s vital that you step carefully when you’re recruiting—especially with those you choose not to recruit. The Department of Labor anti-discrimination laws and the Civil Rights Act mean that you can’t discriminate against anybody based on their gender, race and so on. The last thing you want when you’re working part-time is to be accused of passing over a candidate because of discrimination, so get used to learning about employment law.

Salary

You can get an awful lot of money for working as a recruitment consultant. Indeed.com claim that the average salary for a recruitment consultant in New York is a staggering $55,000 a year. Of course, this varies according to the state you live in.

But in Oklahoma City, where you’d expect wages to be lower, they aren’t. According to Salary.com, the average ranges between $45,000 and $57,000. Long story short, then, you’ll be earning quite a bit—even part-time.

finding a job in school hours

9) Customer Service Jobs for Moms

Working in customer service is always an option, even if you can only fit in a few hours a day. No matter where you live, there are always going to be customer service jobs available. If you’ve never worked in either customer service or retail before, not to worry. You can often get a decent job even without any experience, so long as you show you’re capable and confident.

Responsibilities

  • Attracting new, potential customers to try something like a subscription or product
  • Dealing with queries from existing customers and clients about what you sell
  • Assisting customers with their problems, e.g., where to find something, or how to do something

The responsibilities vary according to where you work. Being a customer service advisor is surprisingly hard—just because it’s an entry-level job, that doesn’t mean it’s simple or easy. You have to be exceptionally patient, especially when dealing with customer complaints. You also have to be proactive and cheerful, whether you’re handling complaints and questions or trying to upsell or cross-sell products.

You can choose to work:

  • Face to face, at a customer help desk in a store (for example)
  • At a call center, handling calls as they come in
  • At home, answering questions online that customers send to you

Qualifications

Customer service is typically an entry-level job. That means you don’t always need qualifications—any qualifications. Some businesses will ask for a high school diploma, or at least English and math skills that reach a certain level. That’s because you’re expected to be knowledgeable about whatever your business sells, and because there’s a small amount of record keeping involved too (i.e., updating customer records).

A diploma or degree can come in handy, though. There are customer service jobs in dozens of different industries. As such, if you’ve studied something related to I.T., you could work part-time helping customers with queries about their computers.

Experience is highly prized. If you’ve ever worked either customer service or retail before, you have a great chance of getting another job. After all, the experience is what makes the difference between being able to stay calm in the face of an angry customer, or shouting back at them.

Salary

The salary for customer service positions ranges hugely, depending on experience and skills. If you have previous experience, you may be able to negotiate upwards of $30,000. However, it’s far more likely that you’ll be earning less, especially if it’s the first time you’ve worked in a while. Working in a retail chain or similar, you can expect to earn around $10 an hour according to Glassdoor.

10) Run Your Own Business from Home

Last but not least, you could run your very own business from home. Starting a business is something that you should only do when you have the time. It’s tough to do if you’re already working, for example. But if you have plenty of time while the kids are at school, you have an open schedule: the perfect scenario for coming up with a great business idea.

There are a few routes you could go down. The first is multi-level marketing. Businesses like Vector Marketing, Herbalife and Younique, use multi-level marketing to sell their products. Unfortunately, these business models are unsustainable: they’re pyramid schemes. The only way they can work is if every person who’s a member sells to ten people, who sell to ten people, who sell to ten people…

Soon enough, there isn’t anyone left to sell to, and the only people who make money are the founders. You may be able to make some money—but it’s usually less than minimum wage, and not worth your time. Unfortunately, scams like these have already suckered in millions of hard-working Americans. Don’t be one of them: avoid them at all costs.

Alternatively, you could set up your own real business. The trick is always to pick something you’re good at. Something you know. You stand a far better chance if you pick something you’re familiar with.

Here are a few ideas:

  • Something based on your past work experience
  • Creating a blog about a personal passion of yours, and monetizing it
  • Crafting and creating, turning your arts and craft hobby into cash by selling what you make
  • Making and selling food according to an old family recipe
  • Bringing an invention to life, branding it and selling it

Building your own business is hard. Don’t expect to be a wild success overnight (although you might be). It takes long hours, hard work and dedication. The vast majority of business ideas don’t make it off the ground. But if you work on something that’s close to your heart, at the very least, you’ll enjoy your time trying to make money from it.

Qualifications

You don’t need qualifications to start a business. However, good math and English skills will go a long way towards selling, marketing and managing your business. You’ll also need to be aware of state and federal tax law, or be able to hire an accountant who does.

How Much Money Would I Earn from My Own Business?

It’s almost a guarantee that you’ll earn next to nothing at first. But if you’re successful, then the sky is the limit. You can try and earn some money freelancing at first, and then use the funds you make to start hiring others. That’s a more sensible way to get started, and it’ll get some money through the door too.

And there you have it: ten of the best jobs for moms. Finding a job in school hours won’t be hard if you pick one from our list above. Ultimately, though, it’s up to you and what you can find in your area. There should always be customer service or retail jobs, but besides that, it very much depends on where you live. Why not check out a local paper or search for a job using the Internet, and see what you can find?

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