Career
Rita Chidinma: Remote Jobs – A Panacea for Stay-At-Home Moms
Some days ago, I got a job offer that stated I had to work 8 am to 6 pm Mondays to Saturdays and then on Sundays too, depending on whether my services were needed by the head of the company. I laughed as I closed the mail and made a note to respond with the corporate version of “thanks, but no thanks” the following day.
For a better understanding, let me give you a brief introduction about myself. My name is Rita, a wife and mother to three kids. I’m also a writer, a blogger and a social media manager. I do all of this from the comfort of my home.
I was first exposed to the work-from-home world when I took a course in Social Media Management last year after the world had experienced the worst of the pandemic. I was inspired by my sister who, although wasn’t a mom yet, had co-founded a digital marketing agency with her friend. They both worked from home at their respective houses, were making money and building a solid brand online.
Watching them both grow their business to the extent of hiring staff who worked from home too was like the perfect solution to my age-long dilemma with my career goals. I took the training and promised myself that I was going to give it my all. So I started out as a freelance social media manager. It was a bit challenging at first because I didn’t envisage that I would be as busy as people who worked outside their homes. I thought it would be a walk in the park but, alas, it was serious business and I had to live up to the demands of my new career path.
In a short time, I gained time management, research and people management skills because I had to deal with different kinds of clients while also taking care of my family. I had built this corporate world for myself without actually going anywhere.
Almost every mother in the childbearing years has faced the “motherhood vs career” dilemma at some point. For someone like me who ‘ambitious’, ‘go-getter’, and ‘driven’ were among the first choice of words for anyone who wanted to describe me, you can imagine how hard it was for me to stay home year after year without having a 9-5.
Before I discovered the remote career world, there were lots of mompreneurs around me but I didn’t see myself as one; I didn’t want to sell clothes, bags and shoes from home (I also tried for lack of other choices but it didn’t work out).
I didn’t see myself going out to a shop every morning. I couldn’t bake, sew or have any of the other skill sets that comprised the mompreneur portfolio in Nigeria. I also tried becoming a DIY (do it yourself) mom so that I could make things from home and sell but I just wasn’t feeling it, or maybe I should just say that patience is not one of my strongest traits.
I had other skill sets though. I could write, and because of my blog, I was always online. That was why when I saw an advertisement for social media management training, I didn’t hesitate to pay for an early bird spot. I already spent a lot of time online and this was among the services my sister and her friend offered from home so I was really excited to learn more about it.
Now, over a year later, I have a thriving career from home. I’ve grown to the point that I decide which jobs to take up and the ones to decline – like the one that wanted me to come to work 8 am to 6 pm Mondays to Saturdays, haha.
But this article isn’t about me. It’s about working from home and how it’s the best thing to happen to stay-at-home moms since sliced bread. Imagine being able to have a career without having that difficult internal debate of “who’s going to take care of my kids while I’m away?”
Apart from creative writing and social media management, there are lots of remote career paths for stay-at-home moms who don’t want to buy and sell goods from home. Some examples are content writing, graphic design, UI/UX design, email marketing, digital marketing, content development, virtual assistance, community management, copywriting, social media marketing, photography, Amazon kindle publishing, affiliate marketing, and so on. The list is endless and in this post-pandemic era, remote careers are even in much higher demand than usual.
You could pick one and start watching free videos about it on YouTube today. By the time you’ve gathered adequate prerequisite knowledge about it, you’ll then know what to look out for when deciding to enrol for a paid course.
The world has changed so much that anyone can have a thriving career from any part of the world! You’re not left out as a stay-at-home mom, so hurry and get started today!
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