Working Mum of Disabled Child: 10 Job Opportunities That Won’t Drain You Out

**Collaborative post**

A busy mother of a disabled child may already feel like her work with her kid is a full-time position. So, trying to make ends meet when juggling a full-time job, countless therapy sessions, and doctor appointments can be challenging that can quickly burn you out. Fortunately, there are several job opportunities for working moms of disabled children that offer flexible hours and decent pay, without leaving you feeling like an empty shell afterwards.

What to Look for in a Job Opportunity as a Mum of a Disabled Child

Mums of disabled children need to be extra careful when applying for a job opening. In their case, the work-life balance is something not to be reckoned with, unless they are willing to put up with the consequences, such as burnout, sleepless nights, caregiver guilt, unruly children, and isolation.

To reach a healthy work-life balance, an ideal job opportunity for a busy mum of a disabled child should tick most if not all of the following boxes:

• Flexible hours: A special needs kid comes with… well… special needs; he or she may need you for those extra doctor appointments, the therapy or massage sessions, the special ed classes, more-than-you-could-ever-count days off from school, parent-teacher brainstorming sessions, and whatnots. If your child is severely impaired, he or she may need constant care so working a 9-to-5 may not be the greatest idea. With a flexible schedule, you won’t have to constantly worry about risking your job or about your quality of work having to suffer.
• Good pay: Especially if you are the sole breadwinner in your home, you’ll need a job opportunity that allows you to pay the bills, keep your kid healthy and happy, and build a nest egg and/or a rainy-day fund.
• Understanding boss (and co-workers): Although understanding bosses are the rarest unicorns of today’s workforce, they do exist. And if you are blessed enough to work for one, you’ll be able to work from home or take time off when needed without risking your job security.
• Good health care coverage: This one’s a must when you need to raise a child with a severe disability. But health insurance can be a problem when you are self-employed or have to rely on side gigs only to survive.
• Work that won’t drain you out: It is best to look for employment options that involve work which is not too emotionally and physically draining to give you room to properly care for your child.

10 Job Opportunities for Mums with Disabled Children

Some of the best industries to work in as a special needs parent today include education, IT, health care, and human resources.

1. Teaching Assistant

This position may not pay much, but it can be very fulfilling in the long run and can offer enough flexibility when caring for a school-age child with disabilities. And if you want to kill two birds with one stone, you could try to work as a special ed paraprofessional at your child’s school. You already have the skills to take care of children with complex needs. So, why not put those skills to work while keeping a watchful eye on your kid as well?

2. Search Engine Evaluator/ Ads Assessor

If you have minimal tech skills, you could work from home as a search engine evaluator (SEE) or ads assessor. A SEE is needed by designers of search engines such as Bing or Google to help them improve their products by having access to human feedback on search results. For instance, a machine cannot tell whether a search result is useful for certain users. A human can.

The same goes for ads assessors: they are required to provide feedback on the relevance of ads to help boost ad networks’ revenue. The two positions do not require experience or special skills and they can pay up to $15 per hour while working from home. The only downside is that most of SEE and ads assessor positions are project based, so you won’t have a steady stream of income.

3. Online Travel Consultant

People are busy and many of them are willing to pay a premium to have somebody else manage their travel arrangements, such as booking resorts and flights, or give them time- and money-saving advice on a specific travel destination. A Travel Consultant can also plan travel itineraries and look for the best deals in town on everything from discounted airline tickets to the cheapest Martinis.

The best part about this job opportunity is that you can work from home and if you work for the right guys, you won’t have to make cold calls at all. The job pays $15 to $20 per hour and include various perks for the entire family. For instance, the AAA Club Alliance offers all its travel agents travel discounts and four weeks of paid vacation from the first year on the job.

4. School Bus Driver

This is another position that offers a mum enough flexibility to care for her disabled child. School bus drivers can choose not to work during the summer vacation period and they usually work split shifts, which allows you to have enough free time to care for your child. Some local school boards may even allow you to keep your kid on board during your work shift, which is no longer than 3 hours (there are usually 2 shifts per day, 5 days per week).

But the best part about this position is that your employer offers decent health insurance benefits which is a rare occurrence in part-time positions. The downside is that the annual pay is not that great, so if you are the only breadwinner in the house, you might need to consider a side gig too or to look for something better.

5. Paid Helper/Fixer 

Helping people with things they don’t want to or cannot do (and getting paid for it) is another work opportunity that gives you the necessary flexibility to care for your child. You could start doing grocery shopping for other people, taking their kids to school or picking them up, taking their pets to the vet, cleaning their homes, walking their dogs and babysitting their kids. And if you’re a handy person, you can get paid for fixing things around their home as well.

Advertise your skills on Craigslist, on Community Facebook groups, through flyers or family and friends. There are also websites where you can find small tasks you can complete from home and get paid for it, like TaskRabbit, Inbox Dollars, Swagbucks, and Amazon Mechanical Turk.

6. Online Shop Owner

If you are good at making arts and crafts, you can set up a virtual shop like an Etsy and sell your handicrafts online. Any creative goods can be sold as long as you know how to properly market them, and you take the time in getting your listings on the platform. Setting up the shop is a time-intensive investment, but it can pay off in the long run if you’re really passionate about making quality handmade products.

And if creativity is not your strongest point, you can open a virtual shop to sell other people’s wares and make some cash. For busy mums of disabled children, an e-commerce store with drop-shipping is maybe the answer to all her prayers.

Dropshipping means that you don’t have to first purchase the products you are listing in your e-commerce shop. If there’s a buyer for a product, you can instruct the drop shipping company to deliver the item to the buyer’s doorstep, while you rake in the difference between your list price and the drop shipping company’s total price (product price + shipping fees).

Many stay-at-home mums who have taken this business seriously now earn between $5,000 and $10,000 every month. The best platform to get you started is Shopify (they offer a 2-week free trial), but WooCommerce and Magento are two serious competitors you should give a try too.

7. Blogger/ Virtual Assistant

Having a blog can be a great source of passive income, but it takes a lot of time and effort to build a successful blog from scratch. Also, you need to find the right niche and smart ways to keep readers engaged. As a stay-at-home mum caring for a child with a disability, documenting your journey can draw in many likeminded parents facing similar struggles.

As a blogger, you’ll primarily get revenue through display and affiliate ads, referrals, sponsored content, and affiliate links. But the revenue largely depends on traffic. A blog site with just 1,000 monthly pageviews can earn from $10 to $25 per month, which is usually the web hosting fee for a small website. A blog with 100,000 pageviews or more can earn from $1,000 – $25,000 every single month. But that happens after several years and takes a lot of effort to get there.

So, if you don’t have the time, energy, and patience to create a blog, you can help other bloggers keep their websites running smoothly. Virtual assistants can write blog posts, promote the blog on social media, edit content, answer e-mails, manage Facebook ads, reply to comments, and more.

You can work for multiple site owners and, if you’re really good at it, earn a few thousands of dollars per month while not leaving your home.

8. Freelance Writer/ Copywriter

You can make a living while working from home as freelance writer or copywriter. Some gigs can pay as much as $100 per hour and many websites and blogs need content on parenting topics written by real parents for real audiences. You can find work on Upwork, WritersDomain.net, and Textbroker (for U.S.A. citizens only) to name just a few.

As a freelance writer or copywriter, you can pick your own schedule (as long as you meet the deadlines) leaving you enough wiggling room for your child’s doctor appointments. You can also choose how much work you are willing to put in in a week, which is a boon for parents with severely disabled children. You can enjoy creative work and build some skills you can later use to draw in more income.

The downside of freelance working is that you don’t have any health benefits, unless you pay for it, and a steady source of income (projects come and go). What’s more, if you don’t have the necessary skill set, you might not be able to make enough money in the allotted time to sustain your family. There’s also the issue with working for less at the beginning to draw in new customers as the competition can be fierce.

9. Online Teaching/ Tutoring 

As a generous slice of the education pie has moved online during the COVID pandemic, you can help put food on the table by teaching or tutoring children online. Check out Brainfuse, Aim-for-a-Tutor, Verbal Planet, and Tutor.com for opportunities for online tutoring (Some of these websites will not charge you any fees if you’re just starting.)

And if you’re really good in your field, you can create an online course and upload it to a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform to create a nice source of passive income. But some MOOC platforms like Coursera don’t allow independent instructors on their website as they already have their own trusted partnerships. Udemy and Ted Ed, on the other hand, are willing to give everyone a shot, as long as you can provide a valid ID and you’re really good at what you are doing.

For this to be a success you will need a super strong and reliable internet connection. You don’t want to be halfway through teaching a lesson for your internet to crash, you will not only lsoe vital mnutes, but potentially your clients as well. Do your research on the best home internet providers in your area. 

10. Certified Therapist 

As a parent to a special needs child, you know firsthand what your kid’s disability entails and you’ve probably already provided some type of therapy to your child when professionals were not around. You also probably know to tell the difference between a good and bad therapist from your own experience so, why not become one?

You can work as an independent therapist with other children while keeping your schedule flexible enough to take care of your own child. You are the one to decide upon the number of clients you are willing to work with, along with therapy hours. In addition, by becoming good at what you are doing, you can improve the therapy you are providing to your own child.

You can also provide expert support to parents who are facing the same struggles as you do. For instance, if your child lives with a severe disability like cerebral palsy, you know firsthand that cerebral palsy comes in many shapes and forms, each affecting the lives of sufferers differently. So, you’ll be able to customize therapy sessions to each child’s specific needs boosting their odds of recovery.

The only real downside of this rewarding career is that it involves heaps of training along with certification, which may be hard to attain especially if you are a working mom of a disabled child.