Kids are expensive. That often leads their parents to seek extra money-making opportunities. But given the many time demands kids bring, parent-friendly side hustles must be easy to start, flexible enough to do in short bursts — sometimes while on the fly or with kids in tow — and profitable enough to make it worthwhile.
These 5 gigs fit the bill. Not only are they’re quick money-makers that won’t add significantly to your mental load, some incorporate things you’re already doing.
Baby Gear Rentals
Want to make your investment in all that baby equipment pay off? Consider offering rentals through BabyQuip. BabyQuip connects traveling parents, who don’t want to shlep around cribs and high-chairs, with independent business owners, who have baby gear to rent. You set your own rental rates, the limits on the geographic area you’re willing to service, and determine what products you’ll offer — i.e. high chairs, strollers, toys, snoo basinets, etc. The site requires that you have a crib, but otherwise leaves the specifics of your rentals up to you.
Hosts in busy travel areas report making between $600–$5,000/month, depending on gear and delivery availability. But the business is cyclical, booming during summers and holidays, but dropping off sharply during the school year.
Drive Kids to School
That, however, may give you the opportunity to pair baby equipment rentals with driving kids to school.
Several sites enlist adults with child care experience — and parenting counts — to pick up and drop kids at school and after-school activities. You’ll need a good driving record, a clean background check and an appropriate sedan or SUV. Where do you apply? HopSkipDrive, Kango and RubiRides.
Conveniently, this side gig slows down to a trickle during the summers and holidays, when baby equipment rentals pick up.
Do laundry
If you’ve got kids, you’re already doing a ton of laundry. Why not do a little more and get paid for it? Two sites, Poplin and Hampr, pay freelancers to pick up, wash, fold and deliver laundry. Poplin pays by the pound; Hampr by the load. Either way, seasoned launderers say they can earn from a few hundred to more than $1,000 a month.
Transcribe
If you’re a fast typist, you may also want to check out transcription gigs. Transcription offers modular, pause-and-resume work with pay per audio minute. That can make it a natural fit for parents, who want to make a few bucks while the kids are at school or napping.
Dozens of sites offer this type of work, however, the three recommended by SideHusl.com are DittoTranscripts, GMR and Rev. The others simply don’t pay enough per audio minute to make the job worthwhile. Notably, Ditto is the best paying of the three, but doesn’t accept freelancers from California, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Test websites and apps
Another quick-hit side gig: User Experience testing.
UX testing platforms recruit everyday users to try websites, apps, prototypes, or ad concepts while recording voice and screen. Tests are typically short (10–20 minutes), and pay is usually a fixed fee per test commonly $9 – $10. What makes this uniquely good for parents is there is a predictable time commitment and there are no special skills required. Indeed, what these sites are looking for is ordinary people, who can say whether they find a site or an app to be intuitive or tough.
Some good testing sites to sign up with: UserTesting, UserFeel, Userlytics and UserPeek.
