My friends pay me to watch their kids in addition to mine. It’s a satisfying way to earn $400 a week as a stay-at-home mom.

I am one stay at home mom since my son was born in 2024.

The daycare costs in my area is high, with prices I saw starting at $1,400 per month for a few hours per week. It made no sense for me to have a full-time job just to give my entire salary to someone else to watch my child.

So my husband and I decided that he would keep his full-time job, and I would go freelance writing work in between watching our son give us some indulgence for extra expenses after paying rent and bills.

My schedule changed in late 2025 when a friend contacted me. Since I was staying at my son’s house, would it be too much trouble if I babysat her daughter too? Of course she would pay me.

I wanted to be a good friend and help her in any way I could. She was pregnant with her second child and was juggling two teaching jobs while her partner also worked.

They needed the extra help and I was able to offer more flexible hours than any daycare available. So I started babysitting their child for about ten hours a week, and my boyfriend became my first client.

Being a stay-at-home mom and nanny at the same time wasn’t much of a challenge for me

Honestly, when you’re watching a toddler at home, one extra doesn’t make much of a difference.

My son was also happy to have someone to play with regularly, and some of the socialization he might have missed by not going to daycare was offset by his mother taking in another child.

When my girlfriend’s second child was born, I continued to babysit for the family, now looking after two toddlers and a newborn. That brought its own challenges, but the toddlers mostly kept each other occupied while I tended to the baby.

Eventually, other mothers in our area found out that I was babysitting my friend’s children and asked me to look at theirs too.

I now have three regular babysitting clients, which is not much of a challenge for me.

I have worked in the past as a babysitter, after-school teacher, and children’s library assistant. I’m very used to being around children. I am always with my son when he is awake, and we usually go to different story times or children’s activities in our neighborhood.

I also don’t mind having a lot of children around. I find them fun and creative, and I enjoy seeing them experience the world for the first time. I enjoy being a teacher of sorts, and I enjoy doing it for all my son’s friends.

The babysitting part obviously comes with its own challenges. Sometimes there is a conflict between my son and another child. In those cases, I let them all play independently for a while until they cool down.

Other times, a child I’m watching misses his mother or doesn’t want to play. At this point I just remind them that their parent always comes back, and encourage them to try different fun activities.

My clients are also pretty good at picking up on time, but sometimes there is a time crunch if they are late and I have a lot of freelance work to do that day.

Otherwise, most days go pretty smoothly.

For now, this is a satisfying way to make extra money

Normally I charge €25 per hour each babysitting gigas I believe this is a reasonable rate for juggling multiple children.

I chose this number after talking to some of my babysitting friends to find out what the average rates looked like in my area. Admittedly, I charge a little less than I probably should because I normally work for friends.

Still, I manage to earn about €400 extra per week with this work. The number fluctuates a bit depending on how much I need.

Since my freelance writing jobs I am flexible, I can still do this in between babysitting services.

All the extra income certainly helps, as I am a hustler by nature when it comes to how I make money, and I get by with what I can help with my family’s expenseswhile also staying home full-time with my son.

Besides the money, I really enjoy helping my friends with their children.

However, I do want a second child, so it’s hard to say if I will continue babysitting in the future. I enjoy working with children, especially those I already know well, and I hope to continue doing this work for as long as possible.