The kids are finally asleep. It’s 8pm, and you’re looking forward to having dinner and watching something other than Cocomelon. But wait - your open laptop is staring at you. “No relaxing! Time to hustle!” it seems to scream.
With research from Avon suggesting that up to 62% of women in the U.K. have, or are considering, taking up a side hustle in order to help with the cost of living, it’s inevitable that some of these women are going to be mothers who are sacrificing those sacred, post-bedtime hours in order to work more. At a time when awareness of burnout as a serious health issue is growing, it seems contradictory that so many are being encouraged - or forced by financial circumstances - to choose hustle over rest.
During a recent spell of childcare woes, I found myself needing to work after my children had gone to bed but I found it near impossible to motivate myself. After five weeks of no downtime, I felt myself starting to crack - so how are parents supposed to manage a day job, seeing to their children’s needs and side-hustling, indefinitely? Well, it seems to depend on a number of factors, including whether or not you have a partner, how old your children are, the type of work you do and also, crucially, how much you enjoy said work.
Kate, who has two children aged eight and ten, works school-friendly hours at a university during the week and is building a business as an organisational coach in her spare time. She’s hoping to grow her business into a full time role but, for the time being, has a tight schedule of working during the day, picking up her children from school, doing client consultations online during the evenings and in-person over the weekend. 'Then there’s trying to run the house and other life admin,' she tells me. 'So essentially, I’m spread very thinly, but financially, we’re not in a position for me to be able to drop any of these elements.'
Meg, who is a single parent to a six-year-old daughter, says that she can manage as long as she stays organised, but that she burns out very quickly if that organisation slips. 'I currently work a full time job on the digital team for a large retailer, which is a remote role with occasional office days,' she says. 'In my freelance role, I create websites and help small businesses with their strategy and marketing - all once my daughter is in bed. It’s a massive juggle and means late nights, but I’m driven towards more flexibility as a goal, and know that I need to work hard now in order to make that happen.'
What strikes me in both these scenarios, is that there is an end-goal in sight - a time when hopefully the juggle won’t be quite so intense, and flexibility and entrepreneurship will be the reward. The trade-off seems clear - work as hard as possible in exchange for more free time later on. For many who are trying to earn extra income in order to pay off debt, save a little or simply stay afloat, however, doing things like surveys or reselling in snatched moments, there is often no end in sight.
The balance is hard to get right, and even those successfully managing side hustle alongside their day job and parenting seem to recognise that it’s a precarious situation. Side-hustling parents reported feeling overstretched, or that either their day job, family or side hustle ends up suffering in order to carve out time for the others. So, is there a way of making it work?
'Before starting a side hustle it’s really important to think about the kind of life you want to live,' says Elizabeth Ogabi, author of Side Hustle in Progress. 'Do you want to be working on your side hustle 2 days a week, 5 days a week or maybe just at the weekend? Do you want it to eventually become your full time job? It’s important to ask yourself these questions to get clarity on the kind of future you want. This allows you to determine the type of side hustle that can fit into the life you envision.'
If you’d like to start a side hustle, or really want to try to make your existing side hustle work for you, here are a few other things to try:
Having an end-goal in mind
As Liz points out, if you’re going to be working really hard for any period of time, it’s a great idea to have a plan for where your side hustle is going to lead - whether that’s earning enough to pay off your credit card, or building your business to a point where you can quit your day job.
Having solid boundaries
Making sure that your side hustle fits into your life is about creating boundaries around when you are fulfilling each role. For example, you might choose one evening a week to focus on side hustling, and be strict about protecting downtime and time with family and friends.
Asking for support
If you have a support network, such as family, friends, or your partner - get them on board. Talk to them about your goal and see if they can offer any assistance in getting you there.
Accepting when it isn’t working
Sometimes - often, in fact - the demands of a day job, parenting and running a side hustle just aren’t sustainable. It might be that you need to put plans on hold until things ease up a little, like when your children start sleeping a little more reliably, or when they’ve started school. It’s ok not to want to work 24/7. It’s ok to need time to recover.
Entrepreneurial spirit and motivation to improve our financial position is something to be admired, in parents as much as in anyone else. We just need to make sure that there’s something left over for us once all of our other roles are fulfilled. The pressure to keep up with this hustle can be intense, and it’s absolutely fine to opt out.