Building Work Around Motherhood

On flexible income, online work, and refusing to build a life entirely around institutions

I recently saw a remote job listing aimed specifically at South Africans paying $2 an hour.

Two dollars.

Less than minimum wage once you convert it and stretch it across a full working day.

And we can probably all picture exactly who those jobs are aimed at… Mothers. With laptops open at kitchen tables, babies on their laps, trying to pull in some kind of income while the rest of the house is still asleep.

Lately, when I phone Vodacom or Standard Bank, I often hear children in the background of the call centre conversations. I don’t know what those women are being paid. But I do know many mothers are carrying impossible pressure right now.

One income often isn’t enough anymore, especially in South Africa. Childcare is expensive. Food prices are ridiculous. I saw a broccoli for R70 in Pick n Pay the other day. R70. At this point growing vegetables starts sounding less like a wholesome hobby and more like financial planning.

And underneath all of that is another question…

What if I don’t want to spend most of my life away from my children?

People start treating that question as unrealistic surprisingly quickly.

But I think one of the biggest questions women are trying to answer right now is this:

How do I earn money without building a life that pulls me away from my number one priority – being a mother.

Some days it feels like modern motherhood expects women to function like machines.

Earn money. Keep the house running. Reply to messages. Be present with your children. Don’t burn out. Don’t complain too much either.

We are trying to do the work of an entire village completely alone.

At 28, I fell pregnant with my first child and became determined not to send him to daycare.

At the time I had very little financial stability of my own. I genuinely believed the safest option was to marry my son’s father and build a conventional family life together.

That didn’t work out.

By 29 I was separated, raising a baby, living with my parents, and trying to figure out how to stay close to my child without becoming completely financially dependent on somebody else.

At first I did admin work for my mother.

Then I worked a few mornings a week for another client and brought my one-year-old along with me. That arrangement didn’t last long.

After that I started an organic vegetable delivery business.

I loved that.

I packed boxes myself. Sourced produce. Answered customer messages. Did the deliveries. My days were physically exhausting, but flexible enough to work around being a mom.

Then I fell pregnant again and realised I needed something less physical so I sold the business.

That was really the beginning of me working online.

I applied for exactly one VA job and got it.

Around the same time, someone posted on Facebook looking for a virtual assistant. I messaged them and got that too.

People often imagine online work as something requiring perfect branding, expensive courses, huge social media followings, complicated sales funnels, and a polished internet personality.

A lot of the time it starts much smaller than people think.

You answer emails properly. You solve problems. You reply quickly. You learn as you go and slowly become useful to people.

The other day I shared a tip on Instagram that my sister gave me, and honestly, it’s excellent:

Search your inbox for the phrase “we’re hiring.”

Most of us already subscribe to newsletters from creators, educators, and businesses we genuinely like. Which means we already understand their audience, tone, and work better than we think we do.

Apply.

Message people.

Start before you feel fully ready.

You do not need to reinvent your personality in order to earn money online.

Over time, the work I was doing gradually evolved into web design. I started teaching myself WordPress while raising my children at home and taking projects wherever I could find them.

At first it was purely practical. I needed flexible work that could exist alongside motherhood.

But I loved it too.

I loved solving problems and figuring things out. I loved taking something confusing and making it clearer. I loved building things from scratch and watching them slowly become real.

And eventually it became an actual business.

Most of the people I work with now are women. Educators. Doulas. Therapists. Creatives. Coaches. Women doing thoughtful, deeply personal work who often struggle to explain themselves clearly online because their work matters to them so much.

And most of them are already very good at what they do.

They’re trying to build visibility online while feeling pressured to become louder, more polished, more certain, more camera-ready, more consistently “on” all the time.

It can start feeling like you’re supposed to become a completely different person online in order to succeed.

But most women do not need complete reinvention in order to build sustainable work.

Usually they need clearer structure. Better organisation. A website that reflects the quality of what they actually do. Language that sounds like a real human being instead of a marketing template.

They need work that actually fits their real lives.

That’s a large part of what I do now.

Helping women shape businesses that fit around their actual lives.

A few more fun things:

• Reading: I’m currently making my way through The Great Cosmic Mother by Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor. It’s one of those books that completely rearranges the way you think about women, history, motherhood and power. One thing it keeps reminding me is that women have always worked. Long before modern employment, women were healers, midwives, traders, gatherers, makers, herbalists, caretakers and community builders. The idea that women working, creating or earning is somehow “new” feels historically very flimsy once you start looking more closely.
• Cooking: My sister gifted me Toddler to Table by Luka McCabe, which isn’t available in South African stores yet. It’s full of simple, comforting, healthy-ish meals that children actually eat. We’ve been making the bolognese on repeat.
• Listening: My 2026 Spotify playlist currently reflects the general state of my headspace, slightly emotional, slightly existential, occasionally hopeful. But Ocie Elliott has been a favourite lately.

Wishing you all a beautiful weekend.

With love,