I was fired, frustrated, and, frankly, fed up.
After losing my job as a flight attendant, I spent more than a year trying to figure out my next move. I had a communications degree and professional experience, but the bustling career in a newsroom I’d dreamed of hadn’t materialized.
Eventually, I stopped waiting for my career to look the way I thought it was supposed to and started piecing together a path that I wanted for myself.
I took a part-time position as an executive assistant and spent my off days creating travel content and writing, which felt like steps toward my career goals.
Since I was only part-time, I had also agreed to help a family friend with after-school pickup for their two sons. I thought it would be just that: school pickups.
I certainly didn’t anticipate the last part to turn into another job.
After my family friend became seriously ill and eventually required long-term care, her family’s needs changed. Her husband was balancing a full-time job, caring for his wife, and raising their boys, so I started filling in those gaps.
In addition to school pickups, I began helping with grocery shopping, cooking, doing laundry, running errands, scheduling appointments for car maintenance, and, eventually, managing the rhythm of the household.
What started as a way to supplement my part-time salary turned into a household-manager job that I am surprisingly well-suited for.
The money is nice, but this role also provided me with something I desperately needed as I rebuild my career: flexibility.
This role lets me use my skills while allowing me to build my dream career on the side
I’m naturally Type A. Give me a calendar, a grocery list, school pickups, after-school activities, and several things that need to happen before bedtime, and I’ll probably create a system for it.
Over the summer, that meant finding ways to keep the boys, now 10 and 13, engaged without relying on expensive summer camps. I planned library visits, community events, and field trips based on their interests.
Now that school is back in session, I’ve committed to working five days a week. I’m paid a weekly flat rate of $450 and typically work about 30 hours, starting around 2:15 p.m. on weekdays.
My afternoons typically begin with two pickups, since the kids attend different schools.
Once we’re home, we have a routine. They have daily chores and spend 45 minutes reading independently, including time to discuss what they’ve read.
Together, we handle homework, dinner, and preparing for an 8:30 p.m. bedtime. They also get about an hour and a half to two hours of free time for TV, video games, or whatever they want to do.
Their dad typically gets home around 11 p.m., so consistency matters.
I realized household management uses many of the same skills as my executive-assistant job: communication, budgeting, scheduling, logistics, problem-solving, and anticipating needs.
In many ways, I’m doing operations management. The client just happens to be a family.
But more importantly, I started seeing it as a systems role. The routines I build for their home, schedules, checklists, and predictable workflows are the same kind of structure I now use to run my own work more efficiently.
The more streamlined the household becomes, the more mental space I have for other work. The flexibility has been invaluable.
While managing this household and maintaining my remote executive-assistant role, I’ve had the time and space to start from scratch as a travel creator and writer — from building a portfolio to pitching stories.
I’ve also been able to take on paid bookings for my content-creation services. It’s nice to be able to piece together multiple streams of income while I figure out what’s next for me.
I don’t think I’ll be a household manager forever, but it’s been a great side hustle
I’m a millennial without children of my own, and I know what it’s like to deal with income instability while trying to build a career.
I don’t see household management as my forever job. Part of my role is helping these young kids become more independent, and I’m continuing to grow my own travel-content business.
Still, I think household management is one of the most overlooked ways for young professionals or even college students to earn a flexible income and develop professional skills.
It isn’t easy money. Someone is trusting you with their home, children, and schedule — sometimes in a very vulnerable chapter of their life. I’ve had to learn when to make decisions independently and when something isn’t my choice to make. I’ve also learned that structure itself can be a form of care.
My communications degree didn’t take me where I originally thought it would. Instead, I’ve pieced together work that pays me, develops skills I’m good at, and gives me room to pursue what comes next.
For right now, that’s exactly what I need.
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