Working Remotely is a No Brainer for Parents — Especially Millennials

From the flexible schedule to the potential to earn more money, see why parents may be able to have it all with a remote position now.

Can you have a full-time career and still win parent of the year?

If you’re struggling to climb the proverbial ladder and make it home in time to do homework with your kids, you’re not alone.

Almost 60% of working parents say it’s a challenge balancing their career and family life[*].

And if you’re a new parent, you’ll also need to weigh the cost of child care with how best to re-enter and resume your place in the workforce.

So how can you achieve career success, earn enough to provide for your kids, and still watch them grow up?

If these questions have been keeping you up at night, you haven’t considered a remote work position seriously enough.

What Makes Remote Work Attractive for Parents?

When you work remotely, you’re an employee of an established company but you don’t go into a traditional office everyday between the hours of 9 and 5.

In fact, you may not ever step foot inside an office at all. Or work those hours in a row.

Remote workers typically have a flexible schedule which allows for unconventional stretches of work.

These work hours help parents schedule their professional life around their children’s needs.

And thanks to the rise of mobile technology fueling this new work era, employers and employees are finally catching on to the benefits of working remotely, such as:

• Greater productivity
• Less overhead
• Higher employee satisfaction

Cue millenials.

Millennial Parents Were Born For Remote Work

If you’re a millennial (i.e., you were born between 1981 and 1996), you’ve grown up with the internet and technology currently powering the remote work world.

Now that children are entering your family selfie, you’ll be able to use this tech to get your job done and raise decent kids at the same time.

So if all you need is a laptop, internet connection, and a quiet place to work, you can essentially become a remote worker.

Another bonus is that millennials know how to communicate in a virtual world.

You’re probably familiar with the apps/tools, virtual workspaces, and messengers remote workers use to stay in the loop and collaborate with the rest of their team. This will be a small learning curve for you and makes you attractive for companies to onboard.

Combine this tech-forward skill set with your solid communication skills and it’s easy to see why millennials crush it when they work remotely.

Here’s why else parents should consider a remote job:

Skip the Frustrating Morning Commutes

So over your hectic AM and afternoon traffic rush?

Besides keeping your stress levels and blood pressure low, it’s estimated remote workers “gain the equivalent of 11 days per year” by not commuting to and from work[*].

How you’ll use this extra time outside of the bumper-to-bumper grind is totally up to you — but it does set you up for a better work-life balance.

Achieve the Elusive Work-Life Balance

Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin empire (and father of two; grandfather of four), once said during a podcast episode of CNN’s Boss Files:

“I’m a great believer in people working from home. I encourage our staff if they want to work from home” because the most important thing in life “is your family and friends.”

While you won’t get to spend all day with your kids when you work remotely, you do get to spend more time with them throughout the day and certainly over the course of your typical work week.

Like we mentioned earlier, most remote workers have a flexible schedule and work only when it’s most convenient or productive for them.

So if your kids are in school, you have an almost uninterrupted window of work time during the day.

And if you have a baby or toddler, you’ll have pockets of productive time as you work around feedings and naps.

This work and home life balance allows you to dedicate more time to both. With your flexible work hours, you could:

• Send everyone off with a nutritious breakfast.
• Work in short bursts and tackle chores during your breaks.
• Have a picnic with your kids for lunch.
• Chaperone more school field trips during the day.
• Greet your kids with an afterschool snack and help them do their homework.
• Hire a part-time nanny or babysitter instead of full-time daycare.

You may even become healthier by joining a gym or taking yoga classes, or making lunch and dinner at home instead of heading to the drive-thru after a long day.

A remote position allows you to be an active member in your child’s life and have a dynamic career simultaneously.

And you might even earn more money.

Stack More Benjamins

If you have young children, you may be spending half your paycheck just on daycare (or diapers) alone.

Stats from the Global Workplace Analytics show 75% of employees who work remotely earn over \$65,000 per year, which puts them in the upper 80th percentile of all employees, home or office-based[*].

And remote workers earn \$4,000 more per year than in-office employees, on average, as well[*].

• Two full-time working parents: \$102,400
• One full-time parent; one part-time parent: \$84,000
• One full-time parent; one unemployed parent: \$55,000

So not only will you be earning more money for your fam, you may also save more money too.

Save Money On Often-Overlooked Office Expenses

When you ditch your daily commute, you’ll be saving money on gas, parking, and/or public transportation.

But you’ll also stop spending money on other office-related expenses, such as:

• Suits, ties, shoes, bags, and other business-related attire
• Dry cleaning
• Coffee breaks, lunches out, happy hour, etc.
• Car insurance (since you’ll be driving fewer miles and outside of the most hectic commuting hours)

Depending on how much you’ve been spending on these items, you could wind up with a small bonus in your account by switching to remote work.

Your potential bump in salary and this extra cash in the bank is a major win for parents aiming to save for future college plans or a bigger house.

And the future looks particularly bright for moms seeking career victories.

If you sidestep these three mistakes, your resume should have a fighting chance of connecting with your potential employers.

Moms In Management Positions

According to stats from the Pew Research Center, “Mothers are twice as likely as fathers to say being a working parent has made it harder for them to advance in their job or career"[*].

However, the numbers show companies with a large remote workforce also have more women in leadership roles — at almost 4x the rate — than companies with more office-based employees[*].

Dive further into those numbers and you’ll learn 72% of those female head honchos identify as parents or caregivers.

So if you’re contemplating leaving your career to care for your children, you may be better off finding a remote position in your field and advancing from there.

You’ll have the best of both worlds.

And since there’s never been a better time to leave the traditional office world behind:

It’s Easier than Ever to Find a Remote Position In Your Field

One of the biggest misconceptions about remote work is that jobs only exist in computer sciences or IT.

While these jobs are plentiful, parents will find remote work positions spanning all sorts of professional niches, like:

• Programming
• Design
• Marketing
• Logistics
• Real estate
• Copywriting
• Human resources and recruiting
• Accounting and finance
• Business
• Management

A new remote position will make this school year an A+ for your family.

But if you’re only browsing the standard job boards, you may miss these types of listings.

That’s why you should check We Work Remotely, the largest community on the web for remote jobs that aren’t restricted by commutes or specific location, as frequently as you change your kid’s diaper.