Author Topic: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.  (Read 4375 times)

Shieldmaiden

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Hello all,

I am a 23yo college graduate with an English and Intercultural Studies degree (essentially Teaching English as a Second Language). Long story short, due to a series of unfortunate family incidents I am helping my aunt care for my elderly grandmother while she cares for my uncle, who has cancer. It is a full-time position in and of itself, and it means that pretty much every day from 8am to 5pm, I cannot leave the condo until the night sitter comes, with the exception of two days out of the week where someone else fills in on the day shift. Although my aunt is kindly paying my student loans and pretty much feeding, clothing, and boarding me, I am not receiving much cash. Ceasing to help my aunt is definitely not an option- even before my grandmother needed constant care, she was never an easy person to get along with and many caregivers find it too stressful to work with her.

TLDR, I need some way of making money from a fixed location with internet access. I've looked at hubpages and some of those paid survey sites, but I don't want to just walk into something without knowing what I'm doing. I don't have much capital to start with at all, and considering how generous my aunt is being already, I really don't want to ask her for any cash. I am a good writer and editor, and I am good at organization of data and analysis.

Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Freedomin5

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2018, 10:11:33 PM »
Teaching English as an Additional Language online, via websites such as VIPKid or VIPABC, etc.? There's a thread here in the forums about teaching English online.

lexde

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2018, 07:20:34 AM »
Teaching English as an Additional Language online, via websites such as VIPKid or VIPABC, etc.? There's a thread here in the forums about teaching English online.
I was going to say VIPKid too. There are a lot of resources online (YouTube) that walk you through the series of interviews and what is expected. As long as you can fully devote each time block you schedule and know you’ll have time to sit down for a half hour at a time, this would be an excellent option for you. And because of the time difference, you can do it around your at-home schedule too.

LessIsLess

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2018, 07:56:29 AM »
Hello all,

I am a 23yo college graduate with an English and Intercultural Studies degree (essentially Teaching English as a Second Language). Long story short, due to a series of unfortunate family incidents I am helping my aunt care for my elderly grandmother while she cares for my uncle, who has cancer. It is a full-time position in and of itself, and it means that pretty much every day from 8am to 5pm, I cannot leave the condo until the night sitter comes, with the exception of two days out of the week where someone else fills in on the day shift. Although my aunt is kindly paying my student loans and pretty much feeding, clothing, and boarding me, I am not receiving much cash. Ceasing to help my aunt is definitely not an option- even before my grandmother needed constant care, she was never an easy person to get along with and many caregivers find it too stressful to work with her.

TLDR, I need some way of making money from a fixed location with internet access. I've looked at hubpages and some of those paid survey sites, but I don't want to just walk into something without knowing what I'm doing. I don't have much capital to start with at all, and considering how generous my aunt is being already, I really don't want to ask her for any cash. I am a good writer and editor, and I am good at organization of data and analysis.

Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you.

It's nice of you to help your aunt/grandma.  But I think you have to find a way to transition to a part time role.  Make it a job to find a caregiver who has the patience of a saint or someone who will cancel out your grandma's difficult personality. 


BigHaus89

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2018, 10:14:53 AM »
It won't be much, but doing online surveys and Amazon Mechanical Turk would be easy ways to make some extra dough. Also, teaching online would be great as others have mentioned/

Missy B

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2018, 08:53:59 PM »
Hello all,

I am a 23yo college graduate with an English and Intercultural Studies degree (essentially Teaching English as a Second Language). Long story short, due to a series of unfortunate family incidents I am helping my aunt care for my elderly grandmother while she cares for my uncle, who has cancer. It is a full-time position in and of itself, and it means that pretty much every day from 8am to 5pm, I cannot leave the condo until the night sitter comes, with the exception of two days out of the week where someone else fills in on the day shift. Although my aunt is kindly paying my student loans and pretty much feeding, clothing, and boarding me, I am not receiving much cash. Ceasing to help my aunt is definitely not an option- even before my grandmother needed constant care, she was never an easy person to get along with and many caregivers find it too stressful to work with her.

TLDR, I need some way of making money from a fixed location with internet access. I've looked at hubpages and some of those paid survey sites, but I don't want to just walk into something without knowing what I'm doing. I don't have much capital to start with at all, and considering how generous my aunt is being already, I really don't want to ask her for any cash. I am a good writer and editor, and I am good at organization of data and analysis.

Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you.

It's nice of you to help your aunt/grandma.  But I think you have to find a way to transition to a part time role.  Make it a job to find a caregiver who has the patience of a saint or someone who will cancel out your grandma's difficult personality.
My read of the OP's situation is not that she's doing it to 'be nice', but doing it because it's essential. Also, I think you've seriously underestimated the difficulty in finding someone with 'the patience of a saint' who will 'cancel out' a difficult personality. It's hard to get good caregivers, period.

Back to the OP's original question. Online Admin assistant. I don't have websites to suggest, but have met people who are making a good, full-time living doing this.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2018, 06:45:41 AM »
Is your grandmother at the point where she needs something other than in-home care?

I grew up with family members moving in with us when they could not live alone anymore; but all of them reached a point where we could not provide care in our home anymore.  If you are tethered to the house, it doesn't sound like that is an appropriate environment for your grandmother.

Could you do freelance writing or editing? Maybe send your resume to textbook and test publishers and see if they have any writing or editing work in your area?

LNE2032

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2018, 12:35:00 PM »
I've looked at hubpages

Hubpages gets a "no" from me. :) Not worth the time at all, better to build out your own site if you have writing topics in mind.

cchrissyy

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2018, 01:13:59 PM »
you sound like a great fit for one of those teaching english online gigs with chinese kids 1:1 in their after school hours. that would be your early morning hours, I think it's $25/hr and you can do a couple hours every day if you want.

Shieldmaiden

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #9 on: April 28, 2018, 01:34:18 PM »
Thank you all for the replies- I've been sick, but I'm back on my feet now.

Alright, I'll definitely look into VPKid. Do they require a license as an ID or will they accept a passport?

I'd looked at online surveys and Mechanical Turk, but that was quite a while ago. Does anyone have any thoughts on which survey site might work?

Quote
It's nice of you to help your aunt/grandma.  But I think you have to find a way to transition to a part time role.  Make it a job to find a caregiver who has the patience of a saint or someone who will cancel out your grandma's difficult personality.
Quote
My read of the OP's situation is not that she's doing it to 'be nice', but doing it because it's essential. Also, I think you've seriously underestimated the difficulty in finding someone with 'the patience of a saint' who will 'cancel out' a difficult personality. It's hard to get good caregivers, period.

^Exactly that. If it weren't essential, I wouldn't be here. Patience isn't enough when you're dealing with someone like my grandmother- 'difficult' is almost too weak a word to describe her. We did have Grandmother at a live-in facility for a time but she has been kicked out of all of them because of her personality and her dementia combined are no small thing. I'm tethered to the house only because I can't leave her alone- I can take her out for walks in the park, though.

Do you need coding skills for an Online Admin Assist position?

I'm currently looking into Cortena and I hope to join with the next wave on Tues. I hadn't thought of textbooks, that's a good idea!

Well, hubpages is a no- thank you for clearing that up.

Thank you all again, I greatly appreciate your advice!
« Last Edit: May 01, 2018, 10:09:29 PM by Shieldmaiden »

wordnerd

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2018, 01:40:53 PM »
RE: VIPKid, I think a passport would work. Feel free to PM if you have questions about the process.

Missy B

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #11 on: May 07, 2018, 09:36:05 PM »
Thank you all for the replies- I've been sick, but I'm back on my feet now.

Alright, I'll definitely look into VPKid. Do they require a license as an ID or will they accept a passport?


^
Do you need coding skills for an Online Admin Assist position?


No. I haven't done it, but it sounded a lot like admin at an office would be. Database management, spreadsheets, wordprocessing, project management. Building reports, powerpoint presentations... whatever office skillsets you might have.

Violence in dementia patients is pretty common and really challenging to deal with. I wish you the best with your situation.

FreelanceToFreedom

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Re: Fairly Free Days and Nights- but Can't Really Leave the House.
« Reply #12 on: May 11, 2018, 08:32:45 PM »
If you're an English major, I imagine you're probably a decent writer!

Freelance writing can pay quite well, although it can be tricky to break into. I'm a full time freelance writer - feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

I've found a lot of clients on the ProBlogger Jobs Board (Google it), but it's pretty competitive.