Stay-at-Home Parents: How Do You Connect to the Outside World Or Make Money from Home? I Joined HubPages!

When I became a stay-at-home mom, a few realizations hit me: 1. I wouldn't be out in public every day seeing people like I was in my job and 2. I just lost my salary; now what??
I was a teacher, so I was with people all of the time, whether it be my students, their parents or my colleagues. I had friends, I had connections. Now that I'm at home, that kind of connecting doesn't happen much. I'm not a hermit; I do go out and about with the kids, but it's not the same. Everyone I used to talk to is at work. So what do I have? I have social networks, sure: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. I have text messaging and the occasional email or phone call. That's all life updates though and not really conversing or intelligent conversation.
My salary vanished into thin air once I decided to stay-at-home. We are blessed to have my husband's paychecks, but it still hurt a bit when I realized I could no longer contribute to the bill paying as I once did. Some suggest getting a night time job or selling things from home, but it just doesn't work out when my husband has hours that aren't consistent and when he does get home he has other work to do with his online courses that he teaches. I do sell items on eBay and that has helped, but I wanted to do a bit more, something I could do from home at any time that I enjoyed.
I did my research. I looked at survey sites that promised money. I looked into data entry jobs. Nothing really appealed to me...until I stumbled across a blog that mentioned a writing site called HubPages.
Writing? I can do that. I was an English teacher.
I checked it out. I read reviews about it. I read all I could before I signed up.
And then I signed up. Why not? It's a site where you can write useful and interesting articles, share the articles with other writers on the site AND potentially make money.
I was hooked from my first day. The community of writers is very friendly, so friendly in fact that right off the bat they were following me and offering words of encouragement. Writing articles there has been so much of a stress reliever for me; not only was I making new connections, I was given the opportunity to make some money!
I have been there for almost a year now. I'm not leaving any time soon. Am I making millions? Well, no, at least not yet. I have made some money that has helped pay the bills, though. I write when the kids are napping and keep track of everything inbetween. I don't have that many hubs there yet (compared to those who have been there for four years now) but I keep plugging on.
Come join me there. You'll be happy you did! Click on the link below to find out more:
Do You Have Something Useful or Interesting to Share? Write Articles or Hubs Online at HubPages and Share Your Ideas
Thanks for visiting! Have a great weekend!
~Marissa