Well after many months, the time may be finally upon us where Inkleberry and I get to switch roles. Quite frankly, I’m looking forward to it. I get to be a stay at home dad. But there’s a catch. We’ve just sort of been getting by on my salary, and while her earning potential is higher than mine, I would like to contribute in some small way, at least so I can have some money of my own. So I’m looking for something I can do from home, part time since I’ll have the infamous Tinkleberry. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have a background in restaurant management, but I’ve been a stockbroker and mortgage broker. I want something I can count on though, which pretty much leaves sales out of this, and I left those jobs because I didn’t want the headache. So if you have any ideas at all, I’d appreciate it. Thanks.
Babysitting works. If you can find someone who works part time (so you won’t have their child all the time) you can make some decent bucks. You can be picky about what age you’re willing to watch. You could even be an after-school pit stop for older kids.
Actually, my son is doing this a couple days a week to supplement his meager income and he loves it. He doesn’t have kids of his own. He’s doing it as a favor to some friends. It’s working out nicely.
If you end up telecommuting or doing a desk type job from home, create an office space and only work there.
I made this mistake years ago when I put the work desk in an area off the living room. I somehow had the idea that while I was at home working I could still be with my family. The only thing that happened was I didn’t focus very hard on either because I tried to split my time between the two. I never felt like I was at home or like I was away from work.
When we moved to another house I converted an extra bedroom into “the office”. This helped create the difference between work and home.
I work from home in a separate room that has a large opening to the living room. I can see the TV, but I have to turn to do that. I can talk to the family, but I’m still removed enough to be somewhat detatched from conversation. It works out well.
How about online “distance learning” teaching as an adjunct professor at a local community college? You could teach from your home computer. It sounds like you may have some experience and knowledge that could be packaged into a good college course. I would be interested to know if anyone else here has any experience with teaching online.
I’m not sure what parts of my life would make an interesting or good college course. I’m sure most people’s parents wouldn’t pay for me to teach their little darlings what I know. Not when my motto is “Chaos, mayhem, my work here is done”.
So, you were a stock broker? How about day-trading online? 
Honestly, with the skills you listed, uness you could be am ortgage broker from home and not ever have to visit anyone, I don’t see this being too easy (except maybe for the babysitting thing, but you have to be careful about that if you’re doing it in your home).
I’ve just started doing some freelance proofreading for book companies.
The hardest part is getting your first jobs, but if you do them well, the work will start finding you.
I can send you the Ebook I read that got me started on it.
The possibilities are endless.
My advise would be to start by reading a book like this.
I have that book and about 30 others like it. There is nothing magical in it (or any of the others) they just teach you a mindset that might help push you in the right direction.
Good luck.
A paper route might be an option. It’s not exactly at home, but you can go out, do your route, and be home before your wife leaves for work. Folks were making about $15k/ year with routes a few years ago around here.
If you’re looking for something more ambitious, you might be able to build on the restaurant management into a personal chef thing, where you cook meals at that people reheat at their homes.
The standard answer is eBay. Find some niche that you’re interested in, and get going with it. The nice thing is that you can do it any hours at all that you have free. You can also do bits and pieces here and there, which is compatible with having kids around – you can do stuff while they’re napping, for instance. it’s hard to say how profitable it is, though. Depends on the niche, and also your knack for finding good stuff cheap. Suffice it to say that there are better and worse ways to do it, and it takes some experimenting to get the formula down.
Have any ideas for a home based business? There are limitless ways to make money on web based business. If you aren’t into sales or having a high overhead, dealing with warehousing or shipping, you can get into offering online services. Many online companies don’t make loads of money, but can net you tens of thousands in revenue yearly.
There are so many possibilities that it would be meaningless for me to post some examples, but anything from offering advice, to functions that merely organize data that is free, but unwieldy and hard to manage for the average user.
I have had several pretty decent ideas for online business, ones that I know I don’t have the time or inclination to start up myself (full time student, no starting capital), if you email me I can certainly let you know of a few. Sorry to sound cryptic, but I will give out my idea with no strings attached, and have no problem blurting it out, but that tends to work against you, if others reading this thread start up similar business. And no, I don’t have a business of offering business ideas, though that is a pretty good idea. You just gotta figure out something that would be helpful, and figure out a way to deliever it to people while making a small, or large profit.