Unless you are the heir to a fortune you need to work in order to sustain yourself and your children. If you are married or live as a couple, it would be possible to decide that one of you sacrifice your career and look after the children and their needs. There are times though when this is not a viable alternative. Maybe both of your careers are at points where moving away would mean professional suicide or maybe finance is the deciding factor. If career advancement is your concern then little can be done about the quality of life of your family. However, if finance is the factor you could consider work at home instead of your job, which will give you time with your children without sacrificing the overall income to your home.

There are many choices and opportunities to select from when you decide to take up work at home instead of pursuing your regular job. While making a decision pay careful attention to all the factors that the work at home business would entail. If you have small children who would take up most of your time and energy, the best thing would be for you to establish residual income streams as your source of income. As the name indicates this type of work would provide you with a steady flow of income and investment while it would demand very little of your energy and time once it is established.

An example of residual income business or work at home is affiliate marketing. You need to identify a reputed affiliate name from the market and from this mother company choose certain products which interest you. When you become an affiliate member of a renowned and successful affiliate program you have the advantage of getting all the necessary support to set up your business, i.e. website hosting, domain name, marketing tools, advertising space and banners, latest tools and technologies, etc. The mother company would work along with you in setting up your corner in the virtual world from where you would promote and sell this company's products or services in return for a commission.

The advantage with the affiliate marketing is that once it is established on the Net, it works by itself. It does require your constant monitoring and tweaking every now and then, but it would not demand intensive efforts or hours of concentration on a daily basis. In fact after the website is up and running you would need to spend hardly more than 3-4 hours per week to keep your business in ship-shape condition. This type of work at home is the best for parents who have small children who demand the majority of their time and attention. You could start with one affiliate program and learn hands-on what it takes to get off the ground and performing. Once you get familiar with the process you could set up multiple residual income streams which would provide you with a steady income with the least demand on your time. In this manner you get to be at home with the children and at the same time earn a handsome income every month.