I Didn't Want a Side Hustle. I Wanted to Be There.

Towards the end of 2025, I felt God calling me to move to Brisbane. I couldn't fully explain it at the time, and honestly it didn't make practical sense, but out of obedience I went. I had a business back in Perth that I closed. I arrived here, found a job, and kept the government benefits I was entitled to. On paper, I was managing. In reality, the cost of the move had all but wiped out my savings, and I quickly realised I had landed in something I can only describe as survival mode.

The job paid minimum wage. Even working full-time, I could barely cover the basics — daycare, rent, and the everyday bills with almost nothing left to save. And the maths never really changed, no matter how many times I ran it.

The moment on the sideline that hadn't happened yet

Here is the part that undid me. My son was at daycare all day, every day. By the weekend, he was so tired that all he wanted was to be near me. No outings, no activities, just home. The furthest we usually got was church on a Sunday. I wanted him in swimming, in the little activities other children do, the ordinary things that make a childhood. But there was simply no room in the budget for any of it.

One evening I was going over the finances again, trying to make the numbers behave, and I looked over at him. And without meaning to, I saw a few years into the future. I saw him a bit older, wanting to join something after school. And I saw a version of me who could finally afford it by working full-time and picking up shifts, but who was never actually there. Never on the sideline. Never in the audience. Never the one clapping when it was his turn.

It struck me somewhere deep. I didn't just want to provide the things he needed. I wanted to be present for him. I wanted to be the one who drove him to the activity, the one cheering him on, the one celebrating with him afterwards, not the mum stuck at work hoping someone filmed it. That was the moment something in me shifted.

I already knew what "more hours" costs

So I started looking for a way to earn that didn't mean being away from home even more than I already was. And I want to be clear about why that mattered so much to me, because I had already lived the alternative.

Back in Perth I had worked three jobs to make ends meet. I know exactly what it is to earn enough by running yourself into the ground. When I was pregnant with my son in 2023, the news wasn't received the way I'd hoped by his father, and I found myself working out how to provide for both of us and still have something set aside for after the birth. I was so stressed through that pregnancy that I was working the day before I went into hospital. I answered work messages in the hospital, in between feeds and nappy changes and nurses coming and going. I never really got to enjoy being pregnant, or those first tender days, because I was always working and always worrying about where the next dollar was coming from.

When I went back to work, I would set him up in the car with everything he needed so he could napping while I worked. There was one hot summer day I still haven't forgiven myself for, when he got far too warm out there when we should have been inside in the cool. Later, I put him in daycare instead, which let me work faster and earn more, but I barely saw him. An hour or two in the morning, a couple in the evening if he wasn't too tired. I had a child I adored and hardly any time to actually be with him. And then the rent went up, and the worry started all over again.

So, when I say I didn't want another side hustle, I don't mean I was afraid of hard work. I mean, I had already paid that price once, and I knew it wasn't a price I could keep paying without losing the very thing I was working for.

Why the usual advice never fit

You have probably heard all the same suggestions I had. Just start selling online. Just do surveys. Just become a virtual assistant. Just post on TikTok. Just start a business. People say "just" as though any of it is simple.

But when you are a single mum, nothing is "just." There is daycare and rent and the food shop and dinner that won't cook itself and appointments and tired evenings and a child who still needs you when you feel you have nothing left to give. "Post every day" assumes I have time. "Build a personal brand" assumes I know how. "Buy this course" assumes I have the money spare that week. Most online income advice sounds easy right up until you try to fit it into a life that is already full.

I wasn't looking for another idea to figure out alone at midnight. I was looking for something with an actual system behind it, tools already built, a path to follow, and real people who could show me the way, instead of leaving me to guess.

The message I nearly scrolled past

Around this time I kept seeing posts from a woman I'd first met back in 2021. We had gone through fertility treatment through the same clinic, and it turned out we attended the same church, just different campuses. She had actually introduced me to this same business once before, back in 2022. But the season I was in then was completely different. I was busy running my own service-based business, and if I'm honest, I was also busy running from my past and trying to be a follower of Jesus at the same time. Money wasn't my focus, so I never gave it a proper look. I let it go.

Fast forward four years: while I searched for ways to make income without sacrificing my time and energy, one of her posts I had been ignoring popped up as if I were seeing it for the first time. , Something in me was curious this time. So I reached out and asked her what it was really about. She told me to watch the free webinar first, and I did. But I am an analytical person. I needed the details down to the last dot before I commit to anything. So she pointed me to the next step, and that was when it finally started to make sense.

Giving myself permission to dream

For the first time, I let myself imagine what my life could actually look like. I want to be honest here, because this matters: this is a business, and whatever anyone makes from it depends entirely on their own effort and consistency. There are no guarantees, and I would never pretend otherwise. But when I gave myself permission to picture the possibility, I saw something I hadn't let myself see in a long time.

I pictured being able to put my son into the activities he might love and being there. Being the one who takes him. The one on the sideline. The one who celebrates with him afterwards. And doing it without that constant knot in my stomach about the next dollar, because that part would already be handled. That picture was enough to make me decide that I was going to give this a real chance, and I was going to give it everything I had.

There was a wave of regret in it too, I'll admit. When I was shown the community and saw what people who had started before me had built and the difference it had made in their lives, I felt a pang I hadn't looked back properly in 2022. If I had, I might have been years further along. I might have walked through that pregnancy and those early days without the financial fear that stole so much of the joy from them. I can't go back and change that. But I could decide not to let the same hesitation cost me another few years.

This is for the single mum who wants more, but needs it to fit

If you are a single mum, you probably know the exact feeling I'm describing — wanting more, but feeling boxed in by your circumstances. Wanting extra income, but not another job that pulls you further from home. Wanting to build something, but not knowing where on earth to start. Tired of hearing other people talk about freedom while you're just trying to make it to the end of the month.

I understand that, because it was me. This isn't about pretending life is easy or becoming someone you're not. It's simply about being willing to look at a different option, a way to build from home, with support, and to see for yourself whether it could fit around your real life before you decide anything.

And I won't tell you it's effortless, because it isn't. You still have to show up. You still have to follow the steps. You still have to give it time. But there is a real difference between building something with a system and mentors behind you, and trying to work it all out alone. If you've been stuck for a while, that difference is everything.

If you're curious, just come and see how it works

The business I partner with is Enagic, a high-ticket affiliate model built around a product I genuinely believe in and use in my own home every day, with the training, tools and mentorship that made it possible for someone like me to begin. I'm not asking you to decide anything from a blog post. I'm just inviting you to look.

On my Kangen Water page, I share honestly what it is, how it fits into my home, and how you can watch the free introductory webinar to see real people's experiences and get a genuine sense of what the business is really like. No pressure, no guessing, just a proper look so you can decide for yourself. If anything in my story resonated with you, that's the place to start.

See how it works on my Kangen Water page →

*This post reflects my personal experience only. Enagic is a business opportunity, and any income depends entirely on individual effort, consistency and circumstances — results vary from person to person and are not guaranteed. I am an independent Enagic distributor and have an affiliate/partnership relationship with the business described here.*