After having her first child, Lindsay Thomas went back to her full-time, in-office job. When a second kid came in 2024, Thomas says she knew she didn't want to juggle everything again, so she negotiated a part-time, remote version of her communications role in medical research — working anywhere from 2 to 40 hours a month — and started picking up freelance work on the side.

Now, when a kid gets sick and Thomas is up all night — something that would have made her "spiral," when she worked in the office —she knows she'll be at home with flexibility to schedule her day. If Thomas hadn't had the option to freelance, she says, she would have chosen to stay home with the second kid — even though she hadn't envisioned herself as a stay-at-home mom. "There are costs to everything," she says of leaving her full-time gig. "The cost to our family, the cost to the stress levels, to mental health, to going back to doing that and knowing what it was gonna feel like for all of us, especially with an older child involved," she tells me, "that was just a cost we didn't want to absorb."

After making employment gains during the height of the pandemic, women have begun a downhill slide out of the workforce. The number of working mothers of young children between 25 to 44 fell nearly 3% from January and June of last year, hitting its lowest rate in more than three years, according to a Washington Post report. In December, 91,000 women older than 20 dropped out of the workforce. The number of men over 20 employed jumped by 10,000 that month, according to an analysis of federal jobs data from the National Women's Law Center.

AI is also affecting America's gender imbalance in the workforce. A March report from Anthropic found that those who work in roles with a high exposure to AI automation are 16% more likely to be female, putting women more at risk for layoffs.

An uptick in return to office mandates is also disproportionately pushing women to choose whether they'll be able to stay in a job that requires a commute as they also balance after school pickup and domestic responsibilities. And a wave of mass layoffs has upended employment security, workplace loyalty, and the job hunt.

Women make 85% of what men make at work on average and take on twice as much of the domestic labor and caregiving tasks at home. "The real friction is we just haven't built systems that allow people to integrate their work and their lives and and their desires and what do they want their life to look like," says Brea Starmer, CEO of staffing firm Lions and Tigers, which focuses on fractional workers. "For anyone that doesn't fit this very specific narrow look and feel and mold, there is just not a lot of options." In a bleak job market, freelancing is one way working parents can claw back power. And as AI adoption transforms company needs and could shift the number of workers and hours needed to work, employers are starting to see more value in hiring part-time and contract workers.

There's autonomy in ditching the full-time gig; but it often means making a choice between several imperfect paths.

The pandemic showed that flexible, remote work benefitted parents, particularly women. As of 2023, 74% of mothers worked, up from 72% in 2019, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research. But many CEOs who are calling workers back to the office have metaphorically shrugged at the costs to women. A survey from the freelance platform Upwork found that more than half of executives reported losing a disproportionate number of women after implementing RTO policies. Turnover among female employees at these companies is 82%, higher than those that allow for remote work. Nearly a third of women freelancers said RTO was a direct factor in leaving their full-time jobs. Forty-two percent of women who voluntarily left the workforce in 2025 cited caregiving and childcare costs as the main reason their choice, and these women were more likely than those who stayed employed to work at companies that did not offer flexible schedules, according to a survey from Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on women's progress.

But as many employers don't adapt to the needs of families, they're seeing the benefits in hiring freelance workers. Another survey of about 350 business leaders conducted by Upwork last fall found that 77% said AI was increasing the need for them to hire fractional, freelance workers with specialized skills. "What we historically saw was that business leaders were maybe a little more hesitant to embrace these kinds of non-traditional work models," says Gabby Burlacu, senior manager at the Upwork Research Institute. Now, "business leaders are far more open to working with the most skilled talent that they can, especially the most AI-enabled talent, because they're all trying to figure out: How are we going to unlock the value of this technology?"

It's hard to say how many people, and particularly women, are working in freelance roles. Upwork doesn't track gender of the freelancers on its platform, but tells me that in a recent report, 44% of knowledge freelancer workers were women, compared to 41% of people working similar jobs in full-time roles, among those they surveyed. Freelance marketplace Fiverr tells me there's been growth in areas like voiceover, user-generated content creation, and spokesperson or modeling projects specifically seeking female talent. In 2022, 9.8 million people were self-employed, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. Other analyses of the freelance workforce estimate that as many as 75 million people participate in some capacity.

Working freelance has given women more flexible schedules and eased childcare costs, but that can also mean taking on even more unpaid household and caregiving labor.

Jaime Hollander previously commuted three to four hours a day roundtrip into Manhattan. She freelanced on the side, and split the care of two kids with her husband equally. Her mindset shifted after her father died in 2019. "You have those moments of reckoning where you're like, this can't be all that there is,'" she tells me. So, she cut back on work and shortly after quit her job. She focused on freelance marketing and copyrighting. The challenge with being a full-time freelancer, she tells me, is that the shift threw her into becoming "the default parent," on call for all of her kids' needs throughout the day. "If something has to get done between 7 and 7, I will do it," she tells me. "Sometimes, it's really challenging."

Paid parental leave has become more common, but just 40% of companies in the US offered it as of 2023, according to a survey from Society for Human Resources Management. A short period of leave tied only to the birth of a child doesn't answer for the flexibility working parents need as their kids age — there are sick days, potential disability diagnoses, and more hands-on needs at schools. "It's not just about retaining women in those early years," Neha Ruch, author of "The Power Pause: How to Plan a Career Break After Kids — and Come Back Stronger Than Ever." She says "there is recalibration happening" in the workforce, where more women may take fractional work, part-time roles, or freelance gigs. For companies, retaining women workers requires "thinking about parenting through the longitudinal experience of early parenthood," Ruch says, "going all the way up to college admissions and how and the demands that are made within the system on parents' time, and how we can make those work in the ecosystem of the professional space as well."

Many of the working parents I spoke to for this story chose the freelance or part-time route not upon having a kid, but as they grew up and demands of their families changed. When Erin Bartholomew's son was born, her husband stayed home to care for him. A few years later, she took her turn, wanting to have that hands-on time while her son was still young. She re-entered the workforce after a year into a remote job, logging on at 6 a.m. in Oregon to work in marketing for an East Coast company. But Bartholomew was laid off last year in 2024. Instead of searching for a similar role, she started her own marketing consultancy "It's so night and day," Bartholomew tells me. "It's allowed that balance that my husband and I really wanted."

As some women find flexibility in freelancing, others will be left out. Those who work in offices with 9-to-5 in-person mandates, or in education, retail, and healthcare roles, can't always make their own schedule. Parents who are the sole provider of income and health insurance for families often can't make ends meet working part-time. Others are pushed to stay at home with kids because the costs of childcare outpace their salaries. Leaving a full-time job can also disrupt a career trajectory toward leadership, and mean lost contributions to retirement accounts like 401(k)s. If companies don't adapt their schedules and remote work policies or future-proof roles for AI, many women will be forced to change how they think about their careers and priorities. They might not see going part-time or leaving a job as a choice they want to make, but something they have no choice in.

Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.

People love to complain about baby boomers, including that they have a lot of stuff. They're hoarding all the houses, they're keeping all the money, they're materialists who have accumulated an exorbitant amount of possessions. There are a couple of problems with these gripes: For one, no generation is a monolith, and everybody amasses things over the course of their lives, so back off. But more importantly, youths and slightly-beyond-youths, the stuff pileup is actually to your benefit.

The golden age of boomer estate sales is upon us, and while you probably don't want all the wedding china that's about to flood the market, there's a lot of other neat stuff you can pick up. Think knickknacks for Gen Z maximalists, midcentury modern decor, and so much silver that one estate seller says the weighing it all makes her team "feel like drug dealers." Over the next couple of decades, baby boomers' stuff has to go somewhere, and that rehoming process is increasingly taking place at estate sales.

"I call it the tsunami of stuff," says Julie Hall, the director of the American Society of Estate Liquidators. "It's cresting."

There are … a lot of baby boomers. America's over-65 population reached 55.8 million in 2020, and an additional 42.4 million are in the 55-64 age group (which, yes, catches some Gen Xers). This adds up to nearly 100 million people who have amassed a large amount of possessions — stuff they bought, stuff they got from their own parents, stuff their kids stuck them with.

"They kept everything," says Sarah Hersh, one of the owners of Ben Hersh Estate Sales in New Jersey. Boomers were the first American generation to come up in an era of mass production and blatant consumerism, and many of the things they bought were built to last. "When we go into these houses of the boomer generation, they're packed to the rafters with stuff from the mid-century to current."

Many elders would prefer to keep all of this stuff in the family, but their kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews don't want to inherit much, or simply don't have the space. Enter the estate sale — pop-up limited-time museums of a person's life, where everything on the premises is for sale.

"Boomers were an era of collectors. They believed in entertaining, and they believed their possessions had value, so they were proud to amass large collections of things to display to the world," Hersh says. "We don't really live like that anymore, but those things make for excellent inventory for resellers and the new younger generation of consumers who are into that vibe."

Gen Z likes the appeal of sustainability, plus they're into "cottagecore" and "grandmacore" aesthetics. Millennials and Gen X want midcentury modern and utilitarian pieces.

I recognize estate sales can sound a bit morbid at first, but not all offloadings come after a funeral. There are actually four Ds to estate sales: downsizing, divorce, decorating, and, yes, death. That latter one may give you the heebie jeebies, but as the saying goes, you can't take it with you, and there are plenty of people willing to scoop up the stuff you've left behind.

Janelle Stone, a high-end estate liquidator, operates out of what she calls the "mecca of estate sales" — Dallas — and sees her line of work as a goldmine. After decades of minimalism in fashion and design, maximalism is back. She's started buying plate hangers to put dishes on display again and marvels at 20-something shoppers grabbing various tchotchkes. Furs have gone "insane," she says, and the same goes for vintage fashion. Customers will wait in line for two hours for a Herend porcelain starfish they've scoped out online prior to the sale. "You're never going to completely clear a house, but it's pretty amazing," she says. "People know what they want, and they come and buy."

It's a huge moment for sterling, given the increase in the price of silver, which hit an all-time high of over $120 per ounce at the start of the year. (It's since come back down but is still in the $85 range.) Stone tells me it's affected how they price it — they can't be as aggressive, because nobody can afford to pay $16,000 for an eight-piece silverware set, and the smelters are so inundated they might not even take it. Hence the drug dealer analogy: "We have to weigh it out. I mean, we look like drug dealers with our gram scales and baggies everywhere," she says.

Hersh, in New Jersey, concurs on the popularity of sterling silver and vintage clothes, and adds that vintage collectibles, jewelry, toys, and electronics are also a big draw.

Not everything is flying off the estate sale shelves. Hersh says midcentury modern furniture still sells, but "it's not as strong as it was." Few buyers are into china, etched crystal, and glass. The big brown furniture that's long sat in baby boomers' and the silent generation's homes often goes unwanted.

"A general rule of thumb is the bigger and heavier and darker a piece is, the more likely it's going to remain there and not be sold," Hall says. Younger generations tend to prefer smaller, portable pieces. Hersh tells me clear glass isn't a popular seller "no matter what you do."

I recently witnessed this for myself at an estate sale in Long Island, New York. It was a lazy Sunday, so I showed up during the last hour of a five-hour sale. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the kitchen was two sets of china, one of which looked very similar to the set my mother has. Around the corner was a big brown hutch filled with stacks of crystal and clear glassware, and there was more in the basement. My main thought was we should shut down Ikea immediately and never buy new dishes or glasses again.

The internet has changed and accelerated the scale of the estate industry, just as it has every other part of the economy. Everyone can look up what everything costs, so sellers have to do their research and can't simply guesstimate a fair price anymore. Sellers often post what's available online ahead of time, so buyers can pinpoint exactly what they want before they show up in person.

And then there are the resellers — technology has given birth to a plethora of resale platforms, from eBay to Depop to Whatnot, and droves of people eager to turn flipping used stuff into a side hustle or even a full-time gig. Most of the estate sellers and aficionados I spoke to for this story had tales about this development. Hersh tells me resellers are "vicious," and on certain sales, flipped me up the first 50 people in line. "They are like elbowing each other out of spaces to get to stuff," she says.

Hall points out that the resellers are generally a positive for estate sales — after all, the goal is to get rid of everything in the house, and who cares if someone plans to put it on eBay for triple the price. But they can be pushy, asking for deals. "Resellers sometimes want more of a bargain, and a lot of times we cannot give it to them on the first day," she says. "It's not for the faint of heart."

Maddy Brannon, an estate sale influencer based in Washington, DC, says she prefers to hit up estate sales later in the day so she doesn't have to duke it out with the pros. She stumbled into the market when she and her husband were looking to furnish their home, and now she uses her experience to pass along useful tips to the noobs.

"You don't need to be the first person at the estate sale unless you saw something on the listing you absolutely have to have," she says. She's not sure if it's the "Disney World effect" or what, but people worry about long lines and feel like they must be first in at all costs. Plus, later in the day, you're more likely to get a discount.

Brannon's other pieces of advice included going during the week to avoid crowds and making sure you understand the rules of getting in — for some sales, waiting in line isn't enough. Instead, the executor will call you in by name or number. And don't shop off the "hold" table, where shoppers place items they want to buy. "People get really upset about that," she says.

There's genuinely something quite nice to all of this, albeit awkward. We spend our lives accumulating things and, over time, getting attached to them. Getting rid of them can be emotionally fraught, especially if we'd hoped our loved ones would want them or believed they'd hold more value than they do. For many people, it's a hard pill to swallow that their kids don't want their prized tea set, but acknowledging that is also permission to let it go.

There's a peculiar sense of intimacy to estate sales — you walk through someone's home, touch their things, look through their drawers, and get to make up stories about them based on their possessions. The golden age of estate sales isn't just about the "goldmine" of inventory or the "vicious" hustle of the resale market, it's about the way we experience life through tangible items — and how those things can live multiple lives, even ones we're not involved in.

So next time you see an estate sale nearby because your boomer neighbors are finally selling their family home and moving to a condo in Florida, instead of begrudging that it took so long, pop over to see if you can pick up a vintage Le Creuset.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.