Need Someone to Clean, Cook and Shop? Just Call for ‘Rent-a-Mom’

Business is booming for Pearl Conlon, the one person staff of Rent-a-Mom. For $5 an hour she’ll clean, shop, cook and even do windows.

“I just don’t crawl out on second-story ledges to do them,” said Conlon, 52.

The business, only a few weeks old, already has 10 clients.

Conlon, the mother of two children and four stepchildren, retired from her job as a receptionist 10 years ago.

“I became a homemaker, which I thought I’d really enjoy,” she said. “I started redecorating the house, but you can only do that for so long. And I thought I’d really enjoy window-shopping and stuff, but I got bored with that, too.”

Six of her clients are college students at California State University, Hayward, who answered the ad she placed in the school paper.