I'm a SAHM. The only one in my tech class, and one of two in my local SK in North Carolina. I would often get applause during introductions for being a SAHM passionate enough to attend class, checks, and monthly meetings.
I'd do SK checks, here in WA I work with Car Safe Kids and Safe Kids South King County, and I do private checks. I find that if you join a mom's group and tell someone you do checks then one person will step forward after a bit and ask you to check their seat. Then they tell others, who tell others, who then ask if you can check theirs, etc. In NC where I'd been doing checks on my local mommies list for a couple of years (someone here asked me to join to answer carseat questions and I ended up agreeing to private checks) I'd probably checked 150-200 seats for that group. Especially as I'd do presentations for groups and knock out a bunch of seats at once. Here it's been a bit slower since I just moved, and now I need to stop because my own belly is in the way (another week and if I showed up to have me check my seat I wouldn't require that I do it because I'm too pregnant. Make sense? LOL). I'll get back into it as soon as I can figure out what to do with the baby while I do checks.
I actually have gotten paid for doing checks here, but mostly it's volunteer. I've had people tip me, I've had people hand me cash on behalf of their group, I've had people ask if they can donate to an organization as a thank you for my services (I tell them to go to safekids.org). But most of the time I get a very heartfelt thank you and I get references and have people come back to me when they get new seats, and that says a lot. I've had one or two people email me that they've been in collisions and I made a difference. Or that they convinced their families to turn their kids back rear facing or keep them harnessed. And the best is when I see carseat questions on a local board and I don't need to even step in and say anything. Everyone else is giving out great advice that they've learned from me over the years. It makes me smile.
Wendy