Diane Fitzpatrick works from home. To certain friends, neighbors and community groups, that means she's available.

Ms. Fitzpatrick, a Jupiter, Fla., blogger and freelance writer, finds that PTAs, church groups and charities zero in on people like her—those who don't work in an office. "You're expected to pull the weight of all the people who can't," she says. "It's as if I have to explain what I do all day." A veteran stay-at-home mom who has been saddled with looking after the kids of working parents, Ms. Fitzpatrick says that at times she has felt like "the doormat of the neighborhood."

The pool of people who are at home today is larger than ever. But Jeff Zaslow explains why many people at home are now saying they've had enough.

But now, thanks in part to the Internet, a doormat rebellion is under way.

The pool of people who are at home today—because they're unemployed, retired, have telecommuting jobs, or are stay-at-home caregivers—keeps getting larger. About 35 million people work predominantly from home, compared with about 20 million in 2000, according to The Telework Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate hovers above 9%, and more than seven million Americans have been out of work at least six months.

To those who leave their neighborhoods to work, stay-at-homers look like easy marks for all kinds of requests: car pooling, errand-running, church-volunteering, school-committee-leading, and being the go-to neighbor for every UPS delivery. This being August, it's high season for high-powered office workers to go on vacation, leaving the at-homers to take in mail, walk dogs and water plants.

But many of those at home are now saying they've had enough, and the Internet is allowing them to mount "just say no" campaigns or to visit online chat rooms to pour out their resentments. They've been venting or sharing advice on parenting sites such as momlogic.com and babycenter.com and on sites that help those who work at home, such as EntrepreneursSuccessMindset.com and StuffUnemployedPeopleLike.com. A few people are even embracing doormat tasks—and charging for them.

A lot of at-homers who commiserate online are torn between their willingness to help and their resentment. They get calls from their local school to pick up sick kids because other parents have listed them as emergency contacts without asking. They comply with breathlessly urgent requests from working friends—only to be hit with more so-called crisis requests.

Greg Zunkiewicz of Columbus, Ohio, recently quit his job as a corporate pilot to get his M.B.A. As a pilot, he was on duty for a week, then home for a week, and friends knew his schedule. "I have trouble saying no," he says. "People would ask: 'Can you help me move?' 'Can you run to the store?' 'Can you pick me up spaghetti sauce?' Eventually, I felt, 'Why am I doing this for free?' "

Diane Fitzpatrick, a freelance writer and blogger, has learned to put her own errands first. Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

Give and Take: Keeping the Peace With the Neighbors How to deal with favor-seekers Don't say yes right away. Promise to check your calendar. Take time to consider. If you're booked, say: "I don't have time this week. I'm sorry." Resist long explanations. If you work from home, project a professional image that reminds people you're on the job. Don't dress in bunny slippers. Say you work from "a home office," not "at home." Let people know your hours. Have boundaries. If you work from 9 to 5, let an answering machine pick up your home line. Allow people to return favors. Ask them directly for help when you need it. Don't be afraid to just say no. How to ask for a favor Use language that allows someone to say no. Limit requests. If you ask for favors repeatedly, your motives become suspect. Consider whether you truly value a person as a friend or are just using her to run your errands. Ask how you might return the favor sometime.

Some people are finding ways to be paid for their errand-running. Last winter, Elke Augustino of San Francisco saw her job in pharmaceutical sales cut back to three days a week. Friends and neighbors knew she was home two weekdaysand began asking for favors. One neighbor had her pick up her son at preschool. A friend had her buy groceries.

"I couldn't say to them, 'Yes, I can do this for you, but can you throw down a twenty?' " says Ms. Augustino, who is 38. "You think it, but you don't say it."

Then she signed up to work part-time for TaskRabbit.com, a new service that pairs people who have errands to run with those who have the time to do them. Most of the 300 "rabbits" who do the errand-running are unemployed, self-employed or at-home parents. They're paid about $15 per errand. Now in San Francisco and Boston, TaskRabbit hopes to expand to other cities.

Of course, the dynamics between the at-homers and the at-workers are more complex than simply a dance between suckers and those who take advantage of them. Many at home are quite willing to lend a hand, if they feel that they're appreciated and that their friendships are reciprocal. And many of those at work are searching for ways to return favors to the at-homers. Both groups could use guidance on how to interact.

If you're at home, it's important to recognize your own motivations and feelings of fulfillment when you agree to help. Some unemployed people "get sucked into running someone's errands because it's discouraging and demoralizing to look for work," says Michael Haaren, CEO of Staffcentrix, a company that provides work-at-home training. "When you're running errands, you have a purpose. It's like a temporary self-esteem boost. But it's also a trap. You should be looking for work."

Glynnis Whitwer, author of the book Work@Home, oversees a decorative-office-products business from her home. She says many people don't realize how time- and labor-intensive at-home businesses can be. They think at-homers have wide-open schedules. "But I give people a lot of grace," she says. "I help them understand what's involved in working from home." She tries to explain all the ways in which her job is like their traditional office job—"just in a different place."

Diane Fitzpatrick picks up mail before running her errands in Jupiter, Fla. Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

When requests are pouring in, the hardest part isn't necessarily saying no but saying yes for the right reasons, says Priscilla Perkins, 50, of Troy, Mich. In 1994, she left her job as a management consultant to be a stay-at-home mother. That's when the calls started coming, asking her to volunteer. "Your perimeter is very penetrable," she says, "but you are the gatekeeper to your space. You have to define what's important to you."

She currently oversees school-uniform sales at her sons' school, serves on the board of a transitional-housing program, and volunteers as a Boy Scout merit-badge counselor. She advises at-homers to think about what they believe in and enjoy. "People say yes because it's good for their husbands' positions, or their friends want them to do it. But if you won't feel fulfilled, or if it's not a cause you care about, you'll be resentful and you won't do a good job."

At-homers are happier if they don't spend a lot of time measuring what they do against what the at-workers don't do. Joe O'Neill, a 48-year-old stay-at-home dad in Milwaukee, is often asked to help in his community. His kids' Catholic school requests that parents sign a covenant promising a certain amount of volunteer work. Working parents who can't commit to that are allowed to pay a cash "opt-out" fee of $150. While Mr. O'Neill volunteers far beyond the minimum number of hours, he resists viewing that as a burden. Parents who opt out of school activities "are missing a part of life that's enjoyable," he says.

The assignments given to at-homers are not always of their choosing. Ms. Fitzpatrick, who is 51, recalls that when she was living in Springfield, Va., the schools dismissed students early every Monday afternoon to hold teacher workshops. Ms. Fitzpatrick, one of the few stay-at-home moms in her townhouse community, found herself watching a dozen kids and sometimes more—unpaid—on Monday afternoons.

"It put me in a position where I felt obligated to look after all these kids of these working parents," she says. Some parents asked for her help. Others just assumed she'd be on call.

As Ms. Fitzpatrick sees it, tensions between at-homers and at-workers can be eased if people put themselves in each other's shoes. If you work outside the home, she says, "it's obvious what stay-at-home parents can do for you. But what can you do for them in return?" Perhaps on weekends, you can run an errand for a mom stuck at home with a bunch of kids. If an at-home friend has been babysitting your kids and won't accept money, give her a gift card or send over a gourmet meal from a restaurant. As Miss Manners has said, "The proper reward for kindness should be kindness."

Those at home sometimes find it easy to fall into the role of martyr. Resist that, says Ms. Fitzpatrick. If working folks ask if they can return a favor, she advises, "just say yes."

Write to Jeffrey Zaslow at jeffrey.zaslow@wsj.com