For parents, writing can be one of the best ways to earn some side hustle income from home, especially if you want to work flexible hours and do it without having to find full-time childcare. (You can even write about parenting!) Writing can also be a great way to supplement full-time income or you can even turn it into a fulfilling creative career.
However, coming from my own experience as an at-home writer and parent, finding time to write while you are also watching kids can be extremely tough and the days can be less productive than you hoped they would be.
So how can you make it work?
If you wanted to stay home with the kids and avoid a full-time childcare arrangement, you might try to be a stay-at-home parent during the day and just plan on getting all of your writing and work done after they go to bed for the night.
After all, getting anything done during the day can seem like a lost cause. But while this could work on occasion, watching kids all day and then working all night is a recipe for exhaustion and burnout.
The key to writing from home as a parent is you need to plan ahead, establish a sustainable routine, be a little creative, and be ready to accept a little help.
Try a few of our tips to carve out more writing time and then use it more effectively.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Delegate like a boss
- Use a little creativity
- Know yourself
- Accept childcare help
- Schedule non-work time
- Give yourself grace
1. Delegate like a boss
As a parent, there is a lot more that goes into a household with children beyond the act of raising them. There are meals to cook, an endless flow of laundry, always something that needs cleaning, grass to mow, and pets to walk. The days can quickly become overwhelming, and writing can become the last priority on the list.
Choose a couple of the tasks that are the least fulfilling and either delegate them to a (hopefully willing) spouse or else hire them out to a paid service.
A few ideas of household tasks you could delegate include:
- Hiring a neighbor to mow during the summer
- Utilize a local service to plow the driveway during the winter
- Using a grocery delivery service like Instacart
- Ordering online meal kits like Hello Fresh
- Hiring house cleaning help like Merry Maids (NextDoor is also a great resource here!)
- Hiring a local dog-lover to take out your beloved pup on a walk
Find something you can take off your plate to leave more time for writing, parenting, and the rest of your priorities. Whatever the task you choose, keep in mind that your time is valuable.
Make sure the time you have at home is spent intentionally — on parenting, on tasks you need to do yourself, and on writing that is both fulfilling for you and earning income for your family.
2. Use a little creativity to carve out your writing time
If you don’t already have a quiet learning time established for your kids, consider adding that to your daily routine, both as a way to get a little writing in while they are occupied but also as a special time for the kids to have for their own.
Having age-appropriate independent children’s activities is a great tool for fostering creativity and independence. Choose an activity or materials that are reserved just for this quiet writing time and then choose a time in the day that is reserved for this special activity, even if it is just 10 or 15 minutes to start.
Take a look at your child’s interests and put together special activities that you can pull out during your daily quiet writing time. For older children it might be a chapter book, their own writing prompt or a self-led craft. For younger kids it might be a special toy or a sensory bin with materials that are age-appropriate, open-ended and engaging. For younger kids especially, keep the time the same but rotate the activity throughout the week to keep things fresh but also consistent.
3. Know yourself as a writer
Know what you need to be a productive and happy writer.
What are all the steps that go into your work as a writer? Do you need to research SEO terms? Do you need to brainstorm topics? Do you need to make outlines before you can write efficiently? And how much time do you need for writing research in addition to actual writing time?
Spend a little time documenting all of your steps so you can make an effective plan to get it all done for every deadline. In addition to planning the steps, know what type of work environment and what level of focus you need to get each step done.
Then you can take a realistic look at your day, at the times you are most and least productive and then plan your tasks accordingly.
Maybe brainstorming topics can be done at the table while the kids are playing with legos in the morning. Brainstorming might be a good activity for when you are waiting in the car for a grocery pick-up.
I find that I can get some of my best writing done when I have spent bits of time on these other pre-writing pieces throughout the day and then I can sit and write out a first draft in the quiet of naptime.
4. Accept childcare help
Depending on the amount of writing you are responsible for, some amount of childcare may be your best option. Depending on the ages of your kids, you may have a few different options available to you that give you at least a few hours a week to write without committing to a full-time childcare center.
Do you have any local “mom’s day out” programs that your kids can attend for a few hours a week? Or maybe you have a trusted teenage neighbor that is willing to play with the kids for a couple hours for an afternoon or two a week while you are writing from home? Do you know any other work-from-home freelancing parents that you can share a nanny with for a day or two a week?
As more parents are working in more unconventional ways, the options for childcare have become more creative and unconventional too. Find someone trusted that can give you that gift of extra time during the week.
5. Make sure to schedule parent time that doesn’t include writing
As a parent, make sure you are scheduling specific time with your kids that doesn’t include writing, thinking about writing, or planning out writing. Just as you schedule when you will be able to write, also schedule when you are not allowed to write.
One of the pitfalls that work-from-home parents can encounter is the feeling that they need to be working all the time. Find time, spaces, or outings where you can be with your kids and without work. Be an example of someone who works hard, pursues their passions, provides financially, but also makes it a priority to have a healthy work/life balance.
Make it a practice to unplug, both to increase your productivity when you do get back at it, and also as a way to force yourself to have uninterrupted time with your kids.
You will never regret carving out intentional time with your kids, regardless of the deadlines you know you still have.
6. Finally, give yourself a little extra grace
Being a parent who is trying to do it all while being a successful writer is no easy task. There will be days that just don’t go according to plan. No matter how well you planned your workload, prepared activities for the kids, delegated extra tasks, and generally just thought it was all figured out, both children and parents are not programmable robots.
Give yourself grace, continue on, and try again.