What It’s Like Blogging With Two Kids and a Full-Time Job

I want to be honest about something before I get into this post.

When I read other bloggers write about “finding time to create content,” I sometimes get the feeling they’re writing from a place where the biggest obstacle is motivation. Maybe they work from home. Maybe they have flexible hours. Maybe their kids are older and more independent.

My situation is different. And I suspect it’s closer to yours than most blogging advice accounts for.

I have two young kids. I have a full-time job that doesn’t end when I close my laptop. I have a house that constantly needs things done to it, a partner who also works and also needs time and attention, and a body that requires sleep to function.

Into all of that, I’m trying to build a blog.

Here’s what that actually looks like.

The Time Problem Is Real

The most common advice for new bloggers is “just find 30 minutes a day.” I used to find that advice mildly irritating. Now I find it genuinely funny.

30 minutes a day sounds simple until you map out an actual day. Wake up, get kids ready, get yourself ready, commute or start work, work all day, pick up kids or be home when they arrive, dinner, baths, bedtime routine — and by the time the house is quiet, it’s 9pm and you have maybe two hours before you need to sleep to function tomorrow.

Two hours. That’s the window. And those two hours also need to cover any adult conversation with your partner, any household admin that didn’t get done, any personal decompression time, and the blogging.

30 minutes a day is theoretically possible. But it competes with everything else, and some nights it loses.

What My Actual Schedule Looks Like

I’ve stopped pretending I have a perfect content schedule. Instead, I work in bursts.

During the week, I get maybe 30-45 minutes on a good night after the kids are asleep. Sometimes it’s less. Sometimes it’s zero because I’m too tired to think clearly and writing tired produces bad writing.

On weekends, I try to carve out one longer block — maybe 2 hours on a Saturday or Sunday morning while the kids are watching something or my partner takes them out. This is where most of the actual writing gets done.

So realistically, I’m putting in maybe 5-7 hours a week. Some weeks more, some weeks less. That’s the honest number.

What I’ve Had to Give Up

Something has to give. I want to be clear about that, because I think a lot of “side hustle” content glosses over this part.

I watch less TV. This was the easiest trade. I used to watch a show or two in the evenings almost automatically. Now that time goes to the blog more often than not. It’s not a sacrifice I resent — I just made a conscious choice about how I spend those hours.

I’m less available on my phone. I used to scroll social media during downtime. That habit is mostly gone now, replaced with reading about blogging, writing notes for posts, or actually writing.

I say no to some things. Not often, and not to anything important. But if there’s a non-essential evening commitment on a weeknight, I’m more likely to pass than I used to be. Time is the resource, and I’m managing it more deliberately.

What I haven’t given up: time with my kids, time with my partner, sleep, and exercise. Those are non-negotiable. A blog isn’t worth burning out your health or your relationships over.

How the Kids Factor In

Kids are unpredictable. This is not news to anyone who has them.

Some nights the bedtime routine takes 45 minutes and goes smoothly. Other nights someone is sick, or scared, or just inexplicably resistant to sleep, and by the time they’re actually down it’s 10pm and my planned writing session has evaporated.

I’ve learned not to count on specific evenings. Instead, I think in terms of weekly output rather than daily targets. If I miss Tuesday completely, I can make it up on Thursday. If the whole week falls apart because someone brought a stomach bug home from school, that’s just life and the blog waits.

The blog is important to me. But it’s not more important than being present with my family. I try to keep that hierarchy clear, because it makes the inevitable interruptions much easier to absorb.

The Mental Load Problem

Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough: building something on the side isn’t just a time problem. It’s also a mental load problem.

By the end of a full workday, my brain has made thousands of small decisions. It’s processed a lot of information, handled a lot of interactions, solved a lot of problems. And then I’m supposed to come home, be a present parent, and then sit down and do creative, focused work?

Some nights that’s genuinely hard. The tank is empty.

What I’ve found helpful: I keep a running notes document on my phone where I jot down ideas, phrases, observations throughout the day — during a commute, in a quiet moment at lunch, whenever something occurs to me. That way, when I sit down to write in the evening, I’m not starting from zero. The thinking has already happened in the margins of the day.

What Actually Makes This Work

A few things have made this more sustainable than I expected:

Lower expectations, higher consistency. I stopped trying to publish three times a week and started focusing on publishing one solid post whenever I could. One good post beats three rushed posts every time.

Writing in the notes app. Some of my best paragraphs have been written on my phone while waiting somewhere. Small windows add up.

Accepting imperfection. I used to spend too long editing. Now I get to “good enough” and publish. Perfect is the enemy of done, and done is the only thing that matters when you’re building from scratch.

Remembering why I’m doing this. On the nights when motivation is low, I think about the financial pressure that got me started. That usually gets me back to the keyboard.

Is It Worth It?

I’m still early enough in this that I can’t answer that question with data. The blog isn’t making money yet. The traffic numbers are small. By any objective measure, the return on time invested so far is basically zero.

But I don’t think that’s the right way to measure it at this stage.

What I know is that I’m building something. That I’m learning things. That I’m doing something that might matter in a year or two in a way that watching another TV series definitely won’t.

Ask me again in twelve months. By then I’ll have real numbers to show you.

Next up: my first income report — what this blog made in month one, what I tried, and what the numbers actually looked like. Spoiler: don’t get too excited.