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38 Comments

Indie Parents, come and say hello?

I'd love to connect and talk parenting + indie hacking with others here.

Come say hello and (if you are comfortable) share something about your family + indie hacking status.

  1. 5

    Hi! I'm a solo full time dad to 3 girls, (8, 5, and 3). I work full time, and have launched 2 small projects in the last 6 months - but both were not intended to generate profit ( todonow.app and habitprint.com). Habitprint launched at #3 on product hunt, which was cool. I am working on early stages of a couple ideas - one is in progress, and another is still in the planning stage. Both of them are intended to generate profits.

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      Additional respect. That's incredibly difficult!

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      🙏Respect to the solo parenting 3 girls. 🙏

  2. 4

    Hi Rosie, I'm dad to a wonderful 13-month-old daughter so I'm relatively new to the parenting game. It's mostly been a joy so far but I regret that I only discovered IH a few weeks ago as my free time for making has reduced to a couple of hours in the evening. Thankfully my partner is very understanding! Also no-code tools make things faster so I try not to delay or be a perfectionist and just get things done as quickly as possible. Having such limited time actually works as quite a good motivator.

    How about you?

    1. 8

      Mother to 👦🏻👦🏼👦🏼👧🏻👶🏻 - aged 2 - 16 😬
      Home educator (unschooler) to them all, though the two youngest go to nursery.
      Indie Hacking for quite a few years now, officially since 2011. And tbh, it's the only way we could unschool our kids, I need to be able to work on my own terms.

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        Ok wow! So much respect! I don't know how you do it. When do you find time for Indie Hacking?

        1. 2

          Ability to open my laptop and shut the world out for focused 1-3 hours slots of time, whilst my kids are doing stuff (classes, playing with friends, etc). Also, my 2 youngest are currently at nursery, the older 3 are pretty easy to cater for.

          But mostly lots of juggling, staying up too late and husband is equal partner in all the kids + home stuff.

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            This gives me hope! Thank you. You must be so organised and motivated.

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              Not sure about organised, motivated - yes.

    2. 2

      Congrats on your new journey in life. I remember when my daughter was born, 6 years ago I was in a difficult place financially and was depressed about how I would be able to take care of my family. Now things are much healthier and I'm grateful for these communities and IHers like me.

      1. 1

        Thank you. It's certainly a stressful time with a new weight of responsibility. I'm glad you're doing better now!

  3. 3

    Parent to 3 kids, I work from home for both my day job (freelancing) and my project (PixxiBook). Nothing astounding there but I truly value the flexibility of the arrangement and the time it gives.

    The best bit: next month, I have my eldest with me on "work placement" - ha ha ha. I guess we'll start a new business together.

  4. 3

    Hey there :)

    I'm a Dad of 3 boys aged 10, 7 and 5. For me, after having kids I had to get really good at my time management. My kids are still young enough that they go to bed at 7:30pm most nights so I wait until then to knuckle down and get some work done.

    One of the hacks that I do is have a clear plan / to-do list before I sit down each night. This way I can use my limited time in front of the computer most effectively.

    It's also a tricky balance between working and sleeping. I'm a bit of an insomniac at the best of times and I have a bad habit of sitting up until midnight. If I push myself too much I get into a bad cycle and find myself too tired by the time the afternoon roles around (but then I can't sleep so it makes things worse). I've gotten better at managing this but it's still something I struggle with sometimes.

    That said, I still love what I do and I wouldn't have it any other way. As the boys get older I'd love to get them involved and make more things together.

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      It's a rare thing for me to get to bed before midnight, I keep meaning to change that, but it's not happened yet. I have no shame having a day time nap sometimes to help me catch up, especially if the kids have been difficult in the night.

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      Having a clear to-do list is a good idea... I need that!

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        A lot of the time my to-do list is only 1 or 2 things. I usually have a really rough idea of the big picture but each day I focus on just thinking about how to solve the next problem.

  5. 2

    Hi, I m a mum of three girls (13, near 11, near 2) from London. I work as UX designer, sometimes as developer. I work as freelancer and used to take a month's break between contracts. Now I am working on my project which is related to children physiotherapy. My eldest broke her arm when 11 and then we as parents experienced its trauma and after effects, so my project idea born. Now home schooling elder girls, little one is just intruder to everything and she is also out stress releaser. First time ever we played badminton together(with dad too) as family by the blessings of covid-19.

    1. 1

      2 year olds are so annoying, I have one of them, haha. She gets into everything, but is so sweet too :D

      We've been homeschooling for years though, so not a a huge shock, but our 2 year old normally goes to nursery to give us a break and help manage work + education/family life.

  6. 2

    Hello Rosie (hats off to you and your setup!)

    I'm a dad, 2 boys 5 & 10 .... I've got my 10 year old into learning html and have started playing Bits & Bytes boardgame with them both, along with kids monopoly which is starting to get too too competitive among siblings!! :( - during all the lockdown

    Personally i work full-time in the Microsoft space and my current side project is a website resource to help people with their lower back, i know exciting right! Riding the roller coaster of it and have been working on it since 2014 trying to figure out my direction, time permitting ...

    www.weakbackbuilder.com

    Any tips on any of the above is welcome! :)

  7. 2

    Hey there !
    I’m a french freelance developer. I’ve been working remotely from my home office for the last 5 years, and I’m now father of a brand new 3-weeks-old baby.
    Right now I took a few weeks off to welcome our boy home, but I’m getting back to work pretty soon.
    I’m curious to know how you manage to work on your projects and still spend as much time as possible with your kids.

  8. 2

    Dad to 3 kids - 8 year old girl, 5 year old boy and 3 year old boy. Been married for 10 years this October. We have started 3 companies, some more successful than others, and started a podcast. I say we because my wife and I make these decisions together, since she stays at home with the kiddos.

    I've worked from home, I've worked in the office, I've done a hybrid - and the flexibility is definitely a good thing for startup families.

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      I had 3 boys, then 2 girls. The girls have definitely been a different (and lovely) experience.

  9. 2

    Father to 2 boys (12 & 9) & 1 daughter (8).
    My day job is remote, and my wife home-schools our children - so we're together ALL the time :)
    Indie hacking is limited to time when they're sleeping - typically between the hours of 10pm - 1am on week nights. Weekends are for catching up on sleep, chores and family time.
    It's much slower going this way - but totally worth not giving up time on things more precious than my own ambitions.

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      I'm with you, on the home schooling and the 'all the time' thing. Wonderful way to live that most won't understand!

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        yeah - I really think it's the future for healthy families - fully distributed work & education. No commutes / locations nece. close to schools / workplaces. Take holidays in the off-season. Work / learn when we have the energy to do so, in the way that we want, and an environment of our own design. But most importantly, we've built up really good relationships with our kids because we spend so much time together - priceless!

  10. 2

    🙋‍♂️Indie parent here! I have a 2.5 year old and a 6 week old. I was doing good with my indie hacking with the one child, but when my second arrived that all changed. I have no time with the second one being so little. I want to get back to my project, but it is to much right now.

    Anyone else with a supper little one struggling with this? I am hoping to be able to back to it by the end of the year.

    1. 2

      Similar situation here, we have a 2,5 yo boy and the 2nd one just joined our family 6 weeks ago.

      Had a hard time to accept the forced work-downtime especially the usual working Slots and evenings dont work out anymore. So currently I am doing a lot of thinking / strategic planning or micro tasks on a standing desk while carrying around the smallest one.

      Since me and my wife both are at home currently and both have our own and common projects its good to swap kids time and block at least some working time for each other every other day.

      I also hope we manage do get more routine by the end of this year. Before the 2nd one we had quite a good weekly schedule where both of us had their dedicated work slots. This was heavily scheduled but worked out well.

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      Yep. Have two around the same age gap. The second definitely knocked the wind out of us, and I completely stopped working on side projects for a good year. Once we found our groove, I was able to start waking up early again (by choice, hah) to work on side projects.

      What helped me? I embraced that this relatively short period of time would include no indie hacking. It's already a stressful time, so why pile on more stress and worry? That freed me to really enjoy the moment.

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        Thank you for the advise! I have left it alone and tried to now to focus on it, but every few days, the IH urge comes back to me! I travel for work sometimes, so I do find pockets of time on nights when I am away. But when I am hope, I focus on the family.

    3. 1

      Hey! The end of the year is here! Did you manage to get back to indie hacking?
      I just had my first baby and I wonder how much time it will take to adjust and find quality work time for side projects.
      Any tips are welcome ! =D.

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        I have gotten back into it slightly. Things are still very crazy for me, especially over the holidays. My situation is a little different though, this is my second child. With the first, I was back at it by 6 months old. It is definitely easier to get back at it with just one kiddo.

  11. 2

    Hi. I’m a father of a single boy, Julián. He’s 2.41 years old and currently spending the day with his grandparents, so I can get work done. I recently finished my first indie project, and already started a new one. Both Mac apps.

    I quit my job 2 months ago to pursue my indie career, which I’m funding with my own savings. I can’t say I’m doing great yet, but I’ll give it time and hard work until success :)

    I do get to spend more time with my family now, that’s a big plus I didn’t have before. Some days my boy stays with me while my wife goes to work. He can be very demanding so my work is being constantly interrupted by him. It’s both a pro and a con. But I wouldn’t want to go back to a 9-17 job again.

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      Absolutely, I am trying to achieve the goal that works at home. And I also have a 3-years-old son. But I am thinking I will work at another space to avoid him to bother me. For example, I am in the cafe near my home now.

  12. 1

    Hello, I just made this profile after finding this community. Pumped to connect with fellow hacker parents. I am a stay at home dad to a 3 year old and 6 month old. My wife works full time and for about 2 years I've been teaching myself web development and building projects with the hope of one day making some money with these skills.

  13. 1

    I work in the corporate world + have a side hustle - a coliving/retreat venue for artists/makers.
    Have 2 kids - 12 and 8.
    They are highly involved in the side hustle, not only in helping renew the place but also involved in the craft and maker ideas I select and organize. They understand basic business, I explain everything we are doing and how we could improve ideas. I have lots of feedback from them to be honest.
    Side hustle consumes a lot of time as we were opening now (when corona hit :( ) so there is no way to not involve them.

  14. 1

    I'm a team management & leadership coach to solo founders. Have 2 kids 3yo and 7mo old.

    My biggest hack is gyms. Take laptop with you and go to the gym, put kids at the childcare and you have 2 hours of uninterrupted work

    When founders with no kids say that they do too many things and are overworked I think to myself Wait till you have kids ;)

  15. 1

    Hi everyone! I'm Rachel. I work full-time at my day job as a graphic designer. My husband runs his own etsy store (https://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageMapsCo) from home. We have 2 boys, 5 and 2. I started my company airapycare.com on the side-- I work during lunch hour, after kids are asleep, weekends and some evenings I go to networking or pitch events. Video calls all day on my "work from home" day. It's getting to be really stressful.

    I started meditation 10 minutes a day and my stress level went down a LOT! (I highly recommend the Waking Up app).

    My dream is for Airapy to get enough revenue or funding that I can work on it full time and spend afternoons afterschool with my kids. My 5 year old is having a hard time adjusting to kindergarten, and I'm open to the idea of homeschooling if things don't calm down... or if they get worse. But I'm scared that we'll all have cabin fever from being all together at home ALL DAY!!! We live in the city so we can go pretty much anywhere by bus or subway but going out usually means spending $$ on food, tickets, etc.. Anyway just random worries that don't affect me yet.

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      The homeschooling can take a lot of adjustment. We make it work as my husband takes on equal responsibility, we swap (dump kids on one another!), agree schedules as best as we can...bearing in mind it is constantly changing. Finding a (small) group of people you get along with homeschooling is also key, but can also be a slow process of finding people who you or your kids connect with. Mostly we go to home schooling meets/groups and informal park/social meetups. I mostly find going into town/cities to things/shows/etc too stressful, time consuming, costly and over rated. It's hard trying to please kids in various different ages brackets!

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