Shipping slow as an indie parent
Being an indie parent means we could never ship as fast as we expect ourselves to. This gets especially hard when you see other indies shipping their MVP in a weekend.
Let’s be honest: Assuming all things—skills, opportunity, idea, market—being equal, there’s just no way for an indie parent to catch up.
And it’s frustrating sometimes... Sorry strike "sometimes" – I meant oftentimes! 😅
Because to compare is human. I want to acknowledge that inevitable aspect of being a social creature, not just on Twitter but in real life, even while I understand that comparison is the thief of joy. I don’t want to make excuses for myself, but I also don’t want to be unkind to myself either for being imperfect.
Sometimes I wish I can hear more from indie parents struggling to ship, yet shipping anyway.
Maybe it took them 10x longer.
Maybe they had to sacrifice their sanity and sleep more than they would like.
Maybe they never thought they could make it to the finish line.
But they did it, and that to me is more inspiring than hearing from the outliers who can go "monk mode" for months.
As it is, being a parent is one of the hardest jobs in the world already. We don’t need to make ourselves feel worse for not being able to live up to our own expectations of ourselves.
I sooo want to normalise shipping slow to myself, even while I want to ship fast. Let’s affirm, but not make it an excuse.
Here's to all the indie parents out there – staying up after all the chores are done, kids asleep, shipping in drips, almost giving up so many times... 🍻
This really resonates—especially the honesty about how “shipping slow” isn’t a mindset issue but a reality constraint when you’re balancing parenting and building. The comparison with indie devs shipping in a weekend can feel brutal when your available time is fragmented.
I like the framing of not turning it into an excuse, but also not using it as a reason for self-pressure. That balance is hard but important, especially in indie building communities like Indie Hackers where shipping speed often gets over-glorified.
Honestly, the “shipping in drips but still shipping” mindset is probably what keeps most long-term builders going.
Prize pool just opened at $0. Your odds are the best right now. If you're working on something new, this could help 👀
$19 entry → idea competition
🏆 Tokyo trip
💰 $500 guaranteed
Round open 👉 tokyolore.com
Due to recent evolutions in the field I have to ask: Have AI actually help you there?
Because when you have the time, you might want to get more pro at it, and actually spend your time polishing it, but when you don't have it, you have to focus.
Any real improvement here?
Keep doing Jason, I have deep respect for indie parent like you
Hey Jason, I know this is a late reply, but I have only recently jumped onto Indie Hackers. I really appreciate your writing this. As someone who works a job 3 days a week, parents homeschooling children, runs a sidebusiness and is trying to create stuff and build a business online I am often envious of the "monk mode" people. But I remind myself that I do it this way because that is the family life I chose. Great to hear there are others successfully doing it too. Pete (Australia)
hi jason -- thanks for sharing. are you full-time on your indie projects or are you running a FT day job + indie projects + full-time parent?
I do consulting as a main job (self employed) and work on my indie projects in between consulting periods. I work from home so kinda half/fulltime parent (i dunno)?