January 28, 2026
I’m a mom of two rambunctious boys who’s managed to run a freelance writing business with young children around — which means I’ve learned firsthand what it’s really like to work from home with kids and build a company at the same time.
If you’re trying to figure out how to balance parenting and running a business, you’re not alone. Here’s what’s actually worked for me when I was working at home with an infant.
Here, how I try to stay sane while working from home and taking care of two small children.
These business-boosting tips for parents working from home with kids around can make for an easier workday.
When you work from home with kids, your schedule often isn’t predictable — so focus matters more than perfection.
Whether you have set childcare hours because your children attend a daycare, school, go to a caregivers’ home, or, if they’re being cared for in your home, you’ll need to learn how to be ridiculously focused when you’re working. One of the best ways to do that is to block time out in your schedule for focused, deep work. For me, that looks like writing in the morning and ensuring calls, marketing, and other business tasks are moved to the afternoon. See some of the most successful freelancers’ morning routines.
Identify the critical tasks of your day before you get to your desk. I went back to work when my firstborn was two months old, just before the pandemic lockdown orders began. I tried to write articles during his naps but much to my disappointment, he wasn’t a regular napper and when I’d put him down, I didn’t know whether I’d have 15 minutes to work, one hour, or two hours.
I called it nap roulette—way less fun than my gambling experiences at a casino. This was my first real lesson in running a business with kids. Yes, flexibility helps, but structure saves your sanity. I had to ensure I was getting some work done during his nap so I’d draw up a daily “to-do” list that was manageable.
The night before each workday, I write down three to five goals I want to accomplish the next workday. Three are the “absolutely must-dos.” That means when I would sprint to my desk after tossing a baby in his crib (okay, gently laying down), I didn’t allow myself to daydream. (Here’s how I ran my business as a freelance mom and learned to work from home with a baby.)
Parents with limited working hours don’t have the luxury to decide what they feel like working on. I found that by having laser-focused writing time, I was able to get way more done in way less time than before I had children.
Set your office up for success.
Creating boundaries is one of the hardest parts of working from home as a parent, especially when your kitchen, kids, pets, partner, and clients all live under the same roof. Have a set “work space” (even if it’s a corner of your living room where your work station is set up).
Make sure you don’t have excuses to get up when you should be working.
Yes, you can have meal breaks and bathroom breaks! But I’ve found that it’s easy to stroll into a kitchen to reheat coffee and then wind up cleaning something, starting laundry, or getting sucked into a home task.
As anyone who’s worked from home with children living in the same space during work hours can attest, it’s sometimes helpful to slink around the house unnoticed when you leave your workspace if you don’t want to get roped into family shenanigans. Then again, a 5-minute hug break, a chance to gush over some artwork, or having lunch with your family during the workday are nice perks, too.
Parent entrepreneurs and solopreneurs wear many hats, and many of the tasks that suck up your time and energy don’t have the biggest ROI. Look at how you spend your day and find ways you can outsource tasks in your business—perhaps it’s hiring a freelance social media manager, maybe you need to find a way to improve automation systems and rely on new technology, or refine and streamline processes to free up time.
Identify the tasks that only you can do and parse out the others to virtual assistants, freelancers, and colleagues who have some bandwidth. I’ve previously used a virtual assistant in a different time zone for some research and social media help who works different hours than I do, and can have projects ready for review when I’m at my desk.
If you have the means to outsource part of your home management tasks, you’ll probably find that this helps create some work-home boundaries and gives you more time with your family when you aren’t working.
This might look like hiring a cleaning service, getting groceries delivered, having premade meals sent to the home or experimenting with meal delivery kits.
Can you hire a business to do yardwork, organize your closets, clean out the garage, walk your dog, drop off packages or take care of other tasks that cry for your attention when the kids are out of the house but distract you during the day?
There are so many resources available; once you start hiring help, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without it.
You might find that using some of the perfect apps for writers helps make balancing parenthood and working from home easier.
After dropping my kids off at school, I try to take 10 minutes for myself when I’m back home. That could mean doing a meditation, enjoying a hot cup of coffee and reading, taking the dog on a walk or even showering. It helps me create space between “mom mode” and “boss mode.”
I find that jumping from work to home life in the same space feels a bit stressful, create a transition. Create an end-of-day routine to give yourself some downtime before family time starts up.
This might look like pausing your inbox, shutting down your laptop, and going for a brief walk before starting dinner.
Or, use your commute time for non-work-related activities—talking to a friend, reading a book, listening to an audiobook, catching up on podcasts, or listening to a favorite “end of day” playlist.
Find a fun, relaxing way to create some time between your work world and home life.
One of the best parts of running your own business or being part of a small company is often the flexibility. It can seem like “there are no boundaries!” and you can work wherever, whenever you want. But if you’re aren’t careful and intentional about it, it’s all too easy to jump into work email when you’re with your family during the week.
Yes, I’m guilty of checking work emails while at the playground, posting to social media when I’m with my kids during the workweek, and sometimes popping on a movie for them to watch so I can finish a deadline when they’re off from school or home sick. It’s not ideal, and I want to get better at it but, but giving oneself some guardrails to follow can help.
Perhaps it’s something like, “I’ll only check work email once in the morning and once in the afternoon if I’m home with the kids during the day.” Or, “I won’t take work calls during the hours my children are home from school,” or “I’ll make an effort to put my phone in another room when I’m spending time with my family.”
All of these require effort and intention but they can help you be more present (and hopefully relaxed) when you’re with your kids and create clearer separations between work life and home life.
Tags: freelance, freelance writer, freelance writing tips, motivation, productivity, productivity tips, work from home
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