Writing as a parent is hard, especially since my youngest is an incredibly rambunctious almost-two-year-old. He literally tries to climb walls. I think I’ve really perfected it, however, since I’ve been working from home since my daughter (now 10) was as young as my son is. I work as a freelance content marketing specialist to pay the bills – hoping that one day my books will do that instead!

One thing I’ve found useful is “teaching” the kids what I do. My son likes to pretend to write, and that will keep him entertained for twenty minutes or so. I’ll let him get a little screen time (no shame for me, it’s all learning stuff!), and if he gets really antsy, we take a break to go outside for a while.

Since my daughter is ten, she’s also a huge help. She often watches her little brother for me, or at least keeps him entertained for half an hour here or there while I’m in the same room. It helps that he LOVES his “tissy” more than any other person in the world, so he behaves a lot better when she plays with him!

Mostly, I feel like it’s a lot of trial and error. Sometimes the day goes well and get a lot of writing done during the day while my daughter is in school and my son just plays. I work through naptime, and sometimes I have to wake up early or stay up late to get my quota met. I aim for between 2,000 and 10,000 words a day – although I did write 20,000 one day in an insane writing frenzy! That’s definitely not the usual, but I wish it was!