Are you kidding? I have one evening a week with my spouse. That is it. Life is hard sometimes.

This is really encouraging to see, wrt to how getting childcare helped you grow over time. Being so risk averse, I need a lot of data points to see that it might, in fact, ACTUALLY work 😉

I ramped up my work without regular childcare by enforcing nap/quiet time, working in the mornings before the kids got up, and working at night after they went to bed and on Saturdays when my husband was home. When I needed to do client meetings I found sitters. At one point I tried taking projects requiring lots of on-site time, but the childcare hassle was immense since I couldn’t predict exactly when or how long I would need a surge in hours.

Last fall (after a chicken-egg comment left on this blog!) I did find a fantastic nanny who we share with another family. She comes over two mornings a week for a total of ten hours and, most fantastically, she has a teaching degree and doesn’t think homeschooling is weird so she handles the kids’ core school work those mornings, giving me a little break. When I can’t fit meetings in to those two mornings, I still get additional sitting as needed, but I don’t have to stress about it and most clients are fine with me giving them the two days a week option. In addition to the ten hours a week when the nanny is here, I still work during afternoon rest times (the big kids do their assigned independent school work and the little kids play quietly or nap) and a little on Saturday morning, for an average total of 15-30 hours a week.

Like other commenters have said, I could work more, and I do re-evaluate that frequently. At this point, homeschooling is working for my children and a source of satisfaction for me, and my income working part time is more than enough to cover bills and some extras.

Paying for childcare hasn’t made me more profitable–I would have gotten the work done anyway–but what it has done is reduce my stress level by leaps and bounds, and that is really, really worth it. It has helped me not to burn out from homeschooling (at which I tend toward overzealousness), saves me time scrambling for last minute sitters, and has given me breathing room in the rest of my life.

@Tana – thanks for all this (and sorry about the delay in posting your comment). Yes, kids can fend for themselves a lot too. Especially 4-year-olds who already know everything! Mine is in quite a state himself these days!

@Rachel- good for you! Congrats on the success of your business. Sorry it took so long for your comment to post. I have to approve comments from new posters and I haven’t been here today.

Yes, I work at night a lot too, but I can’t imagine trying to squeeze everything in there. Especially after a hard day of caring for small kids.

I should add that my children are currently 10, 7 and 4. The oldest has been homeschooled 5 years, the next one started last fall, and the youngest already knows everything, LOL.

With my children, I do the same. My oldest has always been a bookworm and a dreamer. Once the others came along, they all had each other as playmates. They play with the neighbor kids on weekends when they’re around. During the week, my children do not watch television or play on the computer (I cannot stand having to listen to either in the background). I do spend time with them doing school, taking them to the library, swimming lessons, and other activities. But when we are home, if I am not doing school with them, they are entertaining themselves. Our house has a finished basement and we live in town on a large fenced lot, so if they are not outside playing, they are in the basement (where all their toys belong). I can hear what is going on and intervene when necessary, but they are not underfoot. They also wash the dishes, clean the house and fold their own laundry, so I spend less time on those tasks.

This kind of schedule allows me an hour or two in the morning and again in the afternoon to get some work done. I run my errands during the week when the stores are empty so I’m not fighting the crowds on Saturday morning. Instead, Saturday morning (when my husband is home, though he can be as much of an interruption as the children) is when I finish my work for the week and work on any projects that require intense focus. By noon on Saturday, I am done for the week and can enjoy the rest of my weekend.

As for homeschooling, we school year-round with no formal summer break. We do formal school three days a week with extracurricular activities (choir, nature hikes, etc.) on our [fourth] town day. Our curriculum is divided into 36 weeks and we do 3 “weeks” worth of work every month. By spreading things out like that, I can take my breaks when I need them (e.g. when I have a book or magazine deadline).

I could work more but choose not to. I also have a major volunteer role. Between my work and volunteering, I have a network and could assemble a nice resume rather quickly if I needed to go out and find a formal job. It is very nice having a husband with a stable job, but having a backup plan brings peace of mind, too. It also allows me opportunity to do things I’m good at and not just be a nanny herding children all day.

@sarah – the other Laura has some good comments here. One reason the woman in my project started working at 7:30 instead of, say, 6:30 is to have some family time. She also catches up with her husband after 11:30 — she doesn’t really seem to sleep that much! They do one date night a week, so she doesn’t work that night, and one “admin” night where they discuss household details. So 2 out of 7 nights focused on each other isn’t bad at all. And as Laura says, it’s partly about viewing this season as temporary. The goal is to get the business going so you have enough to pay for some during the day childcare. If you’re homeschooling then this is especially important — you have some hours of someone else there looking after the kids, or running interference on some aspects of homeschooling (checking work, for instance). Modern Mrs. Darcy has written about having help on the homeschooling front, which creates calmer homeschooling, and space to work.