where are your kids when you write?

Where do you put your children while you write?

I don't really mean it that way, but, seriously, I'm curious to know how those of you who are parents are able to write at home with children around. Do you write while they are at school? Maybe you are like me and you wake up in the dark, early, predawn hours to write. Maybe you are a night-owl and write after your children are asleep.

Do you have a place in your house that is quiet, or do you have the ability to write with child-noise surrounding you - the ultimate in multi-tasking.

I do all of the above, depending on work I need to do. At times my laptop is on the kitchen counter and I work with family life going on around me. Some assignments require complete concentration for longer than a few minutes at a time, so I either work when everyone else is out of the house, pass the kids over to dad and escape to the basement office, or leave the house and write in my neighborhood library.

Being a WAHM freelance writer means I am home when kids are sick, when school has a teacher-work-day, and during summer vacation. But, it also means I have to make money and balance my family life, figure out how to finish an assignment on days when kids are home with strep throat, and teach my children to respect my time working in my home office.

So, how do you parents do it? Do you find trying to balance it all worth the challenge? What works for you?

Cheers,
Heidi