Lessons Learned Taking Parental Leave as a Solo Entrepreneur | Hacker News Reader

Lessons Learned Taking Parental Leave as a Solo Entrepreneur

softwarebyrob.com

39 pointsrwalling8 comments

I ended up taking three months off (after thinking it might only need a couple of weeks!) and even then it was hard work getting a good schedule back due to everything that needed doing. Having a baby is hard work, especially when you take on an equal share of the work (or more in the first six weeks for me - the wife had to have a C section and all housework/transport/carrying baby about was my pleasure).

As a work-at-home type, it was only after about four months that things clicked into place. I work till about 7am dealing with the baby's feeds/changes overnight (only one of these now at 9 months, but it used to be 2 - 3 times) then sleep till early afternoon.

Uh oh, we're at week two now, in what sounds like a very similar situation. I was hoping I could do a decent amount of work by 4-6 weeks. 12+ weeks of feeling crazy/no work is going to be tough. Well... fingers crossed I guess.

It's pretty fun though. You get a lot more time when you're forced to just think. Which means when you do get a spare moment to work, you're pretty efficient because you've already worked everything out in your head...

That was my experience anyway :)

Ah, but the reason three months passes is because it goes by so quickly. It's weird. When you're dealing with a screaming, projectile crapping baby at 3 weeks old, it feels like time is going by at a snail's pace. When you look back in a few months' time, it'll seem like yesterday.

Anyway, if you're able to "separate" from most of the responsibilities, things will be a lot easier. I'm a bit of a sucker for not being seen to be doing my equal share so I kept getting sucked in to menial work, but if you can work away from the home or in a dedicated place and separate your work life from home life, it'd probably be a lot easier than it was for me.

It does get better. I went through the same thing about two years ago, and I'm about to do it again this coming January, so I guess I didn't learn my lesson.

It's totally worth it, though. :)

New parentage and development are a rough combination. I'm on #3 and while the routine is more familiar, the workload increases almost exponentially with each new one, especially when they're spaced close (<18 months apart) together. It will improve, but the OP's ruthless time management tips will serve him and any new parent well.

And I thought my day job got in the way...

Congratulations!

That's all.

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