Between late night feedings, tantrums, and saying “don’t eat that!” for the umpteenth time, I wondered how authors balanced their careers with parenting. So I googled (“is writing and parenting possible?”) and regretted it.
Not only is this rarely talked about, it’s believed to be impossible in some circles 1 .
But it’s absolutely possible 2 !
New life moments create powerful experiences and what is storytelling, poetry, or essays but the exploration of those experiences? Parenting shaped me and my writing in a way that childlessness couldn’t.
If you’re a writer-parent who, like me, needs some encouragement, check out my post on NaNoWriMo’s Tumblr or read it below:
tl;dr: I wrote a post for NaNoWriMo’s blog on whether it’s possible to be both parent and writer. It is.
- I found essays like The Secret to Being Both a Successful Writer and Mother: Have Just One Kid by Lauren Sandler and quotes like Cyril Connolly’s “There’s no more somber enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.” ↩︎
- Writers like Jodie Picoult, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Toni Morrison are a few of the many authors who were/are parents with successful careers, for example. ↩︎
I continued to write when my kids were little, but I admit not nearly as much as I started writing when they moved out! It was important to me, though, to keep it up a small amount because I always felt it waiting there for me.
Yes! If writing was a person they’d be standing in the background tapping their foot while I’m wrangling my little ones. I can’t just do away with it, however, and it turns out I don’t have to. It’s not easy! But it’s doable. If you don’t mind me asking, what helped you keep up with writing when your kiddos were smaller?
I love that analogy or metaphor or whatever it is! Yes, that’s exactly what it’s like! What helped me was just sheer willpower, honestly, although it did help when I could grab onto some social thing. For instance, for a couple of years I was on a Web Del Sol website which had a forum where we shared poems with each other. That helped a lot.