Question for those of you who have kids

[The_G]

When is your music time? For me it's late at night (once I'm the only one left awake), mornings on the weekends and lunch hour at work.

[Aurongroove]

I'm Gay.

That's when.

[terryfalafel]

Evenings. And very occasionally a weekend day when the family is out without me.

I had a grand plan to start getting up at 5am to get an hour or so of music time in while I'm fresh and not worn out from a day of work. The early starts haven't quite materialised yet though haha.

[Pelecaras]

I'm ugly as fuck.

That's when.

[Squill]

I don't know how you guys with kids do it. Already have trouble trying to make music with a full time job and trying to go to the gym everyday.

[Críoch]

Move over Attila The Hun.. I've decided given up making music to concentrate on making kids. I'm going to develop a live show & bring it out on the road.

[jordanneke]

Mate, I have a 6yr old, a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old, all boys.

And also a wife that I 'd like to keep as a wife, so sitting with headphones on all evening isn't really happening.

If my wife has to sit and work in the evenings, then I grab an hour, but luckily for me, I'm a teacher so I get quite a lot of time off, so mostly in the Winter when the weather is shit, I'll sit for 3 hours or so a day. My kids have different half-terms to me, so I get chunks of time.

But realistically, music plays second fiddle ( ) to my bike. As long as I have some time off, exercise is more important, so I'll cycle preferably with my alone time.

[Mslwte]

A great method I have developed Is the ability to completely ignore them. It's almost like meditation, I've even forgotten that I had them altogether. Even my wife!

The result is months and months of making music. Just close the door and get in the zone.

[jordanneke]

How long before Hades comes on and suggests some sort of Fritzel dungeon?

[The_G]

I only have the one, but another is on the way.

Basically I grab as much time as I can, after making sure I spend QT with wife and kid (neglecting that doesn't make for a happy marriage/coupling or fatherhood, to say nothing of how it affects the significant other and child/children) and doing the stuff that needs doing around the house, for work, etc.

One thing that's been fun is my daughter has quite taken to sound design on the Ju-06, and also to fitting loops together on Garage Band. A start down a perilous road

[Kromasome]

3 kids here - all under 6 (youngest is 19 months and still hasn't slept through the night yet).

I get up for work at about 4.45 so morning is out for me. I don't even bother when I get home from work. So it's normally after they are all in bed (normally get to fire up the laptop at about 8-ish depending on whether or not the wife needs it first).

Certainly not the greatest time to do it, but feel like it's my only option. Interestingly I feel like the energy in my tracks is directly proportional to how much energy I have at the time I made them - hence most of them have little energy at the moment. This is also why I have turned to just purely doing sound design in the last couple of weeks - just building up a sound bank of unique sounds for when I feel like I'm able to tackle full tracks again.

I normally get excited about making music during the day while being bored at work (often while listening to really good mixes). But by the time I've done a days work (almost entirely on a computer all day) and then spent a few hours with the family and fighting the kids to get them through dinner, showers and in bed, I'm usually trembling in the foetal position in a corner - so the initial excitement during the day has well and truly gone!

Doesn't stop me trying though - I just have to remind myself that progress and output at the moment might be slower than I'd prefer.

[asm]

2 kids (3&6). I don't make music, I read forums about making music instead

[WOLF!]

This evening it's music time because thursday evening is scheduled as studio time; my wife knows that and she respects it because she understands that free time with 2 kids is kinda rare. Also often in the weekend (Friday or Saturday) I have on overnight studio session.
When there's some more free time in the week I do more but that's not as simple to plan in advance.
It would be ideal to be able to go into the studio when I have the creative juices flowing but that's not always the case so planning the music time is not always key in order to create great tracks but it's still better then doing nothing music related.

For me it also depends on the season because I (and also the kids) like to be outside the house (and in our garden).
It think it's important to stimulate the kids to go outside in these digital times but that's something for another topic... .

[Críoch]

Yeah.. agree with that re: outside & TV/Computers. Very hard to avoid being a hypocrite when you are doing an Oscar winning impression of an angry hermit.

[Leskey]

I have a son 7 mths and barely have time every 2 weeks to do anything but work eat sleep. I work as a night manager at a hotel so I work 7 days in a row then 7 days off continuously.

But my free weeks I get plenty of time for my family although there's not a whole lot of dedicated time for music. Maybe 1 full day every free week and some hours here some there...

[Will Frances]

I'm usually trembling in the foetal position in a corner !

Doesn't stop me trying though - I just have to remind myself that progress and output at the moment might be slower than I'd prefer.

Ha ha

Good work following something you enjoy still, cannot be easy 3 kids and a graveyard shift routine! Most would throw in the towel I believe

[Planar]

I have a 4 year old and an 18 months old, so time is extremely limited. Thankfully, now my daughter is a little older she's more manageable, so I can dedicate some more time to myself on evenings. Sometimes I'm just too knackered and can't be arsed (like tonight) so my output tends to be very slow.

[Kromasome]

I have a 4 year old and an 18 months old, so time is extremely limited. Thankfully, now my daughter is a little older she's more manageable, so I can dedicate some more time to myself on evenings. Sometimes I'm just too knackered and can't be arsed (like tonight) so my output tends to be very slow.

Yeah seems strange to say that you have no energy to push some buttons, but I think it's more the mental fatigue that makes it hard. When you're already mentally buggered it can feel like a bit of a chore sometimes - and no one wants that!

[collide]

My genepool sucks - will never reproduce.

[Kromasome]

My genepool sucks - will never reproduce.

Haha - not a day goes by that I don't question whether bringing my kids onto this planet was a good idea or not. More for their sake than mine. Yes, they regularly drive me nuts, but it's pretty scary what the future holds for them. But I guess every parent has been saying that since the dawn of time. The responsibility for preparing them as best as we possibly can is quite overwhelming at times - especially in this day and age of having abundant information (and misinformation) at our finger tips...