Kate Clark Stone is the author of The Last Sunday in May (Lake Union Press, May 1, 2026). Her fiction features strong and vulnerable heroines, a lot of heart, and endless love for flyover states. Kate attended her first Indianapolis 500 at six years old and wrote her first book at eleven. A former attorney, she relishes watching fast cars, swimming and paddling sports, the Oxford comma, and traveling here/there/everywhere. Kate lives in southeastern Tennessee with her husband, children, and two very good dogs. While she has lived in the South for decades, she is and will forever be a Hoosier at heart.

Does this sound familiar? You finally sit down at your favorite writing spot with a comforting beverage in hand and your favorite pens, a motivating playlist, perhaps even a crystal or other ritual. You are ready to write! And then, “Mooooooom!”

If you’re a parent and have managed to spend your writing career without being interrupted by your child(ren), you should buy a Powerball ticket because you are L-U-C-K-Y. And not just interruptions. Kids seems to have special radar that can detect the moment their writer-parent hits a deep state of flow. As a writer who works primarily from my own home, I’ve had to set boundaries with my children around writing time, even when it means I will feel guilty and they will inevitability have too much screen time (ironically, my children are home on spring break, binge watching Carmen Sandiego as I write this). Here are a few hacks and strategies I’ve learned over the years.

  • Don’t give in to mission creep. I write when I’ve set time aside for writing, and mom when I’m supposed to be mom-ing. My kids deserve all of me when I’m engaged in quality time, and my writing does too. No quick emails to the ballet teacher or Sign Up Genius links. WiFi off, writing on. The quality time with my kids feels all the sweeter if I’m not trying to juggle both at the same time.
  • Office hours: My kids know that when my office door is closed, no interruptions are allowed. That includes fighting loud enough to distract me! The only exceptions are for active flames or a bone protruding through skin. At first, I had to be the bad guy, reinforcing this boundary even when I felt guilty or mean (my daughter still cleverly sneaks in to ask for hugs), but now my kids know that office time equals work time. The same way they can’t reach their dad when he’s on a construction site, they can’t interrupt me when I’m writing. A side note: I’m very grateful to have a separate office with a door to close, but if you don’t, maybe a sign on the back of your chair and some noise cancelling headphones can be the signal that you’re at work.
  • I’ve had some of my best ideas when taking my kids shoe shopping. The key is to write it down in the moment! My kids know exactly what’s going on when I hold up my index finger and start recording a voice memo. This is a bit of an exception to avoiding mission creep, but let your kids know what you’re doing, do it quickly, and let it go until it’s time to get back to writing.
  • Talk to your kids about what you’re writing (obviously leave out the spice, if that’s your thing). My kids love to throw out plot ideas or weigh in on decisions. They don’t always make it in the manuscript, but it gives them insight into the writing process, and I they even get to feel a little ownership over the story. I’ll even let them make low stakes decisions, like minor character names.
  • Talk about your writing as work! Don’t belittle your writing or the work out loud. For years, my kids asked me why I was writing when I didn’t have a physical book to show them. It ended up being a great lesson on faith and persistence. When I finally sold my novel, the single best moment was sharing the news with my kids. I cried, they cried, we all cried. They knew the work I’d put in, and their joy enhanced my joy thousandfold.
  • Writers are readers first, so it’s okay for your kids to see you sitting and reading. For a long time, I would read with my kids but not talk about what or why I was reading. But when I started to explain that reading is work for me, and that often I’m reading not just for fun but to study how another writer builds plot, or to explore how a poet uses sound, my kids became less resentful of the time I spend reading (it’s, um, a lot of time).
  • Use your village. I used to feel guilty asking my mom to pick up my kids after school one day a week, but now I live for the day I don’t have to stop writing at 2 p.m. to go sit in carline (even though carline can be solid gold writing time). This year, I’ve been fortunate to hire a babysitter to pick my kids up a different day of the week so that I can have a little extra time at my desk. Ask a friend to come to the library and take your kids to Storytime while you sit in a carrel and work. Let the air fryer make your entire meal so you can write while making dinner. You’re not a bad parent because you occasionally choose writing over your kids.

Admittedly, my kids are approaching middle school, so not all these strategies will work for babies and toddlers, but it is possible to write and parent at every stage. I’ve done it from the time my oldest child was born, and it wasn’t always pretty, but the writing time was always worth it.

For so long I thought writing and parenting were mutually exclusive, that being a mother meant I couldn’t be a working writer and that prioritizing writing time made me a bad mom. Almost a decade of writing and parenting at the same time has taught me that both these activities are devalued by society. Writing is not viewed as “real work” and often mom-ing isn’t either. To me, they are both the work. Both require patience, creativity, flexibility, and a persistent devotion to waking up and trying day after day to try to be a little bit better than the day before.

I’d like to believe that children who observe their parent creating, and especially creating for a living, will grow up to be adults who value the arts, value the work that goes into parenting, and value themselves as creative beings. Your writing is precious, and so is your writing time. You deserve the time and environment for writing, and your children deserve to see you chasing creative dreams.

The Last Sunday in May by Kate Clark Stone

Mack Williams was once a rising star in motorsports—until her reckless choices forced her out of racing. Now a single mom juggling family responsibilities and a struggling business, her dreams feel long gone. But when a racing legend offers her one last shot at qualifying for the Indy 500, Mack has to decide if she’s willing to risk everything for a second chance. As her personal life grows more complicated, the stakes on and off the track couldn’t be higher.

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