I don't accept your premise -- that work time is, by definition, time away from one's children.
My son is 8.
His playroom and my office are really one big room, with some furniture dividing it into separate spaces.
He comes home from school and does his homework at a small table next to my desk. I help him with it and he "checks up on" my work.
He sometimes tests websites I'm designing to make sure the UI is easy to understand.
He's done data entry for extra allowance.
He sometimes goes with me to tech conferences, and has even spoken at one.
I work while he's at school, during homework time, and after he's asleep. We play after homework is done and/or after dinner.
Sometimes he just visits with me while I work, or sets his laptop down next to mine and we have a mother-son hackfest.
Chores are easier and faster because we do them as a team.
I do enjoy the occasional break when he is at his grandparents' place for a while, but for the most part we do things together. I'm a single mother, so there's no one to pick up the slack when I'm "too busy". Also, I've noticed that I'm more productive when I make time for what's important -- being a mom.
I can be having an awful day full of interruptions and some seemingly unfixable bug, then I walk my son home from school and it all changes. For twenty minutes I turn off my phone, get outside, and walk. By the time I reach his school I've calmed down. Then we walk home and talk about his day, or the squirrels, or my neighbor's new flower bed. By the time we get back home I am surprisingly refreshed. I usually fix the bug in a flash, and have more patience with nagging clients.
You can talk about evolutionary psychology and your desire for hard data all you want -- but neither will predict the behavior of an individual, and most entrepreneurs are outliers in some way or another already. I'd never suggest that anybody can juggle building a business and child-rearing without dropping either ball, but clearly I can, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that someone else can, too.
My son is 8.
His playroom and my office are really one big room, with some furniture dividing it into separate spaces.
He comes home from school and does his homework at a small table next to my desk. I help him with it and he "checks up on" my work.
He sometimes tests websites I'm designing to make sure the UI is easy to understand.
He's done data entry for extra allowance.
He sometimes goes with me to tech conferences, and has even spoken at one.
I work while he's at school, during homework time, and after he's asleep. We play after homework is done and/or after dinner.
Sometimes he just visits with me while I work, or sets his laptop down next to mine and we have a mother-son hackfest.
Chores are easier and faster because we do them as a team.
I do enjoy the occasional break when he is at his grandparents' place for a while, but for the most part we do things together. I'm a single mother, so there's no one to pick up the slack when I'm "too busy". Also, I've noticed that I'm more productive when I make time for what's important -- being a mom.
I can be having an awful day full of interruptions and some seemingly unfixable bug, then I walk my son home from school and it all changes. For twenty minutes I turn off my phone, get outside, and walk. By the time I reach his school I've calmed down. Then we walk home and talk about his day, or the squirrels, or my neighbor's new flower bed. By the time we get back home I am surprisingly refreshed. I usually fix the bug in a flash, and have more patience with nagging clients.
You can talk about evolutionary psychology and your desire for hard data all you want -- but neither will predict the behavior of an individual, and most entrepreneurs are outliers in some way or another already. I'd never suggest that anybody can juggle building a business and child-rearing without dropping either ball, but clearly I can, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that someone else can, too.