Very good question. I am literally in the same shoes as you OP and have been beating myself with confusion over the last 6 months or so.
I am a new dad, but I have always loved buildings things and wanted to start a company as I have quite a few ideas, some of which I feel have good potential. In the pandemic we built a product and tried to start a company (as a side project), but it failed because of not being able to figure out monetization. While the experience part of it was invaluable to me, the enormous time I had spent juggling between both my full-time job and this side-project ended up affecting a lot of my family time as well. There were times where I hated my situation.
Now I am back being a passive, full-time employee that gets to spend some family time and not really getting into side-projects now because I know I can't - I do not have the time now - not with a kid. What I have come to terms with is that I need to arrange some financial safety for my family if I wanted to explore building companies. This is 100% possible. You can explore opportunities or get someone to join you as a co-founder and once you have funding, you can get paid a base salary that you and your family are comfortable with, along with an agreed-upon equity. In SF Bay Area, it's quite common for founder base salaries to be close to $180k or so, so it's more practical than you think.
My advice to you OP is that, if you have a kid, do not consider engaging in side-projects, but rather go all-in and pursue something as a full-time effort. You'll know if things are going north or south within 6 months. If no kids yet, you can make the side-project thing happen, but make sure to have cofounders and split the work. Focus on getting your MVP out the door real fast so you can acquire funding and make your side-project a full-time project. Considering these learnings, I am just holding off for now but I'll make a leap into entrepreneurship again.
Now I am back being a passive, full-time employee that gets to spend some family time and not really getting into side-projects now because I know I can't - I do not have the time now - not with a kid. What I have come to terms with is that I need to arrange some financial safety for my family if I wanted to explore building companies. This is 100% possible. You can explore opportunities or get someone to join you as a co-founder and once you have funding, you can get paid a base salary that you and your family are comfortable with, along with an agreed-upon equity. In SF Bay Area, it's quite common for founder base salaries to be close to $180k or so, so it's more practical than you think.
My advice to you OP is that, if you have a kid, do not consider engaging in side-projects, but rather go all-in and pursue something as a full-time effort. You'll know if things are going north or south within 6 months. If no kids yet, you can make the side-project thing happen, but make sure to have cofounders and split the work. Focus on getting your MVP out the door real fast so you can acquire funding and make your side-project a full-time project. Considering these learnings, I am just holding off for now but I'll make a leap into entrepreneurship again.