It is not at all true anymore that writing is a man’s profession. Thankfully women have broken into the world of literature despite centuries of exclusion, and in my chosen field—children’s and young adult literature—women actually make up a majority of today’s voices. And many, maybe even most, of these women writers are moms. Motherhood is considered a valuable part of the human experience, useful to the story spinner in a hundred ways. But what isn’t immediately obvious is that most of these WriterMoms are moms of older kids. Their kids are in school full time, at college, or even grown up with kids of their own.

What is more rare is the WriterMom who writes with a baby on the breast or a toddler underfoot. Or, heaven forbid, both. It’s not rocket science to figure out why this is the case. It’s hard to write in the snippets of time you (might) get to yourself, in space carved out from blocks and bananas and burp rags, in a brain that is foggy from sleep deprivation and a body that is charged with wacky hormones.