👋 Hey Reader!

Here’s what I’ve got for you in today’s issue of WFH Dads:

→ Finding time for a hobby as a WFH dad

→ Recommendation of the week - A high-protein, low calorie Fruity Pebbles breakfast

Let's get into it.

Finding time for a hobby as a WFH dad

I recently asked on Threads what hobbies fellow WFH dads had. Here were some of the answers:

• build a side-hustle*
• develop a game or app
• hit up the gym
• play music
• build LEGO sets
• attend their favorite team's games
• do woodworking
• write books
• game

It's important to have some hobby / passion project / side hustle that you make time for. And it was great to see other dads making time for things they engage with outside of work just for fun!

But maybe you're at a place where you WISH you could have a hobby, but find it hard to make time for one amidst all your other responsibilities.

Here are some ways you could (potentially) remedy that.

*I know a side-hustle isn't technically a hobby as a hobby is done without financial motive, but it occupies the same space in my mind as something that I'm working on outside my day job, making progress on, and enjoying.

Define the limits

It's easy to reflect on previous seasons of life where we were able to give a lot more time and energy to our hobbies, and we try to make THAT the goal and inevitably fall short.

Back before we had kids when I was a teacher and my wife was busy working 72 hour weeks in residency, I had a ton of time and energy to invest in my teacher YouTube channel. But now, we've got two young kids and my wife thankfully doesn't work nearly as much. I'm not able to invest the same amount of time that I was back then.

But...what CAN I invest?

Here's how I think about it:

How much time is possible?

Define a realistic amount of time you'd like to spend on your hobby.

For me, building this WFH Dads newsletter, I can spend 45 min in the early morning each day working on it.

Maybe for you, it's:

• hitting up the gym 2x a week at noon
• playing guitar by yourself on Thursday evening after the kids go down
• attending a football game 1x a month

What's doable in that time frame?

Decide ahead of time how you'll spend that time so it isn't a question mark or a waste.

Knowing I have 45 minutes a day to work on WFH Dads limits what I'm able to do.

In a given week, I can't create a YouTube video, be a guest on a podcast, create short form videos, build an online course, AND still write this newsletter.

So right now, I'm focusing on writing the newsletter and posting occasionally on Threads (which is really low lift).

Maybe for you, it's:

• only doing compound lifts at the gym
• deciding which song you want to learn on the guitar
• picking which one football game you want to attend that month

If you define the limits of WHEN you will spend time on your personal project and WHAT you will do in that time, it's more likely to actually happen.

Don't burden your partner

If you can find a time to do your hobby in a way that doesn't add a burden to your partner, do that.

But if you decide that all of the sudden, you're going to start going to CrossFit classes at 6:30pm five nights a week right before the chaos of bedtime, it will not go well for you.

In that case, it needs to be a conversation with your partner. You don't want your hobbies or personal projects to become a burden to them.

The best approach is to find out what THEY wish they had more time for. Work it out so you both get what you want. You could start the conversation like this:

Alternatively, invite your partner or kids into your hobby with you if it makes sense. For example, my wife will build LEGO sets with my daughter. And I know of couples of game together (I bought Hogwarts Legacy for my wife who doesn't game but loves Harry Potter and she was like 'that could be fun.' She played for 20 min and was like 'this is too complicated' and never played again, haha).

However you apprach it, you want to make it a win-win situation.

You can see more on how to get on the same page as your partner in this video.​

You can't do it all

I was chatting with a fellow WFH dad that I'll call Karl.

Karl is in a season where he's got a demanding job, he's often playing taxi dad to get his kids to all their sporting and dance events, and he wakes up at 5am every day to get his workout in.

Karl was telling me how he's frustrated with himself that he isn't making time to work on the side-hustle that he's dabbled with for the last several years.

He knows it isn't a discipline problem (he's got the discipline to wake up at 5am and work out). But he also realizes that when he tries to work on it at the end of the day, his energy is just not there.

Here's what I told Karl:

Maybe you're just in a season where you don't have capacity to work on the side-hustle. And that's OK.

It may be better to just accept that you can't add anything else to your plate, rather than beat yourself up week after week for not 'making it happen.'

Karl is planning on waiting until the summer to start making more time for his hobbies since the kids don't need to be driven around as much.

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Do you have a hobby? Or do you wish you had a hobby? Would love to hear what it is and if you're able to make time for it.

Recommendation of the week

A high-protein, low calorie Fruity Pebbles breakfast

I saw this X post a while ago:

Dan Go @CoachDanGo I eat this breakfast every day. I call it Lean Body Glop and it looks like slop but it tastes delicious. Recipe: - 250g low fat Greek Yogurt - One scoop weigh protein powder - Teaspoon psyllium husk - 100g frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries, mangoes work best) Around 300 5:28 PM • Feb 2, 2026 121 Retweets 2431 Likes Read 217 replies

​

And I tried it out and it's been my main breakfast for several months now.

I use this Fruity Pebbles whey protein that legit tastes like Fruity Pebbles! And I mix it with high-protein plain greek yogurt. I was making it the night before so the frozen fruit would thaw, but now I just dump it in there frozen in the morning and prefer it that way (they're still soft even when frozen). And I didn't know what psyllium husk was but it's a type of fiber.

My recipe comes out to:

• 359 calories
• 52g of protein
• 28g carbs
• 5g fat

Fills me up and tastes great!

What about you?

Do you have a hobby? Or wish you had a hobby? Is there even any capacity in your life for a hobby?

Thom Gibson Founder of WFH Dads ​​​

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