"I don't even know if this is something people would want or pay for if I completed it." This is the problem. As I was reading your situation, before I got to

"I don't even know if this is something people would want or pay for if I completed it." This is the problem. As I was reading your situation, before I got to this point, I was asking myself "Is there a market for this?". I have no idea if there actually is, but I just can't imagine there being a market easy enough to crack into for what you're building. This would lead me to believe that it would be more prudent to go work for someone else, even if for a "short" time, so you can build up stability and savings for yourself and future family. There is nothing stopping you from continuing to work on your project AND work for someone else AND be a father - many of us do this, albeit with varying success in each area. Courtland Allen of Indie Hackers has a great talk about this and explains that so many wannabe founders make the mistake of thinking they have to focus 100% of time and effort on building their start up and there is no other way. He calls this the "runway of certain death" where your savings is the runway and your project is a plane needing to take off before the runway runs out. Long story short: get a helicopter so you don't need to worry about the runway. What he means by this is don't put yourself up against impending failure when you could stretch your timeline to launch by earning an income and just working on your project less hours per day but for many more days. The talk is much better and informative :) I have a young family. I am an agency Web Developer. I quit my job in May 2021 to "focus" on my side project. My focus has not been great and I am not finished with my project yet. At the beginning of February I started looking for a FT job again because I'm burning through my savings and it's no longer fair to watch my wife work FT while I continue to code an unprofitable project. I secured a new job today and will be able to relieve some stress from myself and more from my wife. And I will go back to working on my project as a side project outside of work and family hours for a couple hours each day. Also, I'd recommend taking a break on BUILDING the thing, and spending some time MARKETING the thing to try to get at least one person that doesn't know you to tell you that's thing is the thing they need to save their business and will pay you any amount so they can use it to save their business. If you can't find one person to honestly tell you this, you might have a failed project on your hands. If you find someone, ask them for money right then and commit to a launch date for an MVP for their own use. Now you have a customer, proved you concept, have $$, and a beta user. If you can't find others who will pay you for your project, cut losses, work for someone else and start a new side project that DOES have a profitable niche. Don't ever let people who "don't get it" tell you what you're doing is a failure and that you need to "grow up". Handle your responsibilities, of course, but keep your dream alive - it's the only way ANYTHING great was ever brought to the public. Good luck.