9 Months From Police Officer to Full-Time Dad to Web Design

Discover the Tipping Point that Led this Police Officer and Devoted Father of Four Kids to a Career Change that Created the Ultimate Work-Life Balance…

I still remember the moment clearly. It was the middle of the night, and my police radio crackled with an urgent recall to duty. My heavily pregnant wife (and amazing WAHM) lay awake beside me, her tired eyes filled with concern for my safety and dreaded realisation of being left alone again.

As I prepared to rush into another dangerous situation, the reality hit me hard—I was leaving her alone, yet again, to manage our three young children and the normal household pressures for an unknown period of time, while she was just weeks away from giving birth to our fourth child.

That night, something shifted in me. After 11 years wearing the badge, moving our family across Queensland every few years, and missing countless birthdays and school events, I realised I couldn’t continue putting my family in this position.

When our fourth child arrived—a beautiful tiny daughter with those puppy dog eyes—I knew I had made the right decision. I would use every day of leave I had accumulated to be home for the first ten months of her life.

Little did I know this decision would completely transform my career and our family’s future. Through web design and a significant career change, I would discover a path to better work-life balance that seemed impossible during my policing days. This journey would eventually lead me to establish an award winning web design agency in Gympie QLD, but it all started with those precious months at home.

From Police Officer to Primary Caregiver: A Crash Course in Perspective

Trading my uniform for burp cloths sure was a culture shock. While my wife pursued her small business ambitions, I experienced the full reality of being the primary caregiver and stay-at-home dad—the sleepless nights, the logistical challenges of managing three older children’s schedules, and the relentless pace of household management.

Don’t get me wrong, I was certainly around and helped out with our first three children, but for the first time, I truly understood what my wife had been balancing all these years as a stay-at-home mum entrepreneur:

• The invisible workload: The mental load of remembering everyone’s schedules, needs, and preferences
• The constant interruptions: Trying to complete any task while being needed by someone every few minutes
• The isolation: Adult conversation became a luxury I craved
• The business-in-the-margins: Watching my wife squeeze her business activities into naptime and after bedtime hours

This wasn’t just a temporary role swap—it was an education that no amount of “helping out” on my days off could have provided.

The Wake-Up Call for a Career Change: “I Can’t Go Back”

As my leave neared its end, the thought of returning to shift work became increasingly unbearable and it didn’t sit right with me.

I didn’t want to miss watching our youngest hit her milestones. I didn’t want my older children to get used to Dad being absent again. And I didn’t want to return to a system where family was expected to accommodate work, rather than the other way around.

I needed to find a way to support my family financially while maintaining the presence and balance I’d discovered. The question became: what skills did I have that could translate to a home-based career?

Finding My New Career Path Through Digital Skills and Web Design

Fast-forward a few months, during quiet moments when all four kids were sleeping, I began exploring my options.

My interest in technology had always been strong, but it was my experience helping my wife optimise her small business website that sparked an idea. What if I could help other local businesses improve their online presence?

Gympie, like many regional communities, had plenty of talented business owners who struggled with digital visibility. So, I started studying web design and local SEO fundamentals for businesses between nappy changes and school runs.

The learning curve was steep, but no steeper than adapting to parenthood. While our newborn daughter slept on my chest, I completed online courses through Brisbane-based eBusiness Institute, whose practical, hands-on approach to digital skills training perfectly suited my situation. During school hours, I practised building websites and implementing the strategies I was learning.

My Career Change Started by Trading the Badge for a Business

Making the leap wasn’t easy. A steady government job with excellent superannuation and regular pay increases versus the uncertainty of entrepreneurship—especially with four children depending on us. But after experiencing what it meant to be present for my family, the decision became clearer.

I submitted my resignation, cashed in my long service leave, and officially launched my business, Gympie Web Design. Transitioning from law enforcement to web design meant trading one type of code for another. At least now when something crashes, it’s just a website and not my patrol car.

What I Learned from Creating Work-Life Balance

The transition taught me several crucial lessons about work-life balance that I never expected:

1. Skills From Career to Business Can Be Transferred in Surprising Ways

My police background provided unexpected advantages:

• Communication skills: Explaining technical concepts clearly to clients. Communication is easily the most important skillset you can have in any career.
• Problem-solving under pressure: I had spent the last decade solving complex issues on a daily basis, and it’s something I had taken for granted. Thinking on your feet and making difficult decisions is a highly sought after skill in any industry.
• Community connections: Understanding local businesses by listening to their unique challenges and offering a viable way to help can unlock many business opportunities.

2. The Reality Check of Working in a Home Office

Working from home with children isn’t the peaceful productivity haven sometimes portrayed. It requires:

• Clear boundaries (which is a challenge when your toddler believes every closed door is a personal invitation to whack their little wooden quacky duck toy against—I guess they never got the memo about “private office hours”!)
• Flexible scheduling (client calls during school hours, design work during evenings)
• Immense patience (sometimes the most important “deadline” is a skinned knee needing attention or a teddy bear tea party to attend in the loungeroom)

I’ve become an expert at multitasking—I can design a website with one hand while making a peanut butter sandwich with the other. My clients don’t need to know that their latest project was approved between episodes of Bluey. (Fav episode – Stumpfest)

I’ve also mastered the art of the professional Zoom call from home. Business up top, chaos down below—and a strategically placed virtual background to hide the tower of laundry that’s been waiting to be folded since Tuesday.

3. Relationships Redefined between Business and Life Partners

My wife and I discovered a new balance as co-parents and business allies. Some days she takes the lead with the children while I manage clients. Other days, I handle school pickups and sports runs while she focuses on her business.

This flexible approach has created something neither of us had before—true partnership where both careers and family responsibilities are equally valued.

The Unexpected Family Advantage of Running a Web Design Business

Building a web design and digital marketing business has provided advantages I never imagined during my police days:

• Geographical freedom: We’re no longer subject to transfers and relocations, which was something that bound to happen every few years for us in the police
• Schedule control: I can attend school parades, award ceremonies, coach my son’s soccer team, join school camps, and never miss sporting events—commitments that were impossible with my irregular police shifts
• Skill sharing: Beig able to teach my older children digital skills while working (they still somehow seem to know more than me half the time).
• Local impact: Helping other Gympie businesses thrive online while staying rooted in our community

The best part of working from home? Being there when my kids return from school. The challenging part? Explaining why ‘Daddy’s office’ is not the ideal venue for their interpretive dance recital/trumpet practice/science experiment/nerf gun battle.

Why a Career Change Felt Right for Me

The most profound changes for me as a stay-at-home dad weren’t professional but personal:

1. Health improvements: My health has significantly improved since leaving the stressful policing role. I’ve gone from needing daily medication to prioritising preventative healthcare, which has eliminated my need for medications entirely.
2. Stronger relationships: Being present for bedtime stories and weekend activities has deepened my connections with all four children.
3. Supporting my wife: Understanding firsthand the challenges of at-home parenting has made me a better partner.
4. Community connection: Building relationships with local business owners has given me a different kind of purpose and alternative way to impact the community.

Is Having a Digital Career Right for Your Family?

While not everyone needs to make such a dramatic career change, my experience has shown me that digital skills can open doors to family-friendly work arrangements.

Whether it’s web design, content creation, online marketing, or e-commerce, digital businesses offer flexibility that traditional careers often can’t match.

For parents seeking more family time and better work-life balance, consider:

1. What digital skills do you already have that could translate to freelance or business opportunities?
2. What parts of your current role could be adapted to remote or flexible arrangements?
3. How might your unique parenting perspective actually enhance your professional offerings?
4. What training options (like the eBusiness Institute courses I took) might fit around your family schedule?

I Now Have a Work-Life Balance that I Love

My journey from police officer to full-time dad to web design entrepreneur wasn’t planned, but those nine months caring for our daughter changed everything. I discovered that being present for my family wasn’t just a nice-to-have—it was essential for all of us.

Finding work-life balance through digital skills and a significant career change has allowed me to support both my wife’s business ambitions and our children’s needs. While building websites and improving SEO for local businesses might seem worlds away from enforcing the law, both roles share a common purpose—serving the community, just in very different ways.

If you’re standing at a similar crossroads, wondering if there’s a way to prioritise family without sacrificing career, I can tell you from experience: there is. The digital world offers opportunities for parents that simply didn’t exist a generation ago. Sometimes, the bravest career move is the one that brings you closer to home.