Free spirit or not, you have to meet deadlines. It doesn’t matter if you are writing an article for no pay or if you are composing an article which pays a substantial amount of money. When you miss a deadline, you let people down and tarnish your reputation as a writer. You have to learn to manage your time to where you are not constantly in danger of missing a deadline. This means that if you have small children, you certainly shouldn't wait until the night before a deadline to hunker down and get a big project done because you never really know when a small child will feel ill at night and need your attention. Of course, emergencies and other interruptions do occur, and most editors are pretty understanding as long as you don't make it a common issue to need extensions. You can avoid most needs for deadline extensions as long as you work with a consistent schedule and don't leave things for the last minute. If you have visions of lazily composing profound poetry by the fireplace and then getting the poetry to your editor when you feel that it's ready, then you may want to hold on to your day job until you manage to find an editor who is willing to wait as long as it takes for your next masterpiece. Here is a heads-up: that's probably not going to happen. Writing is certainly a creative occupation, but that doesn't mean that you don't need to adhere to deadlines.

Tip: I started writing when my children were two years old and five months old, respectively. Of course, this often resulted in me finding myself faced with an impending deadline, a baby who wouldn't sleep, and a toddler who had tendency toward night terrors. Translation: Even when the kids were asleep, there was no guarantee that I would get my work done. After two or three all-nighters to meet my deadlines I realized that I simply had to work smarter. I found ways to write during the day, and as I wrote more I also got a little more efficient. Trust yourself to eventually find a writing groove which allows you to meet your deadlines, but in the meantime you need to work hard at meeting every single deadline you have.