[rhombocombus]

As a professional programmer I spend almost all of my free time NOT programming, but I do spend it taking care of my family and social obligations instead. While I love what I do I would love it less if I did too much of it.

[bdamm]

Exactly. When I was a junior I had plenty of side projects that I rotated through. Then that got old, I developed deep passions for other non-computer things, have a family, enjoy knowing people, and what do you know? Not many side projects that involve programming. I haven't updated my blog in 15 years. I'd rather go fishing with my kid, rock climbing with my bud, or banging together a garden with my wife.

[Viliam1234]

Seems to me it still makes sense to only hire people who program in their free time... if your real goal is to hire people willing to do a lot of overtime work. (I am not saying this is a good thing to do.) Things that prevent you from programming in your free time are more or less the things that would prevent you from working overtime.

Or it could simply be thinly disguised ageism. "Hey, I am not saying we shouldn't hire people who have kids... I am just saying I don't trust people who are not passionate enough to write code in their free time!"

[mikekchar]

As someone who specifically chose not to have kids because I want to spend more time programming (crazy, I know)... I'm not that interested in working overtime for the company. I'll do it in emergencies, but my time is my time. I only have so much of it and there are things I want to do. No amount of money, or recognition, or pride in helping someone else get rich will give me that time back. Just because I want to spend my time programming, does not mean I want to give it to someone else.

[BurningFrog]

Right I love programming. But I do it 8 hours a day. That's quite enough!