From DSLR to dad life — struggling to keep photography alive. Any advice?

Before having kids, I used to go out with a backpack carrying my Nikon D7200 and 2–3 lenses. Then life changed — I now have two (lovely) small kids (2–3 years old), and suddenly every outing already comes with a full load of “kid logistics.” At some point, adding a camera bag on top of that just stopped making sense. Too much. And little by little, I stopped shooting altogether. Which I really miss.

Not just the photography itself, but capturing this specific season — because these kids are growing fast and I’m aware I’m not getting it on anything better than a phone right now. I’m actually on a trip as I write this, brought my gear for the first time in a while… and spent the day lugging a heavy backpack around to come home with maybe a handful of shots. Felt more like a chore than anything.

I don’t want to just hand it over to my iPhone and call it a day. But I get why people do.

The “obvious” answer seems to be going smaller — some compact mirrorless thing I can actually carry without planning around it. But I’ve gone down that rabbit hole and it’s overwhelming. Too many options, too many tradeoffs, and I can’t tell what actually delivers a real step up from a phone versus what’s just… smaller and more expensive.

So I’m curious if anyone’s been through this:

• Did you find a way to keep shooting with your main system, or did you end up switching? • Any compact setups that genuinely feel worth it — not just “good for the size,” but actually good? • Or did you just make peace with the phone? 

I’m not looking to become a gear minimalist for the sake of it — I just want something that makes me want to bring a camera again.

Would really appreciate any thoughts or experiences.