I DM online for a group and we start at 9PM every Monday for similar reasons. A few people in the group, including myself, are married with children and we want to enjoy a game when the kids are in bed and there's less of a chance of interruptions. We also have an alternate day everyone has agreed on so if somebody has an emergency or can't avoid making plans on the regular game night we can still have our session for the week, this is important as a chain of missed sessions because life happened to get in the way can cause a group to fall apart.
If you're not at a point in your life where you can make a (bi-)weekly commitment with a similar setup, you can always find a DM that is looking for substitute players that can fill in when a regular party member is missing. This is a tactic used by many to avoid cancelling sessions altogether because a player cannot make it, and to keep players on a "waiting list" should a regular need to step out. No commitment on your part is needed and there's no hard feelings if you can't make a game after getting the call because you're not part of the regular group anyway.
Just make sure to find a DM that's understanding of the parental life and if you're comfortable with it you can always give them control over your character if you have to step away where feasible (no DM will want to roleplay for you in social settings, but generally other players can handle those and if there's a check you specialize in they could use your stats in a pinch - but when you're just dungeon crawling it's NBD to drive your character in combat or exploration). While I always have my wife to available to deal with any issues that may crop up with our child on game night, my players are fully aware that I'm willing to take over their character for a bit if they need to step away for an urgent matter.
At the end of the day it's important for everybody to remember _it's a game_, and we're there to have fun. The party member that regularly skips a session because they only seem to join when there's nothing better to do is a drag, but the vast majority of DM's and other players know that life is not so convenient that nothing will ever interrupt a scheduled session and aren't going to hold it against you.
One last suggestion: you can always do play-by-post. There's quite a few groups that operate this way, and it's a great way to get into the game without having to find 2-6 contiguous hours to play. The experience is most certainly "not the same", but that's the point.
If you're not at a point in your life where you can make a (bi-)weekly commitment with a similar setup, you can always find a DM that is looking for substitute players that can fill in when a regular party member is missing. This is a tactic used by many to avoid cancelling sessions altogether because a player cannot make it, and to keep players on a "waiting list" should a regular need to step out. No commitment on your part is needed and there's no hard feelings if you can't make a game after getting the call because you're not part of the regular group anyway.
Just make sure to find a DM that's understanding of the parental life and if you're comfortable with it you can always give them control over your character if you have to step away where feasible (no DM will want to roleplay for you in social settings, but generally other players can handle those and if there's a check you specialize in they could use your stats in a pinch - but when you're just dungeon crawling it's NBD to drive your character in combat or exploration). While I always have my wife to available to deal with any issues that may crop up with our child on game night, my players are fully aware that I'm willing to take over their character for a bit if they need to step away for an urgent matter.
At the end of the day it's important for everybody to remember _it's a game_, and we're there to have fun. The party member that regularly skips a session because they only seem to join when there's nothing better to do is a drag, but the vast majority of DM's and other players know that life is not so convenient that nothing will ever interrupt a scheduled session and aren't going to hold it against you.
One last suggestion: you can always do play-by-post. There's quite a few groups that operate this way, and it's a great way to get into the game without having to find 2-6 contiguous hours to play. The experience is most certainly "not the same", but that's the point.