Read your contract. If the expectation is that you are available to work during business hours, you should be online and available during those time. You bill for that time. Do NOT let them bully you into only billing for "the hours you put toward a specific job number." That is illegal. Read the FLSA

When my kids were in high school, I’d block out my calendar for drop off and pick up. Wife was out the door early bc she’s a teacher. Same with doctor’s appointments etc. I work 9a til whenever. Sometimes well into the evening. Just depends on the workload that day.

Just depends on the company. Hopefully, your meetings are scheduled and on the calendar. Everything else you manage.

It depends on the agency and the team in the agency you’re working with. In my experience, so long as my work gets done, I’m able to respond to Teams/Slack messages within 15 minutes, and I’m able to hop on calls within ~30-60 minutes, no one really cares (or even notices) when I go out to drop my kids off or run an errand. Regarding billing for late hours: I’ll also often work till later in the evening (post-bedtime second shift, who else) to make sure deliverables are done on time—that’s the cost I pay to be able to have the flexibility during the 9-5 work day. It’s not an exact 1:1, but if I take an hour to run an errand during the day, I’ll make up that hour with work at night. That said, be careful that you don’t just write off every hour worked past 5pm as “the cost you pay for flexibility.” I’ve fallen into that trap, and inadvertently gave my employer a ton of free OT. If the work you’re asked to do can’t be done in 40 hours, you need to raise the flag yourself. And with a flexible working schedule like I’ve described, it can be hard to spot it. You need to be vigilant about that.