Laurie,
I wouldn’t be as concerned about age as wanting to be home every night. Starting at 35 isn’t young, but isn’t old either.
https://airlinepilot.life/t/am-i-too-old-to-be-an-airline-pilot/8062/2
Since the majority of professional flying jobs do not have pilots home every night, I wouldn’t recommend attempting to earn an ATP. There are some companies that do have pilots home every night. The only one that I know of is Hawaiian. Unless you’d be content flight instructing, flying traffic watch, banner tow, or other jobs like that, I think you need to have an honest conversation with yourself about what is more important to you.
Day trips are available at most, if not all, airlines, but they tend to be awarded to the most senior pilots. It would be more realistic for you to go into flight training under the assumption that you won’t be home every night until you’re senior enough to hold day trips or until you’ve found a company that only flies day trips.
There is a long list of pros and cons in regards to ATP vs local flight schools, but the main difference is that ATP is geared towards the pilot that wants to fly for the airlines and local flight schools have a mixed bag of students. ATP has been around for 35 years and has a proven track record for producing pilots of quality airline material. Local flight schools offer customized programs. Some are only interested in earning their private pilot license (PPL). Some are interested in flying for the airlines.
The thing about flying part time is that it may take a lot longer, and cost a lot more, to finish a rating than you might initially think. So, if you’re leaning towards training part time, just know that it’s very easy for life to take precedence. It will be your responsibility for making flight training a priority so that you finish your flight training within a realistic amount of time.
I cannot give any personal accounts of what it’s like to go through training with a family, but I did teach some people who had a family. Their spouse essentially took the reins for the 6 months that my student was in the program.
Besides flying for fun with a PPL, there’s not much else. That’s what most private pilot holders do. There are a couple of other less common privileges that a private pilot can do like fly for charity, flying in conjunction with business related activities…the full list can be found under FAR 61.113.
Tory