Busy day ahead. Just completed my first round of ubering. With all the back and forth, I'm just assuming most school districts prefer their parents unemployed.
It's the only thing that makes sense sometimes.
I really don't understand what people do that don't work from home or have that kind of flexibility.
They pay an insane amount for daycare. Or they don't have kids, which is built into the theories of economic development - developed nations produce fewer children.
Personally, I married a teacher, and we didn't rush to have kids. We both came from conventional sole-breadwinner, nuclear family homes. We didn't start having kids until we'd been married seven years, I had a career established, and we'd bought a house. So she had the option of being a stay-at-home mom, which she exercised. That decision obviously reduced the household income, which we're still having to make up, but we also didn't have to pay for daycare, and in fact Carol generated some income and tax advantages by providing daycare for other families in the neighborhood.
But that started 36 years ago, and things have significantly changed, which worries us for our sons.
Yeah, things are just a little different these days. 
True, different is the key word. Used to be there were a network of many stay at home moms so they could relieve each other and cover for transportation, Dr. visits, whatever. Now stay at home moms are mostly isolated, have to be a babysitter full time and take care of all that outside stuff on their own so not such a good deal. As kids, we used to disappear first thing in the morning, hang with all the other kids all day. Crash at one house for lunch and be home for dinner and noone worried.
That time had already passed by 1996 when #1 son was born. Carol never really had a network of other moms, but did have her mother in the first few years, then we moved close to my clan when Christian was 4.
But yes, we had an advantage in that Carol was a degreed teacher, with special certifications in literacy, assessment, and special education. And I worked in tech and frequently taught university and private classes, so there was always advanced computing capacity at home. So while I was usually away from home 10-12 hours a day, Carol could substitute educational activities and organized outings for the kind of running free all day that she and I grew up doing. And in truth, such running free landed me in some sketchy situations in middle school that, but for the grace of God could have altered my life for the worst, so we never intended to let our kids be far from watchful eyes.
Yes, economics have changed, but it IS still possible to do what we did. It's just that in these days of easy credit, people don't want to make those choices. I haven't bought a new vehicle since before I was married, and there were significant periods of time where Carol and I shared one vehicle. I've only owned two homes, neither of which was remotely "requisite" for my income level. I had to be creative about financing to buy the first house, and rely on family connections for the second. I started a business and was successful at it until the tech bubble burst in 2002, then had to go through bankruptcy and start over. I had to sacrifice income potential and endure long commutes for the sake of stability. After bankruptcy, I was forced to learn to live within my means. And I married very, very carefully, after having carefully considered what I wanted from a life partner, and listened to my mother, before I encountered Carol. And then I had to make my marriage work, learn to negotiate, because divorce is financially debilitating, and would have been frowned upon by my family. Besides, if you think marriage is difficult and time-consuming, try divorce and co-parenting.
Modern life, even before I married in 1989, had cultivated the myth of living in the moment and the illusion that it could be afforded. The cost was debt, and the breakdown of family connections - clan - that were historically indispensable. People have lost the motivation to think in terms of sacrifice and obligation, and now they smugly say, "that's just not possible anymore." But it is. It's just hard. And it was always hard.
