I stayed with my children when they were younger - my gig earned less than child care would have cost, and I actually loved my time with my children. But I did go back to work when they were in middle/high school. Feel like I had the best of both worlds. But this was in your parent's era - 90s/2000s. It's a much more difficult world now - everything so much more expensive, requiring two incomes. I'm not quite sure how tradwives afford to stay home