The conscientious parent who "had" to work is the exception. FWIW, I wholeheartedly agree.
Honestly, I think that it's not always material desires that force both parents to work. Mrs. WBill is a stay-at-home-mom and the pressures that she gets from friends, and even family, to go back to work are enormous. The M-i-L wants her in the workplace so that she "Doesn't lose her idenity", whatever that means. Her friends pressure her for various reasons - some are feminist kooks, some don't have kids and know nothing about what they're talking about, and I think that some are just feeling guilty that they don't stay home with their own kids and want to drag my wife down to their level.
Fortunately, my wife knows her own mind and is able to tell them all to kiss off. That's helped the fact that WBill Jr. is likely the most advanced and best looking baby of his entire generation, and perhaps several prior ones as well. :-) I still think that he owes much of his general health, disposition and intelligence to my wife staying home with him.
Good for you! Nice to hear a voice of sanity. I heard a caller on Dr. Laura once complaing about her 6 month old was being bitten and abused in daycare older kids. Dr. Laura immediatley asked her to get her hubby on the phone. The woman's response.."He's at softball practice". Classic! Stuid, lazy dingleberry probably got his wife convinced he was woring as hard as he could and she needed to work. Dr. Laura basically called her and idiot and told her to get her tubes tied
I had a coworker friend have a baby a couple of years ago. Her husband was doing post doc work and she, comparably, brought in the big bucks and insurance.
We were visiting one day about how long she would take off after the baby was born, and she secretly admitted she wanted to stay home, give it all up. I told her I couldn't be more excited for her, that she would never regret it. Seems I was one of the only people that told her that, the rest told her she was crazy. Because of that, she was so scared.
About 4 months after the baby was born, she stopped by to say hi. She couldn't wait to tell me that she was the happiest she had ever been and wanted to thank me for encouraging her.