She makes it as well, but the children pay, first. She just has years of apologies that will ring hollow and she will get an earful of recrimination on the horizon. There will be years where she tries to explain her failure to them. She’ll learn that she made a mistake, but by then it will be too late.
All of that being said, there are families where the father makes very little and the mother must work. I’m aware of that.
But in many American families the mother works so that the family can have a second SUV, a large home and many extras that aren’t considered necessities. Those are the families where the children may look back and ask mom if it was worth it. The children won’t understand why the mother chose money over their welfare.
I think it has many ramifications, for example, the less needed husbands feel the more likely they will leave the family.