Raising children is difficult, not only due to the immense amount of direct contact required to see your children thrive but also while juggling shared responsibilities and managing the economics of a household.<p>There was a separate HN thread about rural America seemingly unable to move to where the best economic opportunities are, but one of the biggest issues a family must deal with are whether both or only one of the parents should work. This is a decision that's often based on a variety of childcare factors outside of a family's control. Sometimes, there's seemingly no choice if local caretakers (e.g. the proverbial village) or daycare centers are too expensive during a child's early years which can impact long-term family financials and take a heavy toll on the stay-at-home-parent who may not be behaviourally suited to raise a child on a full-time basis.<p>Often, parents staying at home, whether by choice or necessity, are mothers. Anecdotally, I find a growing number of SAHD (stay-at-home-dads) often have either part-time jobs or extremely flexible hours. The article didn't touch on this directly but the few choice anecdotes seemed to focus on full-time SAHMs who didn't have the choice to utilize outside assistance.<p>Speaking from personal experience, while we had the luxury to <i>choose</i> to move to a city without grandparents or nearby relatives for caretaker assistance, it was a marital struggle requiring a lot of honesty and heated discussions to resolve the tension between home-building roles, child rearing and career trajectories for the both of us.