I am childfree and 15 years into my career. Over that time span almost everyone I worked with closely has had children. And for the life of me, I cannot think

I am childfree and 15 years into my career. Over that time span almost everyone I worked with closely has had children. And for the life of me, I cannot think of one instance where it affected their overall productivity. If anything, kids tend to be a stabilizing influence. I much prefer working with the person who is AFK every day from 3:00-4:00PM because he is picking up his kids versus the person who drops offline at 3:00PM randomly because they scored some concert ticket and the venue is 2.5 hours away. Your org sounds different from mine though. It sounds like immediate responses to short notice requests are very important. Maybe folks are getting rewarded for heroics and not for planning and proactive communications? That is not an atmosphere that is conducive to parenting. Or anything else, really.