This is also a cultural thing. I come from Romania, where it is (was before the pandemic?) very uncommon for people to work part time. The expectation when havi

This is also a cultural thing. I come from Romania, where it is (was before the pandemic?) very uncommon for people to work part time. The expectation when having children was to have the grandparents take care of them during the week until they are independent. Otherwise to hire a full time nanny until the kid goes to kindergarten and then have the child go to kindergarten or after schools for about 10 hours per day, with kindergartens closing late in the evening. Now I live in Germany, where there is little reliance on grandparents, children don’t stay that long in kindergarten (they close between 15:00 and 16:30) each day. This, to my understanding was because the women would assume a housewife role and would have time to take care of children. As the economy shifted and two income started becoming necessary, the society adapted to the old rules, but did not change them. Some people work part time, some work flexible schedules. For most office jobs I’ve seen, it’s easy to have a flexible schedule. My wife starts later and takes care of the kid in the morning, I start earlier and take care of the kid in the afternoon.