she sings and sighs as the shuttle flies

These are words that may come back to bite me should I procreate! In fact, it's one of the things that makes me very unsure about parenthood. See, I'm quite certain I'd be unhappy if I stopped paid work for an extended period of time (say, more than a year), but I do think that childcare/school etc can be pretty awful. The best compromise I can imagine is 2 parents negotiating some part time arrangement, and having some external child caring, plus different days with parents. Who knows.