I did the math on this and in my current income bracket, I could relatively safely support a stay at home wife and a couple kids along with all the trappings. And that’s before factoring in any secondary income streams I have, like xitter payouts or selling novels. It’s also without factoring family support from my parents or brother’s family, since we all live close.
It’s a much wiser choice for most families to eat the single-income crunch for five or six years while your kids are very young, than pay for daycare. Those years are supremely important for bonding with your child too, as well as just being there for them, so take that time while you have it (and for any future children you have) then go work part-time once they’re in school. We’ve valourized the girlboss, but that’s not the lifestyle most will find fulfilling, nor is it the one that’s good for having a family.
An obscure academic wrote a book in 2004 about how dual income households are a scam & the vast majority of women simply aren't economically productive enough to justify outsourcing childcare, even in dystopian government warehouses