It is desirable to make time available to meet the dependency needs of your child in the early years of development to best nurture the security needed for later independence. If a parent works outside the home, with only two hours per day during the week to be with children, it is important that quality time be spent in the evenings and on weekends, and that quality daycare provides safety, emotional security and appropriate stimulation. If the quality of the parental relationship is strong and positive, and the quality of daycare is high, the child will likely fare well. Depending on the nature of the parent-child relationship, such a child could, theoretically even fare better than a child home with a parent who is physically present but not providing the stimulation needed. If such research is used as a reason to ignore the primacy of the parent-child bond, children will suffer.
Parenthood does require significant compromise.
The misinterpretation of research to support the belief that parenthood does not have to change your life is clearly going in the wrong direction. No research in support of working parents should ever be used to deny the sacrifices necessary to put your children's needs ahead of your own. But we also must stop short of martyrdom. No child benefits from a mother who never develops any interests or activities outside of her own children. But this choice can be particularly problematic in an age when 50 percent of marriages end in divorce.