Or blaming Ritalin. Many have come to believe they need two incomes more than their child needs the attention of a parent. They have rationalized that quality of time is more important than quantity of time, as if a child can choose when he needs to talk to a parent or when a teachable moment will occur, as if a child's life observed in the hour before he goes to bed is the same as in the hour he arrives home from school. Women balk at the notion, because they are the ones who most often put their careers on hold and become full-time caregivers. They don't have to.
Men are as capable.
But the roles should be decided when a couple commit to a new priority in their lives and decide to have a child. If parents are unwilling to accept the different standard of living one income provides, perhaps they should rethink their readiness for parenthood. If they are unwilling to discipline, they should rethink their readiness. If they are unwilling to teach their children that there are absolute parameters of right and wrong, and if they lack confidence in the ones they have set for themselves, maybe they should reconsider. Guiding a child into a morally healthy, respectful and respectable adulthood is probably the greatest accomplishment an individual can hope to achieve.