Lots of them are working part time or running home offices. Some aren't thriving and never will. So goes the jungle. Fathers, meanwhile, are more than token players in The New Family Deal. Dual earners swap baby time and share household chores.
Many nouvelle couples have tag-team jobs so that one parent is at home while the other works.
Which is to say, American families have never been more creative, nor more maligned for trying. What Young does so well, as usual, is direct our attentions to the gray area, the middle ground most of us occupy. Somewhere in between is the right formula, though it may vary for each of us. My own tussle with single motherhood, child care and multiple jobs through the years created an endless series of entrepreneurial approaches that shifted with my child's age, his needs, mine and the world around us. It's a titanic challenge not likely to be advanced by carping and condemnation from both sides of the mommy trenches.