The evidence for advantages from being raised by a parent rather than other caregivers is extremely thin, and more important, unquantified. We invoke all those platitudes about the importance of mothering because we lack the data to make meaningful assertions.

How much more will your child earn if you stay home and raise it, instead of going to work and leaving it in daycare? And does that offset the advantages we know accrue to children from higher parental income? We don’t really have any evidence that being cared for by a stay at home parent improves outcomes. We have quite a lot of evidence that, e.g., SAT scores correlate highly with parental income.