I think the choice to have children without ample time for child-care is a failure, but i'm not wholly convinced that it's the market that drove it completely -- more like it's driven by a poor decision making process by the parents.

Historically day-care has been a service used by very poor single parents so that they can maintain a work schedule, or the affluent that want some free time away from the kids. With that said, I can totally understand why there isn't a very good way to balance that market that's split between the 'well-off' and the desperate.

My point is, which unfortunately isn't a popular one, that the parents are ultimately at fault for creating a financial burden that they have difficulty (in this economy, at this time) coping with. There is no stork-drop, it's their fault -- and this expectation for affordable childcare , which I hope becomes a thing sooner rather than later for the sake of the kids , is born from an inability to cope with poor planning and impulse control, and comes off as entitlement after thousands of years of parents' raising kids without a third party involvement.

I think fewer and fewer people view the raising of children as a privilege, and it's shifting into a given.

That's a problem.

P.S. yes, I know third-party child-care isn't new, but the drive to provide it for every mother is.