It's all about balance and choice. People who choose to have a career aren't saying they don't want to be with their kids. They're saying they recognize the financial flexibility that their career will bring them and their children down the road. College isn't free, a nice house isn't free and people who are in their 20s, 30s and early 40s today aren't going to have the same economic benefits in that the likelihood that their retirement plans, investments, etc. will skyrocket as they did over the previous decades is slim. All that's to say that for most people working hard and being time crunched is a necessity, whether they like it or not.