Antiseptic: -
"I should make it clear that I support a paid parental leave provision, but the author's argument doesn't do much for that cause."

I don't think that the article really is trying to do anything for that cause.Or for any cause at all, really.

I just read it as a comment about motherhood. You know, despite calls for equality etc. one can still discuss motherhood and fatherhood as subjects in which mothers and fathers are interested. This was an article about motherhood. No, it doesn't mention fatherhood. Nor does it mention sisterhood, or brotherhood nor nationhood. It was a mother reflecting upon issues that affect mothers.

Just as fathers are free to reflect on fatherhood and write articles upon the subject, so are mothers free to do the same. Why one earth should the author introduce fathers - or brothers, or in-laws, or anyone else at all - into an article directed by a mother to mothers?

Yep. Sure fatherhood is also a grind and has many sorts of problems, misconceptions,responsibilities and plain hard graft attached to it. So do many other aspects of life. But as this article doesn't deal with anything other than motherhood none of these are mentioned. Why should they be?

An article on fatherhood would not mention the motherhood side of things either. Nor would an article on childhood have to be slanted from the fathers, mothers, grandfathers, cousins, aunts or uncles points of view. Lets not get carried away here. A mother or a father can adress issues pertinent to themselves without being sexist, y'know.

Gee it'd just be nice if there were a few mothers around in my neighbourhood for support and socialising during the day. Most of them seem to work most days and spend their "non-work" days cleaning, shopping...

We made a choice to live on one income, one teacher's income, with 3 children under school age.

That's less than $75k a year.

Most would say, in our situation, one income was not possible and the mother would be forced to go to paid work but we make compromises and it works.

We left Sydney for a more affordable town.

We rent a nice house, a substantial portion of our income is rent, (while still paying a mortgage on a house in Sydney that lost 25% of it's value in the housing market bust).

When it comes to the polarisation of stay-at-home mums and career mums, I must say the majority of our socialising is with single income families simply because they get it (although almost all of these mums do some kind of occasional casual part-time paid work).

We don't spend money on our leisure. It's as simple as that.
We have a lot of hand-me-downs.
We use Freecycle - the free recycling internet community.
And we live a happy, slow-paced life.
Yet I still think some people assume that I stay at home because my husband is extremely wealthy (before they discover I'm married to a teacher, if they even bother to ask).

We made choices and sometimes we struggle. But who doesn't?

Sorry, I phrased that wrongly.
That should read,
"A substantial portion of our income is PAID OUT in rent."