100% financing - I understand that!

I definitely want to include the term "quality time" here.

"quality time"

Consists for me of mindful presence in the now.
Can be created almost anywhere daily.

later gratitude

Terrible topic. I see it with my husband. In my feeling, his parents demand a lot from him (invite us to dinner, take care of this for us...), because, in their opinion, he owes them gratitude (we raised you, we transferred our house to you...).

Terrible topic. I see it with my husband. In my opinion, his parents demand a lot from him (invite us to dinner, take care of this for us...), because they believe he owes them gratitude (we raised you, we transferred the house to you...)

Balance is important. Unfortunately, it also shows the dependency (transferred house, now always the hassle). I took nothing and demanded nothing and I have my peace!

It is just an illusion to believe that you can truly do justice to your child and your full-time job, at least as long as the children are at a certain age.

Strangely enough, this works quite well in Denmark and Finland and has become socially established. If you look at the top spots in the so-called Happiness Atlas of countries, you might be more inclined to question our childcare system. Scandinavia continuously at the top, Germany significantly behind. Therefore, the quality of care provided seems more important to me than the mere time division of care between daycare and parents. Whether the additional time with the child during part-time work is always truly invested in interacting with one's own child, or whether the reality more often looks like Disney+ providing the care while mom lounges next door on the couch fiddling with her smartphone, who knows...

My children also went to daycare at the age of one, but I initially deliberately worked part-time. 30 hours or, with the second child, 20/25 hours. When after the first child I was supposed to take over project management and therefore return to full-time work by the employer's request, we took care of the children at home "in shifts." I left the house very early, dad took the morning shift leisurely, and I finished work relatively early and could pick up the little one. That left enough time in the day for the child. Besides, she was already almost four. With the second child, I also only went to 90% when she was four. I am also not a fan of full-time work by both parents after one year (although I do support especially mothers returning to their jobs without guilt!). Still, you cannot generally accuse people of just offloading the children. I once read that the time parents really spend with their children does not differ that much... The double working parents then take care of the household, for example, when the children are in bed. One can also doubt that it is good for children if you constantly revolve solely around them.