The modern economy is a gelatinous, fluid beast, and it places families in unconventional situations.  I am not sure how things were in the 5th century BC, or in 5th century AD, or even in the 15th century AD, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the agricultural economy meant that a lot of people worked at home, which is to say on the farm.  Men worked all day, women worked all day, and somehow, the kids got mostly fed and mostly educated and became mostly adults.  But now, in the last fifty years or more, the economy demands people work elsewhere.  Men work in an office, and now a lot of women work in an office, and that means somebody’s got to do something about the kids.  It’s not an easy situation.  Sometimes, the kids go to daycare.  Sometimes, the dads and moms decide that the moms will stay home and tend to the kids until school begins.  Sometimes the moms stay home and do school, too.  Sometimes they decide the impossible: that they will both work outside the home and both stay at home.  That’s what Marc and Amy Vachon decided:

After Maia was born, they negotiated part-time schedules, which turned out to be the easy part. Amy worked four days a week, Monday through Thursday; Marc worked three 10-hour days, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

The division of work led naturally to the division of child care. On the days he went to the office, Marc would leave early and bike to work (having only one car, despite two commutes, is one way they are able to afford life on two part-time salaries), while Amy did the entire morning child routine. On Monday and Wednesday, when she worked too, she would take Maia to family day care across the street from their house. On Friday, she and Maia would spend the day together. On Tuesday and Thursday, Amy would sleep a little later and leave Maia in Marc’s care. If Maia got sick on a Monday, they agreed in advance that Marc would take off from work, and Amy would do the same if the sick day was a Wednesday. It was a schedule that continued after Theo was born three years later.

Whew.  I’m exhausted.  The economic concept of the “division of labor” doesn’t mean that everybody divides everything equally.  It means they divide things equitably.  Which is to say that economic creators (e.g., individuals, nations, etc.) specialize in something they do well.  Same goes for the home, I always thought.  But, more power to parents who bypass healthy equity for radical equality.  I couldn’t imagine a worse situation in my home.  But still interesting to see others try it.