My wife and I have been married for 40 years and have three wonderful children together. My wife chose to leave the workforce after our second child was born to stay at home because as she said she “loved being with the kids more than work.” She is a wonderful mother and wife, and having her as a partner made it possible for me to have a successful career and a great relationship with my children.
Whenever I bring up going on a trip, my wife brings out the calendar and I have to go through mental gymnastics to try to plan it around whatever the kids and grandkids have going on. While they don’t rely on us for regular everyday childcare, they do rely on us for occasional care, which typically turns out to be us taking care of grandchildren several times a month. Recently, my wife nixed a trip because it fell during a weekend when our son and his wife wanted to take a childless vacation.