@RadicalCartoons @HebrideanHecate I'm glad I had mine in my 20s. I loved being at home with them and didn't regret it at all. It did cost me a *career* (ha!) in teaching because the culture them was if you hadn't made senior management by your early 30s then forget it. But I was able to fit work around family with some childminding and some mutual support from other mums.
I think some feminism didn't help because it compared men and women in ways that were not compatible. Men and women are of equal worth, but we are not alike. It also told women that they had to be like men to be equal instead of supporting women to choose the path that was best for them. There was a sneering at mums (and dads) that opted to be the stay-at-home one.
The ones that really annoyed me were the *have it all* mums - they held down a 6 figure salary job while having five children and baking their own bread. What they always failed to mention was the support system of women (cleaners, childcare etc) that underpinned it.