The bond between a mother and her child is very special and intense. That doesn't happen with a paid caregiver. Heck, I was glued to my mom till I was 4.

I'm sad for you that you don't seem to understand this, with words like "shunted".

My parents are decades gone, but I miss them every day. Not so for any paid caregiver.

My grandmother died when my dad was 9. In his 90s, he forgot that she was dead, and would cry wondering why she didn't visit him.

The notion that this can be replaced with the state is absurd.

Firstly, I am a mother with two children, so no need to educate me about the bond between mother and child. Secondly, of course children love their parents. You seem to be conflating parenting with daytime childcare. This is a common misconception among people who romanticize stay-at-home parenting: it’s either “mom stays home during the workday with kids” or “the state raises the kids.” You may not be aware, since you say your mom stayed home with you, that parents whose kids are in daycare do still get a lot of parenting time in. They see their kids a lot. They feed them, clothe them, kiss their scraped knees, help them with homework, put them to bed, take them to the park and movies and church. Daycare isn’t 24/7. It’s also not some kind of robotic state-sponsored apparatus. Childcare providers are people who have chosen taking care of kids as their career, they often have a degree in early childhood education, and they love the kids they take care of.

And I do not apologize for the word “shunted.” No woman in a modern society should be forced to choose between having a child and being something other than a full-time childcare provider. Men don’t face that choice; women shouldn’t either.

Those are nice feelings _you_ have, but they don't have anything to do with women being forced into childcare. You're romanticizing things you never had to do.