Eberstadt overstates her point and makes major errors in logic. If you keep reading and try not to bash your head against your desk when you hit her methodology problems, you’ll find some truths in here. It is good for kids to have their parents around. But what do you do about it?

Shame more women to stay at home with their kids? That won’t work. There is no return to the magical days of the fifties. A mother who is home because of shame will not be an improvement over daycare.

Eberstadt offers no solutions. To her credit, she also recognizes that many families can’t afford one income.

Mothers who work do it for two reasons: either they have to for financial reasons or they have to for sanity reasons. If you want more parents at home, you’re going to have to pay for it.

Subsidize mothers (and dads) to stay at home. Provide more part time work opportunities. Provide a stronger community life for mothers at home, so they don’t loose their marbles in the solitude of a home. Reward parents who raise their kids themselves. Provide free marriage classes for those who need it. Reward businesses that promote family-friendly policies. Subsidize low cost housing.

There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. No return to the magical days of the past, which, by the way, weren’t so magical. If you want a return to Jeffersonian America, you’re going to have to use Hamiltonian means.