I know you're being rhetorical, but often, just trying to avoid a gap in your resume. It sucks but there can be a greater long-term cost to trying to reenter the workforce after taking years off to raise kids.
I am just curious, is this a hypothetical or do you know of many people who actually made the explicit choice to break even working, just to have continuity of resume?
It smells a little like BS to me, both because it seems to be often repeated (so sounds like a talking point) but I can't imagine any parents I know to actually decide this way
I've worked with a couple of folks that have said this exact thing, yes. One was a lab tech and I'm pretty sure she was less-than-breaking-even with putting her two kids in daycare. So yeah, it's definitely a real thing.
It smells a little like BS to me, both because it seems to be often repeated (so sounds like a talking point) but I can't imagine any parents I know to actually decide this way