My opinion is not popular but I think we are doing this to ourselves. When we take a six week old baby to daycare, drop him off early in the morning, pick him up on the way home like a fast food dinner, someone else is raising that child, not the parents.
My son is 25, my opinion wasn't popular back then either. We gave up a lot financially for me to stay home with him, but I was the one who first saw him walk, heard his first words, saw his first smile, etc.
When we delegate the rearing of children to someone else that child is not the most important thing in our life. Oh' we tell ourselves that he is but in reality getting to work is our most important task of the morning. That job is why we got up when we did, bundled the baby and got her things in a tote, got our coffee and went on our way. That's our goal--get to work, every other task that morning is in order to accomplish that. Back in the 80's when I was in my twenties a lady I worked with had a baby, put him in day care at 6 weeks. They lived in the other county so they would be in a better school district. It took her an hour to get into town, drop the baby off and go to work. We got off at 6 pm, then an hour for her to get home--at least unless she had to stop for something so say 7:30 or so. Now how much time did she have with that baby? Realistically? Honestly who is raising that child?
Like I said, I know this is a unpopular opinion so please,no flames. Economics being what they are have left us with little option but to have both parents work. We sacrificed a LOT and it was hard. I get that not everyone can do that. Fortunately there is a lot more options in working from home than there used to be and hopefully we will continue to see improvements like that.
But that is countered b the fact that technology continues to intrude in our lives. We have to keep reminding ourselves to put down the cell phone, shut down the computer and interact with our families, our loved ones. Until we really start to do that I am afraid we will see more of the hot car deaths because the whole "concentrate on your baby" task has been relegated to the bottom of our mental to do list.