You bring up a lot of good points here! In my case, I felt like I sacrificed my career even thought I continued to work full time (minus a whopping 10 weeks of leave after my first child and 14 weeks after my second). Because I had more restrictions on my time, like having to leave to pick up kids from daycare, I was seen as less committed, despite the unacknowledged fact that I was learning to be far more efficient with the time I had. In an ideal world, women would never have to make these difficult choices because the unpaid labor of raising children would be valued and shared far more equally with our male counterparts. In the meantime, I'm so glad you found a balance that worked for you!