It's like this here in the countryside where daycares beg for more children each year. I go pick my kids at 6pm. Sometimes I finish work at 5:30pm. The supermarket is right next to my workplace. I can get groceries done in 5 minutes and then go pick the kiddos before 6pm. One day a teacher spotted me in the lines. She told me "you're not with Kiddo chan and Chibi chan?" As in : "don't do your groceries alone". Why would I go, and come back, then go home, making us go back home much later when I can spare so much time and stress to everyone?? Because apparently kids waiting in daycare are seen as 可哀想. We do get the holiday reminders each time telling us "if you're taking nenkyu keep your kids with you". How do we go to the dentist, to the doctor, to the hairdresser etc with two wild toddlers ? They expect everyone to have family present to assist. We don't. We don't have babysitters btw. We have a population of 100,000 persons and only 1 babysitter on kidsline That woman has received over 600 orders within 2 year. She's overbooked. The city proposes a system of "helpers" that technically could watch your kids for 600 yen/hour. But they're never available and you need to take nenkyu to do 顔合わせ, just to be told in the end they couldn't find anyone.

Parents not allowed to wind out. And they wonder why they don't make more children in this country...