Time and Money
USA Today notes a trend toward more family time and less work among Gens X and Y, terming them the "family first generation." As with all things familial, the trend is attributed to a morally positive change in attitude. (Work=bad, Family=good.)
The article isn't about waitress moms, of course. It focuses on what we used to call yuppies, before they moved to the suburbs. Among the professionals profiled, I suspect that economics, not some sort of moral conversion, explains most of the trend. If you're a highly skilled, highly educated professional, you can make quite a good living these days without working terribly long hours or putting your work first. (You can, of course, make more if you work obsessively. But even the most rationalistic economist believes people maximize utility, not income.) And, contrary to widespread belief in places like LA, Washington, and New York, in most of the United States, a family can live a comfortable middle-class life on middle-class pay, in many cases on a single salary. You won't have every luxury, but you'll have more than your parents.
Back in the pre-Slate days, Mickey Kaus took another angle on the same general trend--baby boomers who don't really have to work that hard to live.