My wife sacrificed her career for our 3 kids. When you factor in all the costs of working - the daycare, the work clothes, eating out more frequently, maintaining a "professional" wardrobe and so on and so forth - she was only making a few dollars/hour for all her work, less than minimum wage. Then when you factor in the stress, spending so much time away from your kids, it just doesn't make any sense. She was happy and the kids were happy.

Having 3 happy and now successful (my youngest starts college this year) kids is worth far more than whatever other crap I would've spent the money on.