Entering the 'day off from motherhood' debate

I've been reading the debate on Jean's blog, Simone's blog, and even Andrew's blog, on the trend for Christian mothers to take a 'day off' and put their children into childcare. After skimming most (there are a LOT of comments) of the comments on Jean's blog, I really want to summarise (I LOVE summarising). I think most of the discussion comes down to the following:

1. Motivation for putting kids into childcare
These range from financial necessity to wanting a day off to do things by yourself to having postnatal depression.

In general I think there is a general feeling among Christians for the need to remove ourselves from anything that might be difficult, and I think that this could be the motivation behind this movement.

2. Where and how often, the childcare occurs.
Where - Family, close friend, family day care, childcare centre.
Obviously if care other than by a parent must be provided, it would be ideal if a sister in Christ or family member were providing the care. I was blessed that DH normally looked after LJ and when he didn't a Christian sister who had a very similar mothering style to me could watch her. I am aware that I was very blessed.

Will an hour a week do?
Is there any other way I can get some time to myself?

3. Age of children
Varies from 6 weeks to 5 years. Research shows that children under 3 are not at an optimal age to be in a group childcare setting, mainly due to communication development, which is why Kindy is different from sending kids to childcare.

I should state that in general, childcare needs to be seen as a final, last resort rather than the first resort. I also don't believe that churches and communities generally don't work as they should.

I should also say that I am not without sympathy on this issue of finding motherhood difficult. I've worked a few hours a week to put my husband through college because it meant we had more time together as a family. I've also been totally exhausted and at the end of my tether because (as readers will know) our baby didn't sleep more than an hour and a half in a row at night until he was 8 months old. We live far from support. I've also suffered from depression.

We often look for a way out of our problems instead of looking to the Lord to help us in our difficulties...

Jean's recent blog post on asking ourselves what is most loving for our children is particularly relevant, I think that's the question to ask ourselves.