On the other hand, professional women enjoy more freedom and flexibility associated with their high-paying jobs. For working parents, the “time crunch” shows no signs of slowing down. Middle-class people are more than willing to pay someone to clean their house or babysit, if it means spending more hours at work (outside the home). Unfortunately, the choice of profession affects the way in which each person balances work and family time. For professionals, it is frowned upon when new parents request parental leave (especially men). In the workplace, parental leave is seen almost as a vacation period rather than a recovery period. In a marriage, it is the woman who is most often pressured to take time off work in order to stay home more with the children. When pressures arise among parents to balance work and family, their home life is transformed into different “work shifts.” If they work, this may involve working night shifts, with mothers combining their mothering time with the hours they spend at work, while remaining the primary caretakers of the home. The gender gap in housework is very present, the number of hours women spend on housework depends on the time spent in paid employment or the income of their relatives/husbands. The options available to professional women are limited by the ages of their children, company culture, the flexibility of their work schedules, and the cost of using that flexibility. For some, staying at home remains their primary occupation, despite the economic benefits of being a worker.