So when the parents indulge the escape of "work" because home is a living nightmare what are we left with to raise the kids? Instragram?

Good question! When there is not a pandemic they can go to daycare and play with other kids.

When there is? Well, I am not proud or happy about this, but my kids have very detailed knowledge of and strong opinions about Minecraft.

BTW, home is not really a living nightmare, and kids are wonderful, but they do need human attention.

I don't know but I think we need a "scared sterile" program for the kids (similar to "scared straight").

I didn't realize there were so many reluctant parents until COVID. I feel society has coerced people into lives so unhappy that they'd rather spend time at the place everyone else is trying to escape than with their loved ones.

Spreading child-supervision duties around the extended family and community so parents can do other things besides be with their children 24x7 has been a feature of many human cultures for many thousands of years.

Right, but the times they are a'changin', and many people don't live within reasonable distance of extended family anymore.

We can throw up our hands and either say a) stop moving away from your extended family, b) deal with the struggle, or c) don't have kids. Or we can use our big brains and try to figure out a better way for everyone to live where/how they want, but also be able to raise kids in a loving, supportive environment where the parents can still get a break sometimes.

I don't know what that better way is, but I think it's pretty fatalistic and defeatist to assume it doesn't exist.

There's a huge space of professional and community childcare options other than "extended family" and "don't have kids". That the dual-income middle class has been using for decades.

This is likely to be an unpopular opinion, but perhaps people who feel that way about their kids shouldn't have them in the first place.