The White House trumpets a “baby bonus” — $5,000 wired days after delivery — to reverse America’s record-low 1.6 fertility rate, documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics Reports. In the same breath, it orders every federal employee back to the office five days a week. But Stanford’s new “Working from Home in 2025” survey of 16,422 professionals upends that logic: women with children desire 2.66 remote days each week, higher than any other demographic.

The administration vows to grow families while vaporizing the flexibility that makes new children feasible, creating a collision that risks empty cribs and hollow offices alike.

Time rules parenthood. The average American commute consumes 55 minutes round-trip, meaning a traditional five-day schedule eats up almost another five hours of free time each week. Those hours fuel bedtime routines, homework patrol and marriage maintenance; without them, parental stress spikes.

Stanford’s survey shows parents steer toward hybrid work precisely because several home days help restore that bandwidth. Parents still collaborate on site yet dodge traffic’s cortisol surge. The federal badge doctrine yanks that option, forcing caregivers back into rush-hour gridlock and........

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