Even if both parents would prefer to have the man take time off to take care of the baby, it's frequently just not possible.

Indeed. The gender role expectations of work-places are very problematic, and worth questioning and arguing against; men who want to take full part in parenting have a challenge in front of them to argue their companies out of preventing them from doing so.

Thank you for the explanation of what's going on in Wish! What the French translators did sounds to me like it's truest to what the creators had in mind.

(Also, I now have a better understanding of why we refer to that series as "Unspeakable CLAMP." Grin.)