Yes Juggling, but I don't think childcare was being spoken about in that broader sense but in the sense it is often spoken about on MN as being about "drudgery".
I would say that the one to one interactions you talk about are actually examples of quite skilled behaviour, but in current discourse, they are often described in waffly and imprecise ways which undermine their importance e.g. it's all about love and precious moments and the like, which while there is definite merit to on a personal level devalues what is actually happening and its importance to our society. I actually think that quality teaching has a lot of similarities to quality parenting but the ways in which they are spoken about suggest that a comparison in terms of this debate tends to be somewhat more perjorative.
Ultimately, I think the issue for me is what we communicate about the value of a personal life surrounded by our closest connections. I have no doubt that kids, being pretty resilient, will thrive in day care as will my own. However, I think that the consequence of using paid childcare costing little more than minimum wage means that the wider culture accepts that when you are vulnerable and not "producing" e.g. young children, the disabled, infirm and elderly infirm, you will have a lot of your day to day interaction paid for rather than provided. I think that this can be very problematic in real terms. There is no doubt that there are excellent and loving paid childcarers and excellent and caring home helps etc, but there is a deep loss of community happening where every caring transaction needs to be something that is paid and with a cost.
Again and again, this comes back to women's choices when as has been said by so many on this thread, really it is about both male and female choices. I will be honest and say I really do believe family care is better from my own point of view from the point of view of what I want to communicate about the importance of my children to me/their dad. Yet because of the wider culture, I am just not in a position to split that role equally (though dh earns a similar figure to me, flexible working is not often granted in his role) so my choices are: a) accept the status quo but put my desire for my children to be cared for by a family member first; b) reduce how much I work (staying at home is not financially viable because of mortgage).
Our current solution is that I will work 2.5 days term time only on a 3 day/2 day fortnight with one day studying a qualification which will allow me to be self-employed in a year or two so I can set my own hours and be available outside of school with dh using his annual leave to cover the additional day I work a fortnight so that the children have only 3 days in childcare. We were originally hoping to keep it to 2 but it's just proving impossible to manage to support study at the same time and delaying the study will delay the next phase when I want to be available after school.
It is really a lot less than ideal. Dh would be more than happy to work the same pattern as I do and we would have made this work, but it isn't an option. He and I certainly both could contribute both at home and at work with this sort of set up due to the nature of our roles, yet it is just unheard of and basically just a non-runner.
All of this suggests to me that the role of childcarer is discriminated against, regardless of gender. I don't believe that most workplaces couldn't support more split roles if the wider culture was prepared to value childcare. Men won't do it while there is no value on it either... I often read on threads like these that if men wanted to they would as they have all the power.. but I think it's less about what people want than what they have been taught to believe that they want and the mechanisms by which society keeps its members behaving in a particular way are complex. I don't think every man relishes work above being at home with their family any more than any woman desperately wants to be at home but is constrained by finances. I just think that for whatever reason, the current set up suits people in power and so it is maintained.