Roles and Responsibilities

Even after putting my baby to play school things have not changed much at the home front…Probably will, in a few days time once everyone gets used to the new routine. Meanwhile, hubby is getting increasingly frustrated that I am dependent on my mom to look after my baby. He feels it is perfectly fine to leave the child with a maid and quotes numerous successful examples of this mode of child rearing. For every example that he gives, I have a counter example where things have gone awfully wrong ‘cos the child was entrusted with an uneducated stranger!
Now, hubby wants to leave for a course outside the state and his logic is that since it is my insistence on rearing the baby without a maid (we do have house help, but her responsibilities do not include babysitting) I should manage home and my mom myself.
His parents have time for a lot of socializing but would never help look after the baby even for one day. This leads to some important questions:
1. Do grandparents have any responsibility towards grand children? If your answer is no, then how do you justify their relentless insistence that a couple have kids regardless of how ready they are?
2. Does the maternal or paternal side of grandparents have a higher level of responsibility?
3. Is the responsibility of parenting more with the mom or should it be equally shared by both parents? What if their parenting philosophy is different? If one believes in a more involved method of parenting, then should the other parent also chip in?
4. How good/bad is single parenting for a child?
5. Does the burden of child rearing take at least some of the sheen off the beautiful bond that the couple shares with each other? Or does it always just strengthen the bond?
I am really keen on hearing different views on the matter, hence feel free to comment. You may also forward this post to new/well heeled parents – I really want to know what the world thinks about these issues!