What Is Child Care?

This post is a detailed guide to understanding what child care is.

Included in this post are answers to why child care is so expensive, the difference between child care and stay at home parenting, and why child care is controversial.

Let’s jump right in.

Summary of definitions and terms

What is child care? Child care meaning and definition

Child care means fostering the well-being, growth, and development of a child in a supervisory environment in exchange for compensation.

The three prerequisites for child care are:

1. Active child supervision
2. A supervisory environment
3. Compensation

What is a supervisory environment?

A supervisory environment is a setting in which all the following criteria are present:

1. One or more individuals has been officially charged with the duty of supervising a child.
2. Active child supervision is maintained at all times.
3. There are clearly agreed upon expectations for what is and is not acceptable in the course of providing child care.

Both the above criteria must be present in order for an environment to be considered a supervisory environment.

A supervisory environment is a core prerequisite for child care. Some examples of supervisory environments include:

• Daycare centers
• Family daycares (also known as home daycares or in-home daycare)
• Preschools
• Pre-kindergarten
• Homes under the supervision of a babysitter

What is a active child supervision?

Active child supervision means monitoring a child while remaining in the direct line of sight or within hearing distance of the child.

Why is it spelled “child care” instead of “childcare”?

Government precedent is the major reason why child care is not simply spelled “childcare” in countries such as Canada.

“Child care” is spelled with a space in between the words “child” and “care” because government publications and documents in some countries spell it that way. However, in other parts of the world, “childcare” is the more common spelling.

What is parenting?

Parenting is the commitment to raise a child in spite of whatever duties, responsibilities, and demands arise in the course of raising that child.

What is a child care desert?

A child care desert is a geographic area in which the total number of child care spaces is drastically less than the total number of 0 to 5 year old children in that area.

Note: The classification of an area as a child care desert does not always reflect the present local demand for child care in that area.

What is child care?

Child care means fostering the well-being, growth, and development of a child in a supervisory environment in exchange for compensation.

What is a supervisory environment?

A supervisory environment is a setting in which all the following criteria are present:

1. One or more individuals has been officially charged with the duty of supervising a child.
2. Active child supervision is maintained at all times.
3. There are clearly agreed upon expectations for what is and is not acceptable in the course of providing child care.

Both the above criteria must be present in order for an environment to be considered a supervisory environment.

A supervisory environment is a core prerequisite for child care. Some examples of supervisory environments include:

• Daycare centers
• Family daycares (also known as home daycares or in-home daycare)
• Preschools
• Pre-kindergarten
• Homes under the supervision of a babysitter

This article is the pioneer resource in coining the term “supervisory environment” as a prerequisite for child care and specifying the criteria for an environment to be considered a supervisory environment.

What is active child supervision?

Active child supervision means monitoring a child while remaining in the direct line of sight or within hearing distance of the child.

Why is child care so expensive?

There are many costs associated with operating child care facilities like daycare centers, family daycares, preschools, and kindergartens.

Many of these costs go unseen and unnoticed by parents resulting in bewilderment among parents as to why child care is so expensive.

Some of the costs and expenses that go into providing child care include:

• Annual license fees and taxes
• Consultations: Child care providers incur multiple different kinds of consultation costs. Examples include consultations with experts when designing learning programs, meal menus, regulation and compliance consultations, etc. These consultations are often necessary and come at a significant cost.
• Cleaning and aesthetics: Children make walls dirty, cause protective floor treatments to wear out faster, and add additional wear and tear to properties. The aesthetic maintenance cost of a daycare is therefore significantly higher than a parent might expect.
• Daycare operations: Meal costs, equipment purchases, activity supplies and other operations costs are a monthly recurring expense for child care providers.
• Inspections: Daycares often make costly building modifications to ensure that their facilities pass safety inspections. Such modifications involve hiring licensed electricians and other certified contractors which results in very high compliance costs.
• Property costs: Utilities, rent or mortgage payments, and security costs are major monthly expenses for child care providers.
• Property maintenance costs: Lawn maintenance, snow removal, landscaping, repairs, and other property maintenance costs are a recurring expense for child care providers.
• Salaries and employee benefits are a very costly monthly expense for child care providers.

The above are just some of the reasons that child care is so expensive.

However, the above list is not exhaustive and does not include other expenses such as insurance etc.

Each of the above expenses is a critical expense. Meaning, none of the above expenses can simply be cut from the budget.

These expenses add up and collectively result in child care being expensive even after daycares receive government grants in some cases.

Daycares should be run profitably

Profit in the context of child care is often misunderstood.

Daycares need to be run profitably because daycares need to have business savings.

Without savings, all it takes is one catastrophe such as damage to a roof during a storm, a major plumbing failure, or temporary closure due to a disease or parasite outbreak to put a daycare out of business or to burden a daycare with debt.

Running a daycare profitably is the most responsible way to operate a daycare.

Profit in the context of child care is not about making daycare operators rich. Profit in the context of child care is about readiness for worst case scenarios.

Therefore, business savings is a critical child care expense in the sense that daycares need to put some amount of money categorized as “business savings” aside every month in order to ensure readiness for unexpected scenarios.

This is commonly known as a rainy day fund.

What is the difference between child care and parenting?

Child care is for early years

Child care is normally provided to children in their early years. Early years or early childhood refers to the age range of 0 to 8 years old.

The need for supervision is greatest during the early years of a child and lessens the older a child gets. 

This is because children generally become more responsible and capable of independence as they get older.

Therefore, child care becomes less of a necessity the older a child becomes.

In contrast, parenting occurs throughout the lifetime of a human being. A child does not grow too old to receive parenting.

However, the parenting needs of a child do change as the child goes through different stages of growth.

A child is entirely dependent on their parents in the early years of their life. Therefore, parenting is a lot more hands-on during childhood years.

However, as a child transitions into adulthood, parenting takes on a more advisory and supportive role.

Nevertheless, as long as a healthy parent-child relationship is maintained, parenting does not cease even after a child becomes an adult.

In summary, child care is a duty for a time. Parenting is a responsibility for life.

A supervisory environment is not a prerequisite for parenting

Child care meets all the criteria for a supervisory environment.

However, since a parent is neither officially charged by anyone with the duty of supervising a child nor expected to maintain active child supervision at all times, a supervisory environment is neither a prerequisite nor a characteristic of parenting.

Child care is an occupation

Child care is a field of occupation in which child care providers support the growth, development, and well-being of a child in exchange for compensation.

As an occupation, child care is protected by labour laws such as minimum wage pay, maternity leave, Worker’s Compensation, etc.

Parenting is the commitment to raise a child.

Parenting is not an occupation and is therefore neither protected by labour laws nor provided in exchange for compensation.

A parent accepts whatever duties, responsibilities, and demands arise in the course of raising a child.

While child care jobs have clearly outlined duties, the duties of a parent change from day to day, moment to moment, and throughout the life of a child.

Training for competency

Child care has a standardized path of training for competency.

Many universities and higher level learning institutions provide standardized child care courses, certifications, and qualifications through courses such as Early Childhood Education courses.

On the other hand, parenting has no syllabus.

The skills, knowledge, and competencies required to parent a child are acquired over a lifetime as opposed to enrolling in a higher level learning institution.

Although there is plenty of advice on parenting, there are no standardized parenting courses in universities and higher level learning institutions.

Similarities between child care and parenting

Combined effort from multiple people

Both child care and parenting can require efforts from multiple parties. 

In multiple cultures around the world (less so in Western countries), a local community will both parent a child and provide collective child supervision.

Specialists in different disciplines such as nurses, therapists, counsellors, psychologists, and paediatricians support both parents and child care providers to meet the needs of individual children.

Different approaches

There are multiple different approaches to both parenting and providing child care.

Parents and child care providers have different approaches for:

• Child discipline
• Diets and feeding
• Early education

Parenting and child care approaches are often influenced by:

• Culture, societal norms, and family background
• Religious beliefs
• Educational institutions
• Laws and regulations
• Personal convictions

In many cases, there is no right or wrong way to parent or provide child care.

Since what works for one child may not work for another, keeping an open mind and being willing to try new strategies is encouraged in both parenting and child care.

Children go through phases from time to time and different parenting or child care approaches may be required for different phases.

The decision to stick with a particular parenting style or child care approach often depends on the child’s response to the approach and whether or not that approach produces the desired long or short term results.

What are the different forms of child care?

The different forms of child care are:

1. Center-based child care: In this child care setting, children are cared for in a commercial property. Examples include daycare centers, preschools, kindergartens, and prekindergarten. Center-based care is more institutional and typically accommodates larger numbers of children than other forms of care.
2. Family daycare: In this child care setting, a group of children is cared for in a home. For this reason, family daycare is also known as home daycare. A home daycare is a home-based business in which a child care provider converts part or all of their home into a daycare space.
3. Private caregivers: In this setting, a caregiver is hired to come to a child’s home and look after the child for a period of time. Examples include nannies, babysitters, and au pairs. In some cases, the caregiver may be hired to live in the home with the family to attend to the child at all times.

Each of the above forms of child care has its pros and cons.

Pros and cons of center-based child care

Pros of center-based child care

1. Trained staff: Daycare centers, preschools, and kindergartens typically employ staff with a background in early childhood education. Therefore, staff in center-based care are usually equipped to provide a more holistic approach to child care. This results in more well rounded child development.
2. Background checks: Criminal record checks are often a prerequisite to work in center-based environments such as daycare centers and preschools. 
3. Regulated child care: Center-based child care providers provide licensed and regulated child care. This ensures that the quality of child care provided complies with certain minimum standards and regulations for the safety and well-being of enrolled children.
4. Subsidized child care: Some center-based child care providers are eligible for government grants and subsidies. In such cases, this may result in lower fees for parents of enrolled children.
5. Greater resources: Center-based child care providers tend to have greater resources to provide certain child care experiences. This includes installing outdoor swings and play structures and buying equipment and supplies for learning activities.
6. Employment benefits: Staff in daycare centers often have access to employment benefits such as medical and dental insurance. This is generally not the case with other forms of child care.

Cons of center-based child care

1. Exposure to disease: Daycare centers and preschools have larger numbers of children in attendance than other forms of child care. This can potentially result in more frequent exposure to disease and infections among enrolled children.
2. Larger child groups: Larger child group sizes in daycare centers may result in less individual focus and attention being given to each child.
3. Staff turnover: Due to higher staffing requirements, some center-based child care providers face increased challenges in hiring and retaining staff. Intermittent care from staff members with short tenures can potentially be challenging for children in their early years.
4. High child care costs: When center-based care is not subsidized by the government, daycare prices in centers can be more expensive than other forms of child care.

Pros and cons of family daycare

Pros of family daycare

1. Home environment: Family child care is provided in the child care provider’s home. This is desirable to parents that value a more home-like feel and a less institutional child care setting.
2. Smaller group sizes: Family daycares have less children in attendance than center-based care providers. This can result in more focus and attention on each individual child.
3. Less exposure to disease: Family daycares have fewer children in attendance than daycare centers and preschools. This can potentially result in less exposure to disease and infections among enrolled children.
4. Mixed age child care: Infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school age children are often cared for in the same space in family daycares. This results in social interaction between younger and older children. In such settings, older children may learn to lead and be more empathetic while younger children mimic vocabulary and learn from older children. 
5. Consistent caregiver: Children receive child care from the same daycare provider throughout the entirety of their enrollment in a family daycare. This is generally desirable for children that are especially clingy and struggle with adjusting to strangers.
6. Flexibility: Family daycare providers may be more willing to create custom child care arrangements in terms of daycare attendance or payment for child care than center-based providers.
7. Subsidized child care: Some family daycare providers are eligible for government grants and subsidies. In such cases, this may result in lower fees for parents of enrolled children.

Cons of family daycare

1. Reliance on a single caregiver: Family daycares often rely on a single child care provider. This can result in child care disruptions if the child care provider falls sick or is unable to provide child care for other reasons.
2. Limited resources: Family daycare providers may not have the resources required to provide certain child care experiences. For example, installing outdoor swings and play structures comes at a significant cost that some family daycares cannot afford. 
3. Unlicensed child care: Some family daycares provide unlicensed child care. Unlicensed child care is not dangerous. However, unlicensed daycare providers are not held to the same child care standard as licensed child care providers. Additionally, there is little to no oversight over unlicensed daycare providers and therefore less accountability.
4. Lack of training: Some family daycare providers have no early childhood education training. This can result in a focus on play and fun while potentially neglecting other forms of development such as cognitive development.
5. No employment benefits: Family daycare providers often have no employment benefits.

Pros and cons of private caregivers

Pros of private caregivers

1. Personalized child care: Private caregivers such as nannies and babysitters provide one-on-one child care. This allows them to cater to unique needs and customize child care activities for your child.
2. Familiar environment: Children do not leave their homes to receive child care when cared for by a private child care provider. This potentially results in less stress and anxiety.
3. Flexibility: Private child care providers often offer more flexibility in terms of scheduling and accommodating the specific needs of a family.
4. Consistent caregiver: Children receive child care from the same private child care provider on a regular basis. This is generally desirable for children that are especially clingy and struggle with adjusting to strangers.
5. Lower exposure to disease: Children in private child care are potentially less likely to be exposed to disease and infections than in family daycares, preschools, or daycare centers. 
6. Parental involvement: Parents have greater ability to design their child’s daily routine when working with a private child care provider.

Cons of private caregivers

1. Limited social interaction: Children often receive care in isolation in private child care. This can result in less social development and slower vocabulary development than in other forms of child care.
2. Reliance on a single caregiver: Parents may face child care disruptions if a private child care provider falls sick or is unable to provide child care for other reasons.
3. Limited resources: Private child care providers may have less resources to provide certain child care experiences. For example, private caregivers may have smaller budgets for buying equipment and supplies for learning activities.
4. Lack of a formal curriculum: Private child care providers may not follow a structured curriculum as is the case in other forms of child care. This can result in a focus on play and fun while potentially neglecting other forms of development such as cognitive development.
5. Higher cost: Private child care providers are often more expensive than other forms of child care.
6. No employment benefits: Private child care providers often have no employment benefits.
7. Unlicensed child care: Private child care providers are not held to the same standard of child care as licensed child care providers and have little to no professional oversight.
8. Dependency: Children who are cared for by private child care providers may develop a strong dependence on that individual. This can result in future challenges when transitioning to different forms of child care.

Stay at home parenting vs child care

Is stay at home parenting a form of child care?

Stay at home parenting is not a form of child care because stay at home parenting is not provided in a supervisory environment.

Is child care better than stay at home parenting?

Child care settings such as daycare centers are not inherently superior to a child’s home environment.

All the benefits of child care and more can be provided in a home environment.

With sufficient preparation, any stay at home parent can facilitate their child’s social, emotional, cognitive, language, and motor development.

Part of the appeal that child care settings such as daycares and preschools have is that they are specifically designed with child care in mind.

Different aspects of child development are often built into some daycares and preschools by design.

Nevertheless, any parent can take steps to create both a nurturing as well as developmental environment at home.

Differences between stay at home parenting and child care

Below are the differences between child care and stay at home parenting:

• Child care is a field of occupation while stay at home parenting is commitment.
• Child care is provided in exchange for compensation while there is no compensation provided to stay at home parents.
• As an occupation, child care has clock-in and clock-out times while stay at home parenting does not.
• Child care is protected by labour laws while stay at home parenting is not.
• Many higher level learning institutions provide child care courses and certification but not stay at home parenting courses.

Pros of stay at home parenting

A stay at home environment can provide some advantages over some forms of child care. These include:

• Limited exposure to disease: A child in a stay at home environment is less likely to be exposed to disease and infections than in a family daycare, preschool, or daycare center.
• Room for experimentation: You are free to experiment and try out a variety of learning philosophies such as Montessori, Waldorf education, Reggio Emilia, and other approaches to see what your child best responds to.
• Medical attention: If your child has complex medical or dietary needs, stay at home parenting offers the opportunity to provide one-on-one child monitoring and attention.
• Parent fulfillment: Witnessing and participating in your child’s growth and happiness in-person is a bonding experience that many stay at home parents greatly value. 
• Personalized care: Stay at home parenting provides the opportunity to customize activities for your child’s unique interests.
• Flexibility: Daycares have fixed time tables and cannot alter their daily routine to cater to each child’s mood. However, a stay at home environment gives you the flexibility to structure your child’s day accordingly.  
• Familiar caregiver: If your child is clingy and struggles with adjusting to strangers, stay at home parenting can put your child at ease.

Cons of stay at home parenting

• Limited social interaction: Children often receive care in isolation at home. This can result in less social development and slower vocabulary development than in other forms of child care.
• Limited resources: Some parents may have smaller budgets to buy certain equipment and supplies for learning activities than in other forms of child care.
• Lack of a formal curriculum: Without sufficient training and preparation, parents may not have a structured curriculum to follow. This can result in a focus on play and fun while potentially neglecting other forms of development such as cognitive development.
• Career stagnation: Stay at home parenting can pause or slow career advancement, earnings, and academic progression.
• Lack of government support: In some countries in which child care is subsidized by the government, there is little to no support provided to stay at home parents.

The history of child care. Why does child care exist?

When traced all the way back to its beginnings, child care exists to assist parents with certain aspects of raising children.

When speaking of daycare centers in particular, the roots of center-based care can be traced all the way back to the operations of orphanages.

Some orphanages evolved to not only provide care to children without parents, but also to provide short-term care to infants of unwed mothers and to children whose families were temporarily unable to care for them.

Examples of such orphanages include the Children’s Home of Winnipeg in Canada.

Although the first daycare center in Canada officially began operations in 1909, the Children’s Home of Winnipeg (established in 1884 by the Christian Women’s Union of Winnipeg) provided care on a short-term basis to infants of unwed mothers and to children whose families were temporarily unable to care for them.

It should be noted that although child care exists to assist parents with certain aspects of raising children, child care is not a substitute for parenting.

What benefits does child care provide?

Child care provides several benefits to both parents as well as to enrolled children. These benefits include:

1. Early childhood development: When child care is provided by early childhood educators, it facilitates cognitive, language, social, and motor development.
2. Social skills and peer interaction: Child care facilitates interactions between children and their peers. This creates opportunities for children to learn social skills.
3. Language and communication development: Vocabulary development occurs as children mimic words that they hear. Child care settings provide opportunities for children to hear and mimic words from their peers and thereby improve their vocabulary. Child care settings also help children to develop their understanding of non-verbal communication and body language.  
4. Increases household incomes: Child care enables parents to work and earn an income thereby increasing the total household income of the family. Two-parent families benefit by both parents earning an income and one parent families benefit by single parents earning an income. Low income families are therefore some of the greatest beneficiaries of child care.
5. Prepares children for school: Preschool and kindergarten programs help children to transition out of a home environment and to get ready for a school and classroom environment.
6. Protects vulnerable children: In some cases, child care protects children from troubled backgrounds by reducing their exposure to dangerous ways of life.

It is important to note that child care is not the only avenue through which your child can receive the above benefits.

With sufficient preparation, any stay at home parent can facilitate their child’s social, emotional, cognitive, language, and motor development in a nurturing home environment.

What is involved in providing child care?

Child care providers fulfill several duties in the course of providing child care. Some of these duties include:

• Preparing meals
• Feeding children
• Facilitating learning 
• Cleaning and disinfecting 
• Child supervision
• Diaper changes

Why is child care controversial?

Child care as a topic has become politicized particularly in the Western world.

The politicization of child care is a complex process that gradually occurred over time.

One of the reasons for the politicization of child care is the rise of various political movements that highlighted the provision of child care as an essential goal.

Child care’s significance to these movements led to their political nature inevitably spilling over into the topic of child care.

Unfortunately, we now live in a world in which a parent’s decision to remain at home to raise their child is interpreted by some as a political stance.

Child care remains a controversial topic due to a range of factors, some of which include:

• Research and scientific studies
• Traditional, cultural, and religious values
• Economic factors
• Political ideologies and objectives

Below are brief summaries of some of the controversial arguments surrounding the topic of child care.

Disclaimer:

The arguments presented below are for informational and educational purposes only. We do not necessarily agree with or endorse the views presented below.

Impact on child development

The impact that prolonged daycare attendance has on child development is a controversial issue.

Some studies suggest that prolonged enrollment in daycare results in:

• Increased aggressiveness, hyperactivity, and anxiety for children
• More hostile and less consistent parenting from the parents of enrolled children

For example, a study on the effect of enrollment in Quebec’s universal daycare program associated higher crime rates with children that enrolled in the province’s daycare program.

Although some studies have shown that the negative effects of prolonged child enrollment in daycares fade with time, other studies show that the negative effects of daycare enrollment persist and can increase into teenage years.

Attitude that children are a burden

Multiple political movements want greater provision, access, and affordability of child care.

What makes this controversial is that some of these movements supposedly refer to child care as a means of liberating women from the burden of raising children.

Children in this context are seen as a burden that hampers women from workforce participation and career progression.

This is offensive to some women because it appears to be a toxic view of children and family.

It supposedly assumes that women view raising children as a burden that they would rather hand over to someone else.

Additionally, it is interpreted by some to imply that careers are more fulfilling than children and family to all women since these movements often push for child care as a universal standard without which women’s liberation cannot be achieved.

Child care deserts

A child care desert is a geographic area in which the total number of child care spaces is drastically less than the total number of 0 to 5 year old children in that area.

Child care deserts have historically been a controversial topic because discussions around child care deserts carry the alleged presupposition that there should be sufficient daycare spaces for all daycare-age children in a given area.

This presupposition is controversial because it neither takes into account:

1. The actual local demand for child care in that region (how many families actually want to enroll their children in daycare)
2. The cultural/religious values and lifestyle of the families in that region to determine whether or not those families would actually be better off if their children were not enrolled in a daycare

Loss of parenting skills

The supposed gradual loss of parenting instincts has been reported in countries with some of the highest daycare enrollment rates. 

Such reports suggest that some parents are deprived of gaining actual hands-on parenting experience when their children spend long hours in daycare.

This allegedly results in parents being increasingly unsure about how to handle certain behavioural situations. 

In such cases, parents seem to offload more and more decision making onto their child’s daycare provider.

Affected parents start to perceive child care providers as experts regarding all things child-related and trust their own parenting ability less and less leading to a gradual loss of parenting instincts and skills.

Accessibility and affordability

Disagreements arise over how much support the government should provide in subsidizing the cost of child care.

More government funding helps to lower the cost of child care, pay daycare workers higher wages, and increase child care availability.

Reasons for arguing against more child care government funding include:

• Supporting individual choice instead of child care enrollment: This argument suggests that government funding should be used to support parent choices no matter the child care arrangement. For example, governments could subsidize the cost of daycare for children that attend daycare while also supporting stay at parents with tax deductions or allowances to help them meet the cost of raising a child.
• Concerns over higher taxes and budget deficits: Some argue that meeting the cost of child care is the responsibility of each individual family and not a tax payer responsibility.
• Concerns over the quality of child care provided: This argument centers around the concern that rapidly funding the cost of new daycares may lead to compromising the quality of child care provided in a push for quantity over quality.

Child care as a public good

The child care as a public good argument proposes that child care not only benefits individual families but society as a whole.

Supporters of this view argue that using taxpayer funds to invest in child care produces economic benefits for everyone and not just for the families that choose to enroll their children in daycare.

Proponents also highlight the potential for child care workers to receive higher pay under this arrangement and the potential for children that enroll in child care programs to perform better in school than those that do not enroll in child care.

This view is controversial among some groups for several reasons.

1. The long-term benefits of daycare enrollment on children is heavily debated in certain circles. Multiple studies present contradicting data with some studies concluding that child care allegedly has negative long-term effects on child behaviour and development.
2. Since the decision to enroll a child in daycare is an individual family decision, making child care a public good seems to make all taxpayers financially responsible for the individual decisions of certain families.
3. Some parents argue that by choosing to financially support only the families that enroll in daycare, making child care a public good not only assumes that child care is the obvious option for parents but also neglects and undermines parents who choose to stay at home to raise their children.
4. Finally, demonstrably proving that child care enrollment has a large enough net positive impact on society as a whole to justify making child care a public good has been contested.

Parental responsibility

Some hold the view that child care should primarily be the responsibility of parents.

This argument focuses on the belief that a child’s parents are the best provider of the emotional nurturing that a child needs due to the unique bond between a parent and their child.

Advocates believe that the unique emotional connection between parents and their children fosters a sense of security, trust, and stability that is fundamental to a child’s development.

For some, the parent responsibility argument is also tied to the desire to pass on family or cultural values and traditions. 

Such parents feel that child care providers do not adequately reinforce their family and cultural values.

The parental responsibility view of child care is not against government spending on child care.

For example, governments can support parents that stay home to care for their children with allowances or tax deductions to help them meet the cost of raising a child.

The role of government in family life

There are debates over the extent to which the government should be involved in funding and regulating child care.

Advocates for increased government involvement argue that investing in child care is essential for promoting child development, gender equality, and economic growth.

On the other hand, opponents express concerns about government overreach, increased taxes, and potential interference in parent decision making.

Alternatives to child care

Alternatives to child care include:

• Stay at home parenting
• Taking children to work
• Working from home
• Relative care arrangements

Relative care arrangements (such as supervision from grandparents) are often considered an alternative to child care.

However, whether or not relative care passes as a form of child care or an alternative to child care depends on the specifics of the care arrangement.