Caring for Infants and Toddlers

Who cares for the nation’s infants and toddlers? For one of every two childre n under age three whose mother works, the face of the caregiver belongs to a family member—a parent or a relative. This pattern has held steady for decades, despite dramatic changes in families and child care options. Mothers (and grandmothers) have increasingly entered the labor forc e , d i v o rce and single parenthood have re s t ru c t u red families, and young parents are likely to live at a distance f rom their own parents. A growing number of child care centers now serve infants and toddlers, advertising the educational opportunities they offer to the very young. Even so, children under age three are less likely to spend their days in a center than they are to be with a re l a t i v e , such as a grandmother or an aunt.1