When Home Is Work: Boundaries and Negotiations in Family Child Care

Eleanor Luken (The Graduate Center, CUNY)

Family child care providers, a sub-sector of the care industry, participate in both the paid labor force and the traditional role of mothering and caring for children within the home. Despite high demands for quality childcare, compensation for this work is meager, often involves long days, can be socially isolating, and can contribute to household stress by blurring the boundaries between home and work. This presentation reports on a multi-year dissertation research project with family child care providers (women, primarily, who care for family and non-family members in their own licensed or license-exempt home, for pay or unpaid). The context of child care is rapidly changing in New York City, with the roll-out of Mayor de Blasio’s Universal PreK program, the high demand and low supply of infant and toddler care, and an increasingly un-affordable housing market. The research explores the challenges and benefits providers face when using their home as a site for child care and development, and asks: 1) How do providers negotiate space and materials within their homes in relation to their personal values and practices as well as their perceptions of the needs of children in their care? And 2) What resources (places, materials, people) within and outside the home do providers draw upon to fulfill their role as caretakers? This presentation will report findings from open-ended interviews and ethnographic observations with family day care providers currently working in New York City and will make recommendations on policy measures that may be effective in supporting providers.