The professionalisation of mothering: family day care

In family day care, licensed providers care for small groups of children in the carer's own home. The service was established as a low-cost, ideologically acceptable alternative to centre-based care. This article reports on research among family day care providers in Western Australia, specifically the knowledge and skills they use in their work, and their perceptions of their roles as mothers and workers. Results to date indicate that the women believe themselves to be highly skilled child carers whose work is undervalued by society. Although family day care has been seen as supportive of traditional notions of mothering, providers draw upon both this dominant discourse of the always- available mother, and a resistant discourse allowing even mothers the right to fair recognition of their work.