"A lively and interesting account of an important aspect of modern family life, the connections between mothers and their childrens caregivers. With great sensitivity and insight, Uttal shows how complex such relationships can be. The book stands out for its realism and recognition of ambivalence."Julia Wrigley, author of Other Peoples Children

With more women working outside the home than ever before, more families are employing childcare workers. In the absence of government regulations or social models that clearly define the childcare providers role, mothers rely on their relationship with providers to monitor and influence the quality of care their children receive.

Whereas other studies have emphasized how mothers undervalue providers in market-based systems of child care, this ethnography paints a more nuanced picture connecting the personal level of mothers daily experience to the larger political, economic, and ideological context of child care as both paid labor and as intimate care work. Lynet Uttal shows how mothers walk a tightrope, wanting to believe in the quality of care they have chosen, yet afraid that they have made a mistake. Galvanized by their worries about the quality of care, mothers respond to issues and problems through the relationship they develop with the womenand most are womenwhom they pay to care for their children.

Lynet Uttal is an associate professor of human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.