ABSTRACT
Elisa Mendoza, a family child-care provider for the past eight years, is a Mexicana and the mother of four children who range in age from 12 to 17. Prior to entering family child care, Elisa worked as a seasonal agricultural worker in local orchards “thinning apples and picking apples…, then, in the packing shed for another five years.” As a mother who worked outside the home, Elisa appreciates the concerns of parents in need of child care. In discussing her paid caregiving Elisa reports, “I enjoy caring for other [people’s] kids. And I know how it feels to give your kids to somebody else to watch.” Elisa’s enjoyment of her work and her empathy for parents reflect the experiences of other family child-care workers I interviewed. And these relationships with children and empathy for their parents are the source of both the primary challenges and the primary rewards of family child-care work.
