Self-employed workers in this industry often provide care from their home for a fee. This industry does not include occasional babysitters or persons who provide unpaid care in their homes for the children of relatives or friends. Within the nonprofit sector there has been strong growth in Head Start, the Federally funded child-care program designed to provide disadvantaged children with social, educational, and health services. Child care shifted in the past from unpaid to paid caregivers, particularly child-care centers. Center-based care has increased, substituting for unpaid care by relatives, as fewer families have access to relatives who were willing or able to keep their children.
Some employers offer child-care benefits to employees.
They recognize the lack of child-care benefits as a barrier to the employment of qualified women, and that positive results come in the form of increased employee morale and reduced absenteeism. Top Watching children grow, enjoy learning, and gain new skills can be very rewarding. Preschool teachers and child-care workers often improve their own communication, learning, and other personal skills by working with children. However, child care can be physically and emotionally taxing, as workers constantly stand, walk, bend, stoop, and lift to attend to each child's interests and problems. They must be constantly alert, anticipate and prevent trouble, deal effectively with disruptive children, and provide fair but firm discipline.