Educating Young Children Volume 1 - Summer 2025 | Page 57

Family child care educators provide care and education in their homes for young children. Many operate beyond a typical eight-hour day, serving families who work evening shifts or even overnight. Practitioners also typically care for multiple ages: As with Ms. V. in the opening vignette, it isn’ t unusual for a family child care educator to serve infants, toddlers, and older children.

While these professionals face some of the same stressors as other early childhood educators( low wages, long hours), they also share pressures that are unique to their home-based settings.( See“ Family Child Care Statistics.”) These include balancing work / family spaces and accessing online licensing tools without technology support. Also, because many family child care educators work alone, they may experience a sense of isolation that can tax their mental well-being and physical health.

We( the authors) are part of Shining the Light on You, a professional learning experience for family child care educators that is offered by the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood, housed at the University of Delaware. Erika( the first author) was a family child care professional for 19 years and participated in Shining the Light on You’ s pilot program before joining the institute. Nadin( the second author) is a national board-certified health and wellness coach for the program, and Laura( the third author) works with both the institute and the University of Delaware. In this article, we outline several low- and no-cost ways that family child care educators can attend to their well-being.