Amanda Krause DiScala, Ed.D., Early Childhood Education is the Director of Early Childhood Education and Child Care Initiatives, United Way of Northern New Jersey.

We’ve all heard someone say – isn’t child care essentially babysitting, what’s all the fuss?

Cherry Galarza, a Warren County mother of two young boys can tell you the difference between the two. Her family recently faced an impossible situation – their child care provider was forced to shut down her home-based business for a week due to illness. Cherry had just started a new insurance job and couldn’t risk taking off. Her husband, Gabrielle, who worked a retail job, couldn’t call out either.

Scrambling at the last minute, they ended up leaving 4-year-old Julian and 2-year-old Mateo with someone that was recommended by a well-meaning family friend.

It was a long week. The help in the pinch was just that – it was watching the children while they were at work. It was missing the educational engagement they had come to expect, helping to grow their sons’ vocabulary and social and emotional skills.

 It left them hoping never to face such an impossible choice again.

“It was just unprofessional,” Cherry said of the babysitter. “I could really see the difference,” she said, in contrast with her regular provider, Alicia Quetel. “When my kids were with Alicia, they were happy and safe. And I’ve noticed significant improvement. Julian is getting much better at speaking clearly.”

The Galarza family’s experience is a prime example of why we need to change how we think and talk about child care.

It’s Child Care, Not Daycare

It’s not babysitting. And it’s not daycare. Nor is it nursery care. It’s not a place for children to hang out until their parents get home from work. It’s early childhood development and education. It’s about shaping human brains from the start. Between birth and age 3, children build one million neural connections every second — an unparalleled rate that’s never repeated in a lifetime.

So, first, we need to stop using these outdated and inaccurate terms. Child care providers don’t care for days; they care for children. And child care doesn’t just happen during the day. Parents who work late need overnight care, which can include helping elementary school aged children with homework, preparing a healthy dinner, and getting children ready for school the next morning.

Regardless of whether the child care setting is a home-based program registered with the state, or a licensed center, these are educators who understand that learning happens as soon as a child is born.

That’s why it’s important for parents to check that their providers are either registered to run a business from their home or licensed to run a center.  

A new study published in Child Development strongly suggests that sustained high-quality early education can have long-lasting impacts. The study showed that children from low-income households who benefited from at least two years of high-quality early education were more likely to be college graduates and earn higher salaries by age 26 than those who didn’t have quality care.

They’re Educators, not Babysitters

Just because a business is operating out of a home, doesn’t mean the person isn’t a trained professional. To qualify as a registered child care provider, the state requires ongoing professional development annually. In addition, these providers are encouraged to enroll in New Jersey’s quality improvement rating system to ensure their program meets quality standards.

For three years, United Way of Northern New Jersey has been working to shore up the child care industry in New Jersey by working with home-based providers, many of whom are Black and brown female entrepreneurs who haven’t had much access to resources to support their businesses.

Through United Way’s new approach, called United In Care, these home-based providers like Alicia, are being connected to a professional community of practice. They’ve also received an infusion of business support, from educational tools to critical professional development training.

Many of these providers sacrifice their own financial stability to help serve low-wage workers living paycheck to paycheck, called ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). These ALICE families cannot afford the higher-priced center-based care but earn too much for financial aid.

United In Care also provides financial assistance to families that don’t qualify for government assistance so that the providers who are also ALICE themselves, receive payments that recognize the true cost of care.

Children Are Learning, Not Just Playing

Meanwhile, visit any United In Care provider and what you’ll see is a professional working to prepare children for success in life.

You’ll see providers working with children stacking and sorting blocks. Taking orders from customers in the dramatic play center. Or playing with puppets.

So, while it looks like they’re playing, there’s more than meets the eye. The child sorting the blocks is learning about shapes and colors. The one participating in dramatic play is learning early literacy skills, including building vocabulary. Those playing with puppets are learning to express their emotions and develop social skills.

Next time you hear someone say, what’s all the fuss about child care, it’s just babysitting, you can say: All the fuss is about developing the next generation’s brains.