Self care before or after school is believed to be becoming more widespread due to increases in the number of working mothers and one parent families. Based on data from the Australian Institute of Family Studies' Australian Living Standard's Study, this article looks at which families use self or sibling care for primary school age children and examines whether or not poverty, class or minority group status predicts the use of self care when compared with other circumstances. Contrary to prevailing stereotypes, the use of self care was not linked to minority groups, poverty or sole parent households.