Drawing on data from the Family Work Decisions Study, a research project undertaken by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, this article explores mothers' reasons for using or not using child care, and their views on the child care available to them. Differences between mothers in their beliefs about using formal child care and their preferred child care arrangements, seem to depend on their beliefs about motherhood. The mothers interviewed in the study based their decisions on whether or not to use formal child care on their own child rearing ideologies, rather than on particular characteristics of care, and on what they think is good for their children.