Mothering matters: Being prepared to care

This study focuses on understanding care provided by women who work as professional child carers. It provides knowledge of personal experiences and professional practices of professional carers and identifies how carers-in-training responded to statements about the caring role. Cultural feminist theoretical perspectives are adopted to theorise lived experiences of mothering and caring and to obtain insights into how personal experiences of being mothered influence professional caring practices with young children. Feminist methodologies supported the mixed-method, action oriented research design that also set out to record the subjective experiences of doing research. Six carers' personal experiences show being mothered as a significant factor in their professional care. Data from these six professional carers were used to survey carers-in-training to understand if there was a similar influence operating. The study provides insights into connections that existed between participants' experiences of growing up in relationships with their mothers and caring philosophies that continued to mediate their professional caring practices.\ud \ud Findings from carers-in-training suggested that personal experiences have the capacity to influence professional caring practices. The study concludes with some recommendations for child care training programs